The future of one of Brisbane's main river crossings is unclear as buses, cyclists, pedestrians, green cabs and the planned Brisbane Metro compete for space within the bridge's proposed new design.
The Victoria Bridge connects the Queensland Performing Arts Centre and Cultural Centre busway at South Bank to the casino end of the Queen Street Mall in the CBD.
The original bridge dates to 1865 with a replacement bridge built in 1897 and the bridge as seen today opened in 1969.
It is currently open to vehicles and pedestrians, with two dedicated lanes for buses, two lanes for general traffic and two paths, mainly used by pedestrians, on either side of the bridge.
Cyclists share the general traffic lanes and also the paths.
The current bridge design can lead to motorist confusion with both traffic lanes on the left hand side, while buses use the right – but it is likely the two left lanes could be permanently closed to traffic in the future.
The $944 million Brisbane Metro project would change the use of the bridge, with Brisbane City Council proposing to turn the bridge "green".
A green bridge would remove general traffic and double public transport capacity.
Under this plan green cabs, cyclists and food delivery riders for companies like Foodora and Deliveroo would be forced into a single shared pedestrian path on the upstream side of the river.
Greens councillor for The Gabba Jonathan Sri said bike delivery services relied on flat routes.
"Council seems to have a long-term goal of reducing the number of commercial vehicles moving through the CBD, so it's going to have to make it easier for bike couriers and cargo bike to travel around there as well," he said.
"Particularly for those heavily laden cargo bikes, the shortest and really the only practical route between the CBD and South Brisbane is the Victoria Bridge.
"Those other bridges are just a bit too steep for heavily loaded bikes."
Brisbane Green Cabs have been operating since 2009 and make about 50 trips across the Victoria Bridge on weekends and in school holidays.
Under the council's proposed plans these cabs will no longer be able to access the road and would have to use the one shared path.
Green Cabs director David Burgin told Fairfax Media access between the CBD and South Bank via the Victoria Bridge was vital to the ongoing viability of the cabs.
"While this is a more difficult path for our bicycle taxis to access than the current on-road cycle lane, due to the steep incline of the southern end ramp, it does provide a solution to keep our service operating," Mr Burgin said.
"Our service has a long and safe history of sharing paths with pedestrians – we travel much more slowly than traditional cycles and even slow two-wheeled bicycles down in shared cycle-pedestrian spaces."
In 2011, Fairfax Media reported University of Queensland urban planning expert Professor Peter Spearritt said cars should be banned from the bridge immediately.
On Friday, Professor Spearritt said the demand for cross-river trips continued to build and it was worrying the council had delayed the green bridge concept for this long.
"What we need is better cross-Brisbane public transport," he said.
Professor Spearritt said he believed cyclist and pedestrian traffic should be separated and not forced to share one lane.
"It is very successfully separated on the Eleanor Schonell Bridge between Dutton Park and UQ, it's just a lot safer," he said.
Professor Spearritt said a shared cyclist and pedestrian lane was simply "just not a good idea."
The council's transport boss Adrian Schrinner said the reconfiguration of vehicle lanes on Victoria Bridge was required to accommodate buses and metro vehicles.
"Independent expert civil engineers have assessed the Victoria Bridge, and due to weight restrictions, it cannot be widened without undermining its structural integrity," Cr Schrinner said.
"It is simply not safe for cyclists to be in the same lane as metro vehicles and buses and there is no space to provide an on-road barrier to allow on-road cycling to continue."
Cr Schrinner said the council was not stoping cyclists from using the bridge, nor reducing pedestrian walkways.
"A separated, shared cycling and pedestrian path will remain available along the upstream side of the bridge," he said.
"As part of the project council will also be widening the downstream pedestrian path by 1.2 metres to allow even more people to use it."
On Saturday, Brisbane cyclists will stage a mass protest on Victoria Bridge over the lack of bike lanes.
From 10.45-11am cyclists plan to do a mass die-in, where cyclists will lie down on the general-traffic lanes of Victoria Bridge with their bikes to mimic the carnage of a major accident to symbolise the dangers of riding on roads without separated bike lanes.
Deliveroo and Foodora declined to comment on the impacts changing the use of Victoria Bridge could have on their businesses.
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