Hervey Bay’s Esplanade is one of our greatest public assets. It is the front door to our city, a key tourism drawcard, and a daily lifestyle space for locals. We should be doing everything we can to make it safer, more attractive and easier to enjoy.
One simple, low-cost opportunity deserves serious consideration: closing the beach-side parking lane from Point Vernon through to Urangan and converting it into a dedicated green painted corridor for bicycles and e-scooters.
This would create a clearly marked, separated active transport lane, protected from vehicles. The existing waterfront pathway would remain for pedestrians, walkers, families and visitors, meaning everyone gets their own safe space.
At the moment, cyclists, scooter riders, walkers and vehicles are all competing for limited room along one of the busiest and most scenic stretches of Hervey Bay. That creates unnecessary risk and wrongly prioritises the use of the Esplanade for vehicles as an East-West arterial road.
A dedicated bike/scooter corridor would improve safety, reduce conflict, encourage active transport and make it easier for residents and tourists to move along the foreshore.
This is not about removing access. It is about using public space better.
Step by step, Hervey Bay should be reducing the dominance of cars on the foreshore and returning more of this beautiful waterfront to people.
Great coastal cities around Australia have already embraced this approach. Hervey Bay has the chance to do the same in a practical, affordable and achievable way.
The Esplanade should be more than a road beside the beach. It should be a safe, connected and memorable public space that reflects the lifestyle and future of our city.
