The scene of a fatal crash between a cyclist and a truck at the corner of Stanley Street and Annerley Road in South Brisbane. Credit:Tony Moore She was stopped at a red light at the intersection when she was hit by a semi-trailer travelling in the same direction. The 22-year-old died at the scene. Cycle.org.au met the council's Active Transport Committee chairman Councillor Peter Matic in July in person to press concerns about cycling safety in the area. After 36 cycle accidents, one fatality and 16 hospitalisations since 2007, the Queensland director of the national group, cycle.org.au, now says an urgent "roundtable" with cycle groups has to take place.

The council conducted a road safety review of Annerley Road and cut back vegetation, replaced damaged signs and repainted the existing bike lanes, after the July meeting, However, cycle.org.au Queensland director Stephen Mitchell told Fairfax Media his organisation was very disappointed by the lack of real changes to the bikeways along Annerley Road. "What does happen in Brisbane City Council is that they go to their own internal sources and refer to a manual and create lines on a road that don't improve protection or safety for cyclists in any way, shape or form," Mr Mitchell said. "They need urgently to have a roundtable or a focus group to try to understand where and what are the issues," he said. Another female cyclist was knocked from her bike on June 14 this year at the intersection of Lockhart Street and Annerley Road.

Mr Mitchell said problems with bikeways in inner-city Brisbane include lanes that: stop and start – as they do along Stanley Street and Annerley Road;

are broken by car parking spaces; and

frequently cross from one side of the road to another. "I don't even know if what is there [at Annerley] is much of a 'bikeway'," he said. He said Brisbane had many "bicycle awareness zones", which alert drivers to the possible presence of cyclists, but relatively few bike lanes. Cr Matic's team conducted a cyclists' safety audit of Annerley Road and then wrote back to cycle.org.au on August 29, telling them they would cut back overgrown vegetation, replace missing signs and refresh the line markings.

The letter also said new cycle exit ramps could be built near the soon-to-be opened Children's Hospital near Raymond Terrace. But Mr Mitchell said more needed to be done to improve cycle safety on Annerley Road, especially at the Annerley Road intersection. "Basically we were unhappy with the level of attention that this was being given," Mr Mitchell said. The lobby group escalated their concerns about the lack of real action from Active Transport Committee chairman Cr Peter Matic to Brisbane Lord Mayor Graham Quirk, only this week. "As I had not received any correspondence following this second meeting I sent an additional follow up email requesting a response to the points raised," Mr Mitchell wrote in an email to Cr Quirk.

"I then received a call from Mark Pattemore requesting that I resend my original correspondence so that a response could be provided. While cycle.org.au is glad to have received an audience and to have received a response to our concerns, we feel that this correspondence does nothing to actually address the issues that are raised. "Sadly most user groups that we speak to have provided feedback suggesting that BCC is not approachable with regard to cycling issues with many suggesting to us that BCC is difficult to deal with and is not consultative in their approach to solving cycling and active transport issues." Cr Matic said cycle.org.au did not specifically raise concerns about the Stanley Street and Annerley Road intersection, although his letter to the group on August 29 showed they discussed safety issues on streets around the Mater Hospital. He declined to comment further until the police inquiry was completed. Speaking at the scene of Thursday's crash, police Inspector Rob Graham pleaded with drivers to be considerate of other road users.

"It's tragic circumstances. And it just highlights to me the important need for the shared space on the roadway for all traffic, pedestrians, bikes, cars and trucks," he said. "Everybody needs to drive carefully, because everybody wants their loved ones to come home at night."