‘No council more committed to active transport’, declares Brisbane transport chair

5 days ago 3

Brisbane councillor Andrew Wines says there is no council more committed to active transport than the current Schrinner LNP council, at a hearing where he also hinted the Story Bridge footpaths would reopen imminently.

Speaking at a parliamentary inquiry into e-mobility, Wines – the council’s public transport chair – refused to detail how much cash from Brisbane’s multimillion-dollar Neuron and Lime contracts was funnelled back into bike paths to get e-scooters off city streets.

Labor MP Jonty Bush, a committee member of the inquiry, which was holding public hearings on Thursday, asked how much revenue Brisbane City Council received from its 7100 hire scheme e-scooters.

Wines said e-scooter revenue was dwarfed by the amount council spent on active transport.

Bush said other councils had said each device brought in about $2000 in revenue, which could equate to about $14 million for the council, but Wines responded that those details were commercial-in-confidence.

“What percentage of that tens of millions of dollars that council generates from these devices is put directly back into active transport infrastructure?” Bush then asked, adding that she was referring to spending in the suburbs, rather than projects such as the new Kangaroo Point Bridge.

Wines did not provide a breakdown, but said the figure Bush speculated in revenue from e-scooters was dwarfed by the amount council spent.

He said the council’s commitment to active transport “exceeds all other councils, and in many instances, exceeds the Queensland government”.

“I, as a councillor with the lord mayors, Newman, Quirk and Schrinner, have been part of what must be more than a billion dollars contributed to active transport across this city over that period,” he said.

“There have been no councils more committed to active transport than the current one, and the only ones we beat are other ones that are also us. We come first, second and third.”

But Wines said one challenge was that many of the creek lines the council used for active transport links tended to run east-west, and commuters wanted to go to the city.

“It’s sometimes difficult because of the geography of Brisbane to get people around some of the hills,” he said.

Wines also revealed adding bike lanes to Elizabeth and Edward streets in the CBD reduced e-scooter use on footpaths from 87 per cent to 14 per cent.

The council has not extended bike lanes on several inner-city streets, such as George Street.

Wines was asked when the Story Bridge footpaths – which have been closed for 211 days – would reopen, and while he did not provide a date, he said much of the work on one footpath had been finished.

“I understand that it is not very far into the future,” he said.

A grassroots group running a daily bike bus over the bridge has reported new decking on one side of the bridge appeared to be completed on Thursday morning, and there has been speculation the footpath could reopen as early as this week.

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