Brassall Bikeway

It is always great to find some great bits of innovation when I get out on my bike to explore. Ipswich has some great examples of cycle priority through road intersections. You can find them on the Brassall Bikeway on Workshop Street an Haig Street.

I was really impressed with this cycle route along an old railway corridor. It was well designed and included great interest items for recreational cycling. Wayfinding along the bikeway is good, but it completely evaporated when I needed it most - when I got to the end of the route at North Street. 

I had actually stopped off in Ipswich River Heart Parklands to allow the kids to play in the impressive water park next to the Bremer River in Bob Gamble Park. 

The lovely pathway along the waters edge motivated the family to get on our bikes to explore. 

Although the path was great, it was disappointing that cycling was not allowed along sections. Cyclists either had to use the footpath or on-road cycle lanes. Not fantastic for young, inexperienced cyclists. Another disappointment was how it didn't connect to anything. As a family we have been spoiled by being able to ride for ever up and down the Brisbane River. Unfortunately the same is not 

possible on the Bremer River, as we discovered.

I cycled on the Brassall Bikeway in an attempt to access what looked like a brand-new bikeway past the River Link Shopping Center (see the picture above). This was the biggest disappointment of the day. What looked like a fantastic bikeway along the river ended up being nothing of the sort. It was a beautiful wide pathway that I struggled to find an access onto, and ended as a dead end under the David Trumpy Bridge. It started nowhere, and ended nowhere. I understand this will in the future form part of a riverside cycle link that will link to the Brassall Bikeway and North Ipswich Park. For now however it is an expensive piece of infrastructure that serves no purpose at all. Hopefully it will not stay that way for long.

What I have found surprising is that despite the fantastic Brassall Bikeway and the improvements for cycling along the Ipswich Motorway corridor, the Ipswich City Council web site appears to have no information on commuter cycling route in the city. The only maps of cycle routes I could find on their web site were these recreational cycle routes.