A Sign for a Change

Big excitement recently with Gladstone Regional Council installing 5 "Share the Road" signs in Gladstone.  I was excited, well at least until I spent a week in FNQ.  Whilst I know we have to start somewhere, and appreciate the effort of a couple of the Councilors, the GRC effort could be vastly improved (understatement I know, but we need to remain polite).  Perhaps the GRC civil works department could learn from doing some work experience in Cairns?

Going from left to right, top to bottom, in the picture below:
1. Strips on the road to assist motorists to stay out of the bicycle lane.  These are installed on curves in the road that veer to the left - not corners at intersections, just bends to the left and on some roundabouts that are not protected with concrete barriers.
2. At roundabouts the bicycle lane is segregated by concrete barriers.  Yes they have bike lanes on roundabouts!!!
3. Not exactly sure what this means, perhaps that a bicycle path crosses the road ahead, but hey it's in the motorists face.
4. At a very small township called Mystic Sands there are a couple of the CAUTION signs - not too small either.  Not sure if you've seen a golf buggy, but it is pretty darn hard to miss - especially in comparison to a cyclist. 

In a particular 100m section of road in Cairns, approaching an intersection, I counted 4 cycling related signs, for both the motorist and the cyclist.  Leaving Cairns to the south, just to rub it in a little more, there is a "1 Metre Matters" billboard - not a sign on pole, a bloody huge billboard.

Below are few more of the different signs.  The "WATCH FOR" signs are located on dual-lane roundabouts, at each entry point, and on the left and right side of the entry road.  So a single 3-entry roundabout has 6 of them - how many cycling related signs do we have in the entire Boyne/Tannum area??  Yep, even horses and cassowaries get a guernsey.

Mission Beach, with a cycling population of about 5, has a share the road sign and more Cassowary signs than the Mayors' had free lunches.  Now to be fair, I have noticed at least two cycling related signs in the Tannum area.  At each end of the John Oxley bridge there is a sign that says "Cyclists must dismount" to traverse the bridge.  This may be good for pedestrians, but not very useful to educate motorists about the presence of cyclists.

Let's hope we start seeing some improvements very soon.  Don't get me started on Noosa!! Stay vertical, stay safe.