Eleanor Schonell Bridge

Yes, there is an entire bridge built just to provide bus service and pedestrian and bike access to one college campus. This is awfully useful. Buses in Brisbane actually kind of work because of things like this. You can get to campus in a reasonable amount of time with the bridge and the protected bus routes that go almost the whole distance from here to the center of the city.
Pedestrians get one side of the bridge and bikes the other, allowing each to move at their own pace. The pedestrian side includes rest areas with water fountains and some cover from sun, which is awfully important here. Anyone associated with the university should definitely think about this bridge over going through the other suburbs.

I remember when the Eleanor Schonell Bridge was first being built and the scepticism that surrounded it. «But who’s going to use it anyhow?», «It’s just the council spending more of our money on useless things.» so on and so forth.
Boy, did the vote change when people could actually start using it! Being a UQ student, it easily gets my vote. Prior to the Green Bridge days, you could sit down by the river on the Dutton Park side, stretch out your arm and make out as if you could touch UQ across the water. It was ridiculously frustrating to have to travel into town and out again when you could see it just from the opposite side of the river less than a kilometre away.
Cyclists love it. Pedestrians love it. New bus routes have been designed around the Green Bridge. It’s incredibly useful. The ride to uni is an easy one– however, after you’ve had a few beers at the Red Room and you want to ride home, be prepared for an up hill climb. It can be a struggle depending on what state you’re in.

The construction of this bridge has made a lot of uni students’ lives a lot easier! I recently acquired a bicycle and have joined the cycling scene of Brisbane and the ride to uni, over the Eleanor Schonell Bridge – or Green Bridge, as it’s better known – is a really pleasant trip. It’s actually quicker for me to ride than to take any other form of transport.
Cruising over to uni from Dutton Park, the bridge actually slopes down slightly, so you can coast all the way enjoying a cool breeze and river views. Of course, there’s a flip side – life is not, unfortunately, all gentle declines for the cyclist. Coming home, you have to peddle a bit to cross the bridge, and getting back to Highgate Hill is a bit of an effort, but still, it’s quicker than catching the bus.
There are a lot of bridges in Brisbane, but I would have to say this is one of the more useful bridges in my life, creating a lot more public transport and pedestrian/​cycling connections.

Now it might strike you as a little odd that I have decided to write a review of a bridge but I feel like the Eleanor Schonell Bridge has had a big enough impact on my life and the local community to warrant a bit of a review. The Eleanor Schonell Bridge is more commonly known as the Green Bridge and connects the University of Queensland St Lucia Campus with Dutton Park and other South Brisbane locations. This is not just any old bridge but if I recall correctly one of the first ones in Australia to allow walking, riding and buses only. Try and drive over this baby and not only will you come to a dead end at UQ but you can cop a hefty fine.
The bridge is known at the Green bridge not because of any colour (it is mainly a lovely cement grey) but rather because of its environmental impact and concern. Its aim was to cut down traffic in the area by allowing easier access and public transport to and from the university. It also has a solar powered roof which feeds back into the grid.
Now many people were a bit sad that the Ferry service from Dutton Park to the uni stopped. There was a certain sense of community on the ferry which is now missing. You do not tend to see the same faces everyday like you used to. The bridge itself is comfortable to walk across with a covered pedestrian walkway on one side, buses in the middle, and cyclists on the opposite side. It stops any messy cyclist/​walker interactions which is nice. On the down side, the covering over the walkway is next to useless at certain times of the day when the sun will stream through the sides, or when the wind whips up the rain. Occasionally you will see people walking their dogs across the bridge which sadly also means that occasionally there are little doggy do dos left on the cement. Nonetheless, I am a fan of this bridge mainly because it made getting home from uni a hell of a lot easier.