Bike riders were asked to dismount for 100m. Now they plan to protest in the casino’s driveway

It’s 7.35 on a sticky Wednesday night. The after-work crowd has their eyes glued on lasers swirling over Queen’s Wharf and The Star casino underneath the Riverside Expressway, as a DJ remixes Christmas tunes.

The revellers don’t seem to notice glum commuters pushing their bikes and e-scooters past the pop-up bars and food trucks of Sono Lumo, which is being hosted in a gap between two sections of Brisbane’s busiest bike route, the Bicenntennial Bikeway.

Organisers have asked riders to dismount and walk for 100 metres – an unwanted speed bump for people trying to get home between 4pm and 11pm.

Asking riders to hop off for 100 metres. No big deal, right?

But this scene strikes at a vexing issue that repeatedly arises as Brisbane reinvents its public spaces, often leaning on shared rather than separated spaces for walkers, bike and e-scooter riders.

In 2018, construction for Queen’s Wharf closed a section of the bikeway near William Street for 12 months. After years of disruption, it was finalised this year with Queen’s Wharf Plaza becoming a shared boulevard, with no line markings.

This interruption comes near the end of the 4.8-kilometre off-road bikeway along the Brisbane River from Toowong to the Goodwill Bridge, a path otherwise almost entirely separated for walkers and riders.

A Destination Brisbane Consortium spokesman described the changes near the riverfront as creating a “much friendlier place to be … which changes the dynamic from a dark corridor to a shared space for bikes, e-scooters and pedestrians”.

However, the request for riders to dismount for seven hours a day during the 10-day Sono Lumo activation has prompted frustration.

Brisbane CBD BUG co-convenor Paul French said putting an event on a busy bikeway was “inconsiderate”, and blamed the privatisation and commercialisation of public space – though also noting that the impact would be lessened if there was an alternative safe route along George Street.

“How often do some people say ‘cyclists should stay off the road’? But then one of Brisbane’s few bikeways is closed,” he said.

Bicycle Queensland chief executive Alton Twine described the blockage as “unacceptable”, and asked organisers to move the dismount request until later at night.

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“At the heart of the issue is the poor design choices … The state could have kept the bikeway separate to the multi-use area, but have compromised both the integrity of the corridor and the safety of all users by choosing not to,” a BQ statement reads.

A Star spokeswoman said it was limiting the speed of active transport users “for the safety of all users of the shared public spaces during Sono Lumo, including a period of dismount when necessary”.

“The Landing, upgraded Bicentennial Bikeway and Queen’s Wharf Plaza are brand new public spaces for all Queenslanders to enjoy,” she said.

Similar tensions play out across the city, including at Howard Smith Wharves, where advocacy groups were dismayed to discover a proposed redevelopment retained a shared path instead of a separated one.

But a Brisbane City Council senior planner has asked the developer for changes, given its importance as a connection between the New Farm Riverwalk and the Brisbane CBD, requesting a separated bidirectional bike path and designated walking paths.

“Separation will provide a safe outcome for all users,” the letter from the council reads.

Most of the proposed cycling changes for Montague Road at West End include shared paths, and a redevelopment at 17 Skyring Terrace, Teneriffe includes a shared river path, while the busy Clem Jones Promenade at South Bank is also shared.

CARRS-Q Professor Narelle Haworth said the area at Queen’s Wharf could not even be called a shared path, because there were no pavement markings. “It is more akin to something like Federation Square or Queen Street Mall.”

Haworth said shared paths were not advised when there was little space, when paths were used for shopping, playing or restaurant seating, and when they were often used by elderly pedestrians and young families.

“One of the issues with the area at Queen’s Wharf is that it is commonly used and perceived by bike and e-scooter riders as having a movement function, but the Sono Lumo event has changed that into a place function [somewhere people want to sit and walk around],” she said.

Space 4 Cycling spokeswoman Belinda Ward said the Bicentennial Bikeway had been used by cyclists since it opened in 1988. She likened the event to shutting down the Captain Cook Bridge for seven hours every night.

“Closing the Bicentennial Bikeway, there really aren’t other ways to go,” she said, adding it was popular because it was a safe, car-free route.

The Star’s reassurances have not mollified their critics. As some walk their bikes and scooters through Sono Lumo tonight, advocates have notified police of plans for a dance party protest in the Star’s driveway on Friday.

For Queensland Walks chief executive Anna Campbell, the answer is to have separated pathways – and activated spaces away from existing transport corridors.

“We support dismounts only as a temporary measure when it is the only safe option for people walking and riding, that is for maintenance or pathway rebuilds,” she said.

“Just like a major arterial corridor, an active transport corridor should remain a corridor and not a space for public activation.

“We wouldn’t build a major highway and then put a market stall in place – the same applies to our major active transport corridors.”

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