Residents angry over controversial Wooloowin bike path, saying no straight answers coming from Council

RESIDENTS of a Brisbane suburb who say a controversial planned bike path will cut 69 on-street parking spaces and limit access to driveways are up in arms because an obvious alternative route has been completely overlooked.

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RESIDENTS of a Brisbane suburb are frustrated by the council’s lack of detail, safety assessments and traffic modelling for a controversial bike path that will heavily impact their neighbourhood.

The proposed Price Street to Kedron Brook bike path snakes hundreds of metres through Wooloowin and includes traffic islands and the loss of 69 on-street car parking spaces.

Local resident Mark Ryan, who has been in engineering for project development and management for more than 30 years, is among those pushing back against the path.

He claims to have had trouble getting a straight answer from Brisbane City Council staff at an official information meeting last Wednesday.

Joe Barbagallo looks out along Kent Road, Wooloowin trying to spot a cyclist. He said he only saw two between 8am and 9am, on Friday.

“There was a raft of assertions from the staff at the consultation that had no basis in fact or supporting data,” he said.

He said there were no safety assessments, no bike data usage or modelling on future use, no benefit/cost ratio and no traffic modelling on offer.

“There appeared to be an unhealthy and outcome-driven support of the proposal,” he said.

Despite requests by The Courier-Mail for costings, impact studies, surveys and usage modelling for the proposed bike path, the BCC was not forthcoming.

“Council is confident this project will deliver a safer corridor for cyclists which will see this link between the North Brisbane Bikeway and the Kedron Brook Bikeway grow more popular in time,” a BCC spokesman said.

Local businesses claim they will be heavily affected by the changes and some residents will not be able to access their driveways from the opposite side of the street while householders will have to place bins several metres from the kerb on the road.

Artist’s impression of how the bike path may look along Kent St, Wooloowin

Kent Road resident Joe Barbagallo will be one of the worst affected if the project is green lit and said if it goes ahead then every street was fair game for the council.

He will not be able to turn across the street to enter or leave his property and there will be no parking on either side of the road outside his house.

“We are being treated like mushrooms and it’s atrocious,” he said.

“If they succeed with this, they will just try it on another street … they will just pick off one or more streets at a time against, 20, 30 houses against the bike lobby and the bike lobby pay no registration to use the road.

“I spent more than an hour watching out for cyclists on Friday between 8am and 9am and saw two, just two, and that makes me even angrier.”

He said the bike path should be re-routed through two side streets (Ramona and Eveleigh) to connect with Gorman Street and travel past Kedron State High School (KSHS).

Rhubarb Rhubarb restaurant owners Thomas Allan (left) and Josh Gamble say they will be affected too.

However, the school has been overlooked according KSHS P&C president Tony Howell who only heard about the bike path on Friday afternoon.

Mr Howell has been on the P&C for five years, the past two as president, and said it would make sense to include the school on the route.

“It would have made sense for all the major players to be consulted,” he said.

The BCC estimates about 100 cyclists currently use the route while Bicycle Queensland ceo Anne Savage has said the path would be a welcome addition to Wooloowin.

The BCC is accepting feedback on the proposal until May 8.