Thursday, 24 February 2022

Brunswick electorate cycling infrastructure

Dr READ (Brunswick) (17:18): (6242) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Roads and Road Safety, and the action I seek is that he join me on a bike ride along the Upfield shared path in Brunswick during peak hour so we can observe some of the problems and discuss possible solutions. We will start at the Jacinda Ardern mural, and we will roll past Anstey station and watch the bikes dodge train passengers in the narrow space between the station and the apartments being built opposite. Now, we should stop to applaud the builders who have put up scaffolding over the path to keep it open rather than closing it for over two years, as happened further south. We will keep as close as we can to the wall on the left to avoid clipping handlebars with bikes coming the other way along this narrow stretch.

After admiring the Commons apartment building and Bulleke-Bek Park, we will wait for a gap at Hope Street, which is named after the attitude taken by Brunswick bike riders to bike infrastructure in this district. Then there is a long narrow stretch down past North Walls, where pedestrians often walk in single file to let bikes and scooters through. After Victoria Street there is a bushy patch planted and maintained by the Upfield Urban Forest group followed by a narrow downhill pinch at Brunswick station, where we will have to try and avoid terrorising more train passengers, who can sometimes feel like unwilling participants in Spain’s annual running of the bulls.

After another wait to cross Albert Street we can enjoy a long, broad section of path, dodging schoolkids, shopping trolleys and dogs, before it narrows to a severe pinch point between a historic footbridge over the tracks near the Brunswick Baths. A little further down we will have to go onto the road at Railway Place. Then we will cross Union Street, where I once saw a rider get hit by a car trying to beat the boom gates. We will then enter the broad, newly developed precinct around Jewell station, where train passengers try to find a gap in the bike traffic so that they can enter the station in a process of natural selection. Then we are back into another narrow stretch between a brick wall and the train tracks to the point where we join the bike traffic jam at Brunswick Road. If we are late, we may wonder if we will get across before the lights change; there are that many people riding at peak hour. Finally, we will watch how most riders tackle the Russian roulette right turn from Park Street into the safety of Royal Parade. Then we should discuss how best to address the growing need for safe cycleways in Brunswick, and where better than in a coffee shop on nearby Sydney Road?