"At the moment the Victoria Bridge caters for 800 cycle trips every day, we fully expect that to double," she said. "It will provide people with a central access to Brisbane from the Cultural Centre and South Bank." But RACQ, the state's peak motoring association, claimed there had not been proper consultation for alternate driving routes once the bridge was closed to cars. “While RACQ supports separated cycling infrastructure and sees value in making Victoria Bridge green, we can’t ignore the fact around 7000 cars a day will be displaced and there’s no clear and efficient alternatives being offered up by council to address this,” RACQ head of public policy Rebecca Michael said. Dr Michael said the RACQ was concerned the closure of the bridge would lead to increased congestion around the city's other bridges.

Deputy mayor Adrian Schrinner said the $944 million Brisbane Metro plan would "revolutionise" city travel and the new plan for the bike lane was part of that. Loading “Council will undertake further community engagement on the changes to the Victoria Bridge and Melbourne Street pedestrian and cyclist access, and inner-city traffic network over the coming weeks," he said. “Detailed analysis shows that the three-lane configuration will still provide more capacity for public transport, but will also deliver an improved outcome for people on bikes and on foot." Cr Schrinner said the council was evaluating expressions of interest from five submissions to build the metro infrastructure.

A short-list was expected to be released for the tender proposal later in the year, with the final contract for construction to be announced by the end of 2019. Construction would start that year, with services to start in 2023. Victoria Bridge would be closed to all public traffic when metro construction begins. Ms Savage said the present cycling arrangements on the bridge left cyclists vulnerable and motorists frustrated. She said the new solution was the "ideal". "It's one we advocated for and I cannot commend council enough," she said.