Book Review: Gold Coast City Cycling Guide 2006
October 24th 2006 01:59
You've gotta give the Gold Coast City Council and the local BUGs a big round of applause for producing this little booklet on how to get around Surfers by bicycle. If only more city councils had the same initiative.
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This pocket sized booklet starts with a rundown of the Qld road rules as they relate to cyclists and ends with a handy list of bike clubs and where to find Surfers' velodromes and cycling centres. Inbetween are maps which show the bike paths colour coded to distinguish between on road, on road shared, off road, off road shared and the V1 - the cycle path running alongside the Motorway from Surfers to Brisbane.
The guide is obviously aimed at locals and not cycle tourers and we did not find any copies of it apart from the one we picked up from the Surfers Paradise information centre. This is a shame as it would have been very handy for us when making our way into Surfers Paradise.
It is also a pity that you have to contact the Department of Main Roads to get more information on the V1, the cycling path which runs from Surfers to Brisbane with a 15km break inbetween. The guide only takes you as far as the border between the two city councils. There the V1 disappears for around 15-confusing-kms and you are left to pick your way circuitously along the service roads, where available, till it starts up again.
What would be great is if the info centres of Brisbane and Surfers could get it together and have the info which fills in this gap available at both centres. There were no cycling guides available for Brisbane at the Surfers Paradise Info Centre and vice versa. There were actually no cycling guides available for Brisbane at the Brisbane info centre either and I was instructed to go to the City Council Offices for it. Does it exist? As the info guy didn't know exactly where the City Council was either, I don't know.
We found using this cycling guide great when following the beachside paths. Unfortunately no guide, no matter how good, can make up for the reality of the cycle paths further inland. Many of the bike paths are footpaths with high curbs and long waiting times at lights where cyclists are instructed to dismount. There was often confusion at intersections where the cycle path signage disappeared so the booklet helped a lot.
We rarely saw other cyclists on the footpaths though we saw many braving the roads. This is probably because commuting via the inland suburbs' cycle paths would just take too long with so many obstructions to the flow of cycling.
It looks, however, like the bike paths are being improved a lot. Since the publication of the booklet, we found many new and much improved asphalt bike paths not yet included on the maps forming links between the different suburbs.
Check out www.goldcoast.qld.gov.au for more info on this booklet.
.
Gold Coast City Cycling Guide 2006
This pocket sized booklet starts with a rundown of the Qld road rules as they relate to cyclists and ends with a handy list of bike clubs and where to find Surfers' velodromes and cycling centres. Inbetween are maps which show the bike paths colour coded to distinguish between on road, on road shared, off road, off road shared and the V1 - the cycle path running alongside the Motorway from Surfers to Brisbane.
The guide is obviously aimed at locals and not cycle tourers and we did not find any copies of it apart from the one we picked up from the Surfers Paradise information centre. This is a shame as it would have been very handy for us when making our way into Surfers Paradise.
It is also a pity that you have to contact the Department of Main Roads to get more information on the V1, the cycling path which runs from Surfers to Brisbane with a 15km break inbetween. The guide only takes you as far as the border between the two city councils. There the V1 disappears for around 15-confusing-kms and you are left to pick your way circuitously along the service roads, where available, till it starts up again.
What would be great is if the info centres of Brisbane and Surfers could get it together and have the info which fills in this gap available at both centres. There were no cycling guides available for Brisbane at the Surfers Paradise Info Centre and vice versa. There were actually no cycling guides available for Brisbane at the Brisbane info centre either and I was instructed to go to the City Council Offices for it. Does it exist? As the info guy didn't know exactly where the City Council was either, I don't know.
We found using this cycling guide great when following the beachside paths. Unfortunately no guide, no matter how good, can make up for the reality of the cycle paths further inland. Many of the bike paths are footpaths with high curbs and long waiting times at lights where cyclists are instructed to dismount. There was often confusion at intersections where the cycle path signage disappeared so the booklet helped a lot.
We rarely saw other cyclists on the footpaths though we saw many braving the roads. This is probably because commuting via the inland suburbs' cycle paths would just take too long with so many obstructions to the flow of cycling.
It looks, however, like the bike paths are being improved a lot. Since the publication of the booklet, we found many new and much improved asphalt bike paths not yet included on the maps forming links between the different suburbs.
Check out www.goldcoast.qld.gov.au for more info on this booklet.
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