App maps out Brisbane cycling spots

A new app has been released to make roads safer for Brisbane cyclists and drivers.

View the website here: Brisbane Bikeway map

Developed at QUT's Smart Transport Research Centre, it's been launched to coincide with one of the busiest times for riding on our roads, Ride to Work Day.

In Brisbane, the sight of many cyclists is no longer a once-a-year event.

"We've seen an increase in cycling of around 78 per cent in our city over the last eight years," Lord Mayor Graham Quirk said.

"It's becoming easier for people to cycle to work."

The app is only available on Windows phones so far: Download app here

6500 cyclists per day go along the Bicentennial Bikeway but the biggest growth has been at the Land Bridge over the Inner City Bypass at Spring Hill, followed by the Kedron Brook Bikeway at Nundah, The Story Bridge and Jack Pesch Bridge at Indooroopilly and the Sandgate Foreshore.

"There's a lot of bike trails here but the problem is they don't often go anywhere," cyclist Chris Williams says.

"You can find a bike path but it'll end and you'll end up on the road anyway."

QUT researchers have mapped Brisbane's 1100 kilometres of bike paths, connecting the links to make riding safer for cyclists and drivers and they are all in the Brisbane Bikeway app.

"There are a lot of people who want to cycle and they don't feel comfortable on roads with traffic and also they don't know where the bike paths are,” Edward Chung, who helped develop the app, says.

"(It) will find a route that considers exclusive bike lanes and shared bike lanes to get a person from A to B.

"Brisbane has great weather and there are lots of cyclists but I think we can have more people cycling if we have this information available to them.

"This app is really for people who don’t cycle every day ... casual cyclists or families."

The app will be of most help to people who don't ride often or families trying to keep children off the roads, but even its designers discovered benefits.

The free version of the app maps the safest route, while paying for the full version also lets you choose the easiest route.

A release date for Apple products is yet to be determined.