On Tuesday 10 October 2023, I asked the Minister for Transport and Main Roads how much longer South Brisbane residents had to wait for new bike lanes proposed in 2020.

You can read my question and the answer below, or find the full transcript and video link in the official Queensland Parliament Record of Proceedings (Hansard). 

Amy:

My question is for the Minister for Transport and Main Roads. The Labor government promised new bike lanes for South Brisbane in 2020. Residents have been waiting for over three years. How much longer will we have to wait for something as simple as bike lanes? 

Minister for Transport and Main Roads:

I thank the honourable member for the question on active transport—a topic which I am very enthusiastic about, as is well known. At the last election we made a $30 million commitment to improve active transport in the electorate of South Brisbane, and we remain absolutely committed to doing that. Most of the active transport network in the electorate of South Brisbane is on local government roads; nonetheless, it is important in terms of people being able to access not just their communities but also in and out of the CBD. We have been working with the Brisbane City Council around the form of that. There is still ongoing work. It is getting fairly advanced now, so there will be something that comes out relatively soon. As a key stakeholder in the Brisbane City Council, we are working with them to finalise that. Of course the community will need to be consulted on such a step forward.

When you look at our active transport commitment not just here in Brisbane but right across the state there is a very strong commitment to make sure we have a balanced transport network. While road and rail is important, wherever you can you also have to build active transport to give people the alternative. Every person who switches to riding a bike to work in the morning is one less car, one less contribution to traffic. Whether it is big road and rail projects such as the M1 and the Moreton Bay Rail Link, we build active transport. We find that when they build them they are incredibly popular. They are well used and people find them very quickly. We are augmenting the veloway as well, which is basically a bicycle freeway in from Springwood. The member for Springwood has been very strongly supportive of that. We are doing work on Moggill Road in terms of connecting to the Centenary Cycleway. We are upgrading the cycleway across the Centenary Bridge as part of the bridge duplication, which I know the member for Mount Ommaney is a very strong supporter of.

As part of the Edmonton to Gordonvale project there will be a full active transport separation. In terms of active transport, it is right across the state and in regional Queensland as well. We have hundreds of cycleways that have already been built because we restored the fifty-fifty funding project and model with local government that was cut by the Newman government. Since we have been in power we have seen active transport all over regional Queensland as well as South-East Queensland, giving people that option. We will see a better active transport network in South Brisbane because of the Palaszczuk Labor government’s commitment. We do not just talk about it; we do it. We will see more come out on that in the near future.