It's been a big week for bikes in Brisbane, with the City Council announcing funding for bike projects in its budget and confirming pop-up bike lanes.
In his budget speech on Tuesday, Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner said that $58 million will be spent in the next two years on major cycleway projects and $16.6 million over four years on making the Brisbane CBD more pedestrian and bike friendly.
Cycleway projects include completing the Indooroopilly Riverwalk and building the new green bridges.
Five new bridges are proposed to link Kangaroo Point to Brisbane’s CBD, Toowong to West End, St Lucia to West End as well as new crossings at Breakfast Creek and Bellbowrie.
Mayor Schrinner also said in his speech that the council will work with the Queensland Government to roll out new pop-up bike lanes in the CBD as soon as possible and that they are a high priority for the council.
Well, that's exciting, Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner effectively announced pop-up bikeways in the Brisbane CBD! In question time this afternoon, he confirmed it was the highest priority project Council nominated to the Qld Govt under the 2020-21 COVID Works Program. #SpaceForHealth pic.twitter.com/7ezoUZjMo7
— space4cyclingbne (@space4cyclingbn) June 16, 2020
Pop-up bike lanes are being installed all around the world to help people move around as cities continue to deal with coronavirus.
With public transport set to run at reduced capacity, pop-up bike lanes mean people can keep 1.5 metres from others while getting around without choking our cities with cars.
The pop-up bike lanes will be installed as part of the Queensland Government's 2020-21 COVID Works Program which has allocated money to local councils for them spend on infrastructure projects that will stabilise the economy.
Brisbane City Council has been allocated $5 million from the COVID Works pool. All projects must be approved by the state government.
While details about where and when pop-up bike lanes will be installed in Brisbane are not confirmed, guidelines for the works program say that successful projects will be confirmed by 6 July 2020.
Read more about Brisbane's Green Bridges here.
Read more about the 2020-21 COVID Works Program here.