New cycleway opens to compensate for College St

BY CHRISTOPHER HARRIS

It lost $5 million when the NSW Government decided to rip up the College St cycleway in the CBD, but that didn’t deter the City of Sydney from paying for another separated route for cyclists traversing the city.

Last Monday, the City of Sydney opened another cycleway along Castlereagh Street South and Liverpool Street, a project which was fast tracked by the council after the NSW Government sealed the fate of the College St path to the dismay of cyclists.

The opening of the cycleway meant that for the first time ever there was a dedicated bike path for cyclists from Central to Sydney Harbour Bridge.

There are two paths which run along the city for 2.5 kilometres with the aim of reducing congestion and supporting local businesses.

But the latest cycleway does not have everyone happy.

While President of Bike Sydney David Borella said he welcomed the cycleway, it needed to form a connected grid.

“It’s clear that the design of CBD cycle ways – which the RMS clearly took over – needs to be transferred to either the City of Sydney or Transport for NSW or even NSW Health or the Greater Sydney Commission,” he told City Hub.

“It’s always a great day when a new separated cycleway is opened. However, the RMS is really not grasping the importance of the CBD separated cycleway system needing to be a connected grid ­– and not for lack of being consulted by cycling groups like BIKESydney. We’ve met with the RMS many times on this.”

“Remarkably, the new Liverpool St Cycleway stops short at both ends, neither connecting to Oxford St nor Darling Harbour, which are both regionally-significant access points for the city. This leaves the target market of new or inexperienced riders still needing to ride on the roads which they just won’t do. Why do we build only 90% of an infrastructure?”

“It’s incongruous with the Sydney Centre Access Strategy that the RMS is permitted to keep ripping up walking and cycling infrastructure such as the College St cycleway, the Market St and Wentworth Ave footpaths, and even Macquarie St trees just to build new car lanes. Sydney is very quickly slipping behind world’s ‘best practice’ transport planning.”

“We need a modern approach that incorporates all users and keeps Sydney agile.”

The closure of the College Street cycleway angered cycling groups, with many staging protests before and during its removal, which has been taking place over the last six weeks.

It is not known how much the project, and its fast tracking has cost the council.

But Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore believes that the initial outlay will be quickly made back through contribution the dedicated cycle ways will make to the national economy.

“Road congestion already costs our economy more than $5 billion each year, and that’s expected to climb to $8 billion by 2020. By increasing cycling, we can accommodate growth without creating more congestion on our roads or further crowding on public transport,” Clr Moore said in a statement.

“You only need to look to London, New York and Paris to see how cycling infrastructure is dramatically changing the way people move and improving public health,” the Lord Mayor said.

Bicycle NSW CEO Ray Rice said that the government should be encouraged to promote active transport such as cycling.

“We’re all for safe separated cycle ways, this is a good first step towards connected grid of cycle ways,” Mr Rice told City Hub.

“There is a plan for a connected grid, we think that should proceed as soon as possible, however at the moment the government have delayed delivery due to the construction of the George St light rail,” he said.

“We encourage the government to complete the connected grid in the CBD.”

In a statement last Friday September 25, Transport NSW reiterated that the removal of the College Street cycleway was due to the street becoming the priority north-south route for general traffic.

“We need College Street to take some of the pressure off the system as a result of the George Street closure,” CEO coordinater general of the project Marg Prendergast said.

In a statement she said it was “a better connected cycleway for people to use”, and, “we need to remove the cycleway to accommodate traffic.”

Ms Prendergast said there were plans in place “over time” to expand the cycle ways to Sussex Street, as well as to Darling Harbour and the Barangaroo Precinct.

In the statement, she said the cycleway section on Liverpool Street, between Kent and Sussex streets, will still be under construction until late November.