12:00a.m. 25th February 2008

| By Kathy Sundstrom

24/02/08 172997d Rosemary Stephen uses the cycleway over Maroochy River Bridge. Photo: Kari Bourne/KB172997d

THE impressive new bridge spanning the Maroochy River offers cyclists the smoothest possible path from one side to the other – the equivalent of a 4m-wide cycling freeway.

But the moment they hit the North Shore, the ride isn’t quite as smooth.

The direct pathway comes to an abrupt halt and riders have a choice of either taking a lengthy detour or breaking the law and dicing with traffic on the motorway.

It’s a situation which has left cycling enthusiasts angry and regional council aspirants keen to be seen as offering a solution.

John Stephen of Suncoast Cycling Alliance describes it as a “bloody disgrace”.

“Maroochy River Bridge to Pacific Paradise is one of the most important links on the Sunshine Coast,” he said.

“The cycleway is absolutely brilliant...it’s like a dream but what comes after it is a nightmare.

“You can imagine what it’s like trying to cycle north from Maroochydore to Pacific Paradise or one of the many suburbs up that way.

“This is a key link and at the moment it’s hell.”

At the moment, riders travelling north come off the bridge to find they must follow a route which doubles back under the bridge, on to Godfrey’s Road West out almost as far as Bli Bli and finally back through the busy and dangerous roundabout which takes motorway traffic to the airport.

Late last year Mr Stephen represented cyclists in talks with Maroochy mayor Joe Natoli to make Maroochy shire more cycle friendly, based on the award-winning model in Noosa.

“Maroochy council has fallen way behind on road safety,” he said at the time, and Mr Natoli agreed to endorse proposals including cycle signs and symbols on the road, Noosa-style “green zones” and raising driver awareness.

His council has come under attack for failing to request money from the state government for bikeways and last week he confirmed he would continue pushing for improvements to the Coast’s cycling network.

Mr Stephen said Maroochy council had improved its attitude towards cyclists but the same could not be said for the Department of Main Roads.

“This whole thing is a state roads problem – Maroochy council is not the bad guy in this. We’ve given them a fair serve in recent months but most of the key cycling link routes – from Mooloolaba to the Maroochy River Bridge, Bradman Avenue, Nicklin Way – are all Main Roads, and Main Roads is continuing to do nothing,” he said.

Mr Natoli confirmed Main Roads had no plans to include the cycleway in the new bridge and only did so because of lobbying by himself and council’s town planning chair, Tony Northey.

He admitted his council had “not done as well as other local governments” when it came to planning for this kind of infrastructure and hoped to address this as part of an overall transport strategy if elected mayor.

He has also promised he would commit funding towards bicycle pathways and said Maroochy councillors had already made a commitment to spend “millions” on this in the next budget.

He couldn’t say where the money would be spent or whether it would attract a dollar-for-dollar match from the state government.

Noosa mayor Bob Abbot, the only other contender for the mayoral position, said fixing the Coast’s ad-hoc cycling networks and reducing dependence on cars by at least 10% in the next decade was one of his election commitments.

“It is going to be one of the big spends for the regional council,” Mr Abbot said, although he didn’t think the Sunshine Coast would need to spend as much as the $100 million Brisbane’s mayor Campbell Newman has promised for cycleways if elected. Mr Abbot said he believed it was important for the Coast to address the bizarre cycling infrastructure that was in place in some areas – including the Sunshine Coast motorway north of the Maroochy River Bridge.

“It doesn’t make sense to have a bikeway on the bridge but not off it, this will be dealt with immediately and funding will be found,” he said.

Many of the problems with bicycle pathways was that there was not a “long-term transport strategy”.

“We’ve had one in Noosa but there hasn’t been one available for the rest of the Sunshine Coast. A strategy has to come before the structure as we can’t have a knee-jerk reaction where things are built that become useless later.”