Is Brisbane insane? It's 2023 and we still hear calls to ban push bikes in the bush!

A member of the anti-bike group MCPA asked me how encouraging mountain biking in a city like Brisbane could lead to positive environmental outcomes. Here’s my answer:

Well designed, well built singletrack has the same or less environmental footprint as walking trails. Riding a bike on these trails has the same impact as walking (less in some cases). Well designed, hand built trails have an even lower build impact than walking trails because they are skinnier - a lot skinnier (600mm vs 3,000mm).

The converse is true - poorly designed and/or poorly built trails will have a bigger environmental impact and that’s one of the things that Brisbane Off-Road Riders Alliance set out to help minimise 4 years ago. While we can’t do anything directly about more environmentally damaging highways, fire roads and walking trails getting built, there is a way to reduce the impact of unauthorised MTB trails getting built.

MTB Advocacy groups and environmental groups have been fighting over this in Brisbane for 25+ years, and it’s time to grow up. Most mature jurisdictions have figured out how to behave like adults about this and have stopped the cycle of unauthorised build>outrage>landowner closures funded by ratepayers.

Get the balance right and it doesn’t happen!

Some of the actors in this dynamic recognise the futility of continuing with an approach that doesn’t work and are ready to come together and talk about it. Others continue to headbut the wall hoping they’ll win - those blockheads have forgotten that the point was to do better for the environment.

The right outcome is a network of managed trails that match the demand of our population - in volume and diversity. If you are a pure utility commuter, you probably don’t care about anything but the shortest, safest, flattest route to your cubicle at the office. However maybe you are one of the many cyclists and foot-based recreationalists who want diversity - a nice view, a natural setting and maybe a challenge along the way. For some people nature-based activities are the only way they exercise. Getting outdoors is the motivation.

Right now, the MTB trail network at Mt Coot-tha is not the result of a top down plan with good connecting loops - it’s a legacy of sanctioned informal trails from the 90s, converted logging trails and some more additions built by council with the help of volunteers 10-20 years ago. The sanctioned network didn’t make much sense 10 years ago and it makes even less sense now that trails are smoother/faster, bikes are more capable and the riding population has exploded. Some unsanctioned trails have popped up in the last 5 or so years which start to make sense of it by creating better, safer loops (and some diversity).

While some of those trails are actually built sustainably, the land manager clearly had no input into the design process and that has to change. The land manager needs to be on the front foot with network design - for a 1,500 hectare area with suburbs on all sides, the Mt Cootha MTB network is well undersized for the population, has poor access trails which discourages riding to the ride and doesn’t have the diversity required. This is another reason kids build more trails every school holidays. It doesn’t have to be this way, and there are plenty of examples around the world and in neighbouring jurisdictions which demonstrate that. It’s time for Brisbane residents to stop bickering and work on a solution together.

You want more people cycling more often?

You need infrastructure. A trail network at each of the locations highlighted in council’s 2021 off-road cycling strategy is cycling infrastructure. You know the rate of return on investment (on actual infrastructure, not just plans) is 5 times. Better infrastructure close to home will get more people on bikes, and more kids and adults who have the confidence and resilience learned from mountain biking are more likely to become commuters and stewards of the bush. You don’t need me to tell you why that is a good thing for the environment and the health system. If you reduce the opportunity for off-road infrastructure or chase kids away and give them a bad taste for council interactions. then you are reducing the value of that outcome.

Put simply, we have a choice : we can continue the vicious circle of unauthorised build>outrage>closure as has happened for the last 25 years or we can put the environment first and do something different and get a different outcome.