Brisbane 's Victoria Bridge may become a green-bridge only - scrapping cars - as Brisbane City Council on Tuesday night launched a major campaign to have the Queensland Government approve the change.
From Monday an extra 50 buses an hour will be added to the 200 buses an hour that already crawl across the Victoria Bridge in peak hour, because of road closures linked to the new casino.
![Buses queue over Victoria Bridge during peak hour.](/web/20161206235950im_/http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/content/dam/images/1/1/3/e/z/0/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gt5ekp.png/1481017203693.jpg)
Victoria Bridge has only two lanes dedicated to buses, with cars using the other two lanes.
The major changes to Brisbane's bus routes begin on Monday, December 12 when the major road closures in Brisbane's CBD will let work start on the multi-billion dollar casino resort complex in Brisbane's Queens Wharf Precinct, between George and William Street.
"This means major changes to Brisbane's public transport network, in particular the bus network," Cr Shrinner said.
"There will be various traffic diversions and road closures," he said.
"And this has necessitated significant changes to Brisbane's bus network."
Brisbane City Council in May asked the Queensland Government to close the Victoria Bridge to cars, but the Queensland Government said no.
The ccouncil owns and manages Victoria Bridge, but the state government manages the bus station at the Queensland Performing Arts Complex on the South Brisbane side of the Victoria Bridge.
Council's deputy mayor and the city's public transport committee chairman, Cr Adrian Schrinner, on Tuesday launched a petition to close the Victoria Bridge to private cars and trucks, and use the two lanes instead for extra buses.
"Today I am launching a petition to the Premier to reconsider her decision, to reconsider the state governments' decision on Victoria Bridge," he said.
"And I am delighted to say we have bipartisan support. We have heard Labor councillor Jared Cassidy and (Opposition Leader) Peter Cumming stand up and agree that Victoria Bridge should be a green bridge.
Greens councillor Jonathan Sri also supported the move to make Victoria Bridge a green bridge.
"So Council is united on this decision," Cr Shrinner said.
"We need to the state government to reconsider their position and come to the table and work out how to make this bridge a more effective use of infrastructure."
Victoria Bridge's bus problems were first identified by Fairfax Media in 2011 when the idea to ban cars was first raised by planning experts.
Cr Schrinner said the road changes triggered by casino roadworks will mean an extra 50 buses travelling across the Victoria Bridge in the peak period each day.
"At the moment we are seeing about 200 buses per hour going across the Victoria Bridge," Cr Shrinner said.
"Now that's a bus every 15 to 20 seconds," he said.
"That is a lot of buses and that is going to be even busier - with an extra 46 buses to be precise – going across the Victoria Bridge from next Monday."
Cr Schrinner said it was time to remove cars from Victoria Bridge and dedicate the two lanes used by cars to buses.
"We've all experienced the congestion, we've all seen it with our own eyes, the queues of buses lined up across the bridge," he said.
He said Brisbane City Council asked the Queensland Government to rule out cars from the bridge in May 2016.
"Unfortunately, despite an initial positive response from the state government, we then got a response back which was 'No'," Cr Shrinner said.
"I believe that as of next Monday - and certainly going into the early parts of next year - it will become very clear why this bridge needs to be a green bridge.
"People can see it now, but it will be further obvious when the bus delays are exacerbated from next Monday."
Cr Schrinner said that while council was proposing a long-term solution for the bus congestion issue through the Brisbane Metro, a short-term fix was also required.
Now 8800 cars use the Victoria Bridge each day compared with 22,000 pedestrians and several thousand buses.
The petition to make Victoria Bridge a "green bridge" is available at change.org (bit.ly/2g3JSOY), from Tuesday.