Toowoomba’s Range Shopping Centre owner Phil Collins urges city business owners to consider installing bike racks

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Range Shopping Centre owner Philip Collins and Toowoomba Region Bicycle Users Group president Hugh Wilson in front of some of the new bike racks that have been installed at the centre.

Phil Collins never considered the difference some simple bike racks could make to customers at his shopping centre — and he’s urging other business owners to consider the economic and social benefits of catering to the city’s active transport users.

The owner of Range Shopping Centre in East Toowoomba has installed eight new large hooped bicycle racks across his site in public areas at the cost of less than $2000, on the suggestion of the Toowoomba Region Bicycle Users Group (TRBUG).

Group president and cycling advocate Hugh Wilson said the city’s major shopping precincts had often failed to consider bike users who wanted to park their vehicles in areas that would keep it safe from theft or damage.

“One of the Woolies staff said, ‘do you ride a bike’ and he said he rides and there’s about three or four full time staff who do regularly and he said there were kids that work in other places as well and they ride and there was nowhere to park,” he said.

“I said, ‘we should do something about it’, and I bumped into Philip and we sort of took it from there.

“We’ve got members that work in various places at Clifford Gardens and there are bike racks there but they’re nowhere near the shops, so they are a risk for theft.

Members of the Toowoomba Region Bicycle Users Group in 2021. Picture: Nev Madsen.

“I would never park that bike down at Grand Central where they put bike racks for people like me, because it’s in the dark, it’s out of the way.

“This is all public, so somebody can still come along with a Makita and powersaw or my lock off if they really want but most unlikely isn’t it?”

Mr Collins said he could see how bike riders were more likely to shop at centres that made it safe and easy for them to park.

“I must admit, we try to keep our eye on most things here, but bike racks hadn’t really crossed my mind that we should be installing,” he said.

“Cyclists have to shop somewhere and if you know your bike isn’t going to get flogged, so it’s probably an incentive.”

Cyclist group’s new suggestion for levy funding

Mr Wilson says he’d love to see more bike racks installed across Toowoomba, urging the council to step in to support the initiative.

He said one way could be allowing businesses to apply for small council grants to pay for the install, with the funding coming out of the new public transport levy.

“The BUG wrote to council with a suggested policy based on the public transport levy, that we’re all paying for in our rates, it’s on the notion that part of public transport is active transport,” he said.

“For employers, property owners, cafes and supermarkets, we suggested that they could draw on the public transport levy (to help pay for bicycle parking infrastructure) in the same way that heritage buildings in the city can get a grant of up to $10,000 to paint their buildings.

“I think Phil should be able to access the public transport levy to pay for the cost of these and a cafe like at Merlo on Russell Street should be able to access it too.”

Mr Wilson said he had passed his suggestion onto the Regional Active and Public Transport advisory committee (RAPTAC).

Originally published as Toowoomba’s Range Shopping Centre owner Phil Collins urges city business owners to consider installing bike racks