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NSW roads minister wants to CLOSE segregated bike lane in Sydney

Duncan Gay: I'm “the biggest bike lane sceptic in the government” ...

A New South Wales roads minister who describes himself as “the biggest bike lane sceptic in the government” has ordered a $5m AUS (£2.5m) segregated bike lane in Sydney to be removed, despite it carrying more cyclists at peak times than the corresponding road.

The College Street cycleway closure by NSW minister for roads, maritime and freight Duncan Gay is now being protested by campaigners who say it is a loss to Sydney’s central business district.

Cycle campaigner Sue Abbott told BikeBiz: “The cycleway is used so much. It’s a very pleasant ride and is somewhere you can go on a really busy street, and even ride with children in safety. Taking out the lane is appalling.

“I’ll be chaining myself to everything going.”

In 2011 Gay’s department wrote a report that said: “Given that the bi-directional paths do not occupy previous general traffic lanes, no significant delays to other road users arising from the cycleways have occurred.”

The report also said: “The removal of the bicycle path on College Street would have limited benefits for traffic flow if the western lane was then to revert to car use."

Lord Mayor Clover Moore also opposed the plans, saying: “Safe, separated cycleways are essential for fixing congestion in the CBD and protecting people who choose to ride,” she said.

Last year we reported how Mr Gay said that he was being “increasingly persuaded” that cyclists need to be licensed and also said he was considering banning bikes from some of Sydney’s roads – both measures that he claimed would improve the safety of riders.

Mr Gay made his remarks in response to a series of incidents in recent weeks in which cyclists have been seriously injured, as well as two fatalities in the past fortnight, the latest coming yesterday when a man was killed following a collision with a bus at Neutral Bay.

Speaking to 2UE Breakfast, Mr Gay said: “The thing I really need to look at is, if we’re going to put rules in place, and I need to be tougher on car drivers, but I am increasingly persuaded that we need to look at a licence for cyclists.

“It’s not going to worry the ones that are doing the right thing, but the bad ones that are running lights, crossing over, being aggressive, they’re a large part of the statistic,” he went on.

During March 2014, six cyclists out on a club run on Southern Cross Drive suffered serious injuries when the group they were riding with was hit by a car.

According to Mr Gay it is possible that cyclists might be banned from such roads for their own protection, the minister saying, “We will look at it on a safety basis.”

He continued: “The hard thing is, if I put a carte blanche ban in, there are some really good rides that cyclists do, and part of it involves Southern Cross Drive and then on down to Wollongong. I understand how important this is for cyclists, but there have been a couple of accidents there.

He acknowledged that there had been a fall in the number of cyclist fatalities, “but that’s no huge solace because last year was a record year,” with 14 riders killed on the roads of New South Wales.

“We need to get people to be more careful, but the key is to get the people in bigger vehicles to understand that they need to be more observant, but the other part is we need cyclists to actually obey the rules and be helpful as well,” he added.

“Before the phones run off the hook, as I know they will, it is a very small section of cyclists that don’t do the right thing. It would be probably under one per cent,” he concluded.

Phil Ayres, the chief executive of Cycling New South Wales, told Guardian Australia that most of its 10,000 members would be “fundamentally against” attempts to require cyclists to be licensed.

“But we are an organisation that’s grown up to understand there are arguments in favour of it and we’d certainly want to be at the table with government to discuss cyclist safety,” he said.

“It’s important to realise though that licensing bike riders won’t stop them from being hit, as has happened so horrifically in recent weeks and months. Licensing isn’t a safety issue – if you magically licensed all bikes overnight, it won’t stop the accidents.”

He acknowledged that cyclists need to follow the laws of the road, but denied that law-breaking riders were a significant issue.

“There is a rogue element in any group of people in the community,” he explained. “We don’t condone any riders not obeying the road rules – everyone has to adhere to them. It’s not OK to roll through a red light.

“But the thing with cyclists is that they aren’t surrounded by tonnes of metal. What would be a fender scrape for a car is the maiming of an individual or a loss of life for a cyclist.”

In November 2009, one of Mr Gay’s predecessors as NSW roads minister, Carl Scully, who served in that capacity from 1996 to 2005, said that cyclists should be banned from the roads.

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20 comments

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KirinChris | 8 years ago
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I've just come back from a couple of weeks in Australia (I'm originally Australian but have lived elsewhere for more than 20 years).

I was slightly heartened by the improvements they have made for cyclists since I was last there about 5-6 years ago.

Most impressive were the places they have added a cycle area (I won't say a lane, as it is just a painted line) to the side of the freeways running south and west from Sydney. There's also a lot of signage and warnings to drivers. Often people think that the relative high speed of the cars on highways is the problem but where there is a wide hard shoulder I feel it's safer than narrow roads with lower speeds.

On the down side, it's also true that there are relatively few cyclists compared to most European cities. Given their geography and weather it is really quite poor. Where I would expect to see 15-20 cyclists waiting at a traffic light in London (apparently it does happen sometimes  13 ) in Sydney you will get 2 or 3.

Melbourne is better with more visibility and higher numbers I think although it might be that I was staying in St Kilda where a lot of cyclists use the road along the beach.

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velodinho | 8 years ago
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I think all the noise is ramped-up when something approaches tipping point. Cycling is approaching that point and causing reflection on the natural order of things on the road. You will always hear fuckwittery at this point in the cycle. They are raging against the dying of the light. They are kicking and screaming as it dawns on them that motor vehicles are being squeezed by the increase in people wishing to cycle.

It's too late to turn back now, press ahead, ignore the noise.

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Bidster | 8 years ago
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To be fair to the guy, Australia has narrow roads and dreadful weather, so no-one could reasonably expect cycling to be taken seriously there....

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mike_ibcyclist | 8 years ago
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He's essentially a dinosaur. Continually floats the idea of bike registration etc. He's a complete D-bag in a government that is actually doing a lot of good infrastructure things around the State of NSW.

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Some Fella | 8 years ago
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Australia really is (from what i can tell) a truly, truly awful place.

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velodinho replied to Some Fella | 8 years ago
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In relation to Australia being an "awful place"; that's a wee bit harsh. I think it has its good points. I like a good barbeque and being able to gaze at the blue sky and sea.

A fair proportion of their politicians and legislators could be described as a immature filibusters, though!

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felixcat | 8 years ago
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Australia has a casualty rate for cyclists two or three times ours. The Government decided that making cyclists wear helmets would put things right. It made no difference.
The casualty rate in the Netherlands is a fraction of ours, and of Australia's. So the Minister decides he is a cycle lane sceptic!

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Gus T | 8 years ago
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So as I read it, this buffoon is saying that a car was driven into 6 cyclists as a result of not having a "cyclists driving license", sounds like he would take being called a f**kwit as a compliment.

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felixcat | 8 years ago
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Here is a study of the standard of driving interacting with cyclists in Australia. It bears out all that commenters above have said.
"Drivers were at fault in 87 per cent of incidents with cyclists and most did not realise they had behaved in a reckless or unsafe manner, according to the Monash University Accident Research Centre and The Amy Gillett Foundation.

The three-year study into cyclist safety on the roads used mounted video camera footage, as well as helmet-mounted cameras worn by cyclists, to determine the main causes of road accidents between cyclists and motorists."

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/cars-to-blame-in-most-accide...

https://theconversation.com/helmet-cam-captures-bike-accidents-and-could...

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Kadinkski | 8 years ago
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It reaches a point when it's not a general human thing anymore though and it becomes a backward or bigoted thing. I've always found Australia to be one of the most shameful and racist places on earth and it is just getting worse (speaking as an 'foreigner with an accent' that will never go there again).

Aborigines were only given Australian citizenship in 1967. Think about that for a second - white Australia wouldn't let the indigenous population vote until 1967, its insane. Look at what they do to asylum seekers, or any other minority group - gay marriage, lol, no chance (despite the fact their neighbours, NZ passed the law in 2013), cyclists - fuck off, you're not normal!

God help you if you are a black, gay, cyclist with an accent in Australia - you will definitely be tarred and feathered.

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BBB | 8 years ago
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I think it's a problem of general intolerance hard wired in human DNA.
After all It took quite a long time to educate the mindless and narrow minded mob called society to at least tolerate racial, sexual and ethnic minorities...

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FluffyKittenofT... | 8 years ago
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It seems to me that Australians _really_ hate cyclists and cycling.
What with this, the compulsory helmet thing, the compulsory cycle path thing in some places, and the dismal modal share.

I can only assume its because Australia is currently only number 2 in the world obesity rankings (after the US). This must sit badly with their competitive instincts. When did Australians ever settle for second when it comes to competition over physical things?

Ramuz does have a bit of a point though - the Anglosphere generally is not exactly premier league for cycling, within the developed countries.

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monty dog | 8 years ago
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No surprises. Australia - least bike-friendly place I've ever been.

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portec | 8 years ago
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Mr Gay said that he was being “increasingly persuaded” that cyclists need to be licensed

You mean like a driving licence, My Gay? The one that nearly all cyclists already have?  40

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DNAse | 8 years ago
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Australia, a nation flushing itself down the toilet.
Insane housing costs.
Insane energy policy.
Insane immigration policy.
Insane politics and economics

I though the UK was bad but...

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Metaphor | 8 years ago
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US, UK, Australia, Canada - all to some extent hate bikes. What is it with the English-speaking world? Le français est la langue d'un avenir vert.

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portec replied to Metaphor | 8 years ago
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Ramuz wrote:

US, UK, Australia, Canada - all to some extent hate bikes. What is it with the English-speaking world? Le français est la langue d'un avenir vert.

Those are not fair comparisons. I lived in Australia for 12 years and I've lived in the UK for the last 15 years. Despite the issues here in the UK, cycling here is heaven compared with Australia. Whenever I read articles like this I remember how thankful I am to live here and not still be in Australia. And I feel for my friends back there. Duncan Gay's and Carl Scully's attitude to cycling and cyclists is really no different to an average non-cyclist in Australia, in my experience. It's part of the culture.

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therealsmallboy | 8 years ago
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Cvnt

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Beatnik69 | 8 years ago
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Is he going to stop cars from driving on certain roads because there may have been 'a couple of accidents there'. Perhaps he should think about licensing car drivers and that should stop any car crashes...oh wait a minute.  102

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carlosjenno | 8 years ago
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It beggars belief that this sort of fuckwittery makes it into positions of power. Oh, who am I kidding, they're all as bad as each other in positions of power aren't they? I despair, I really really do...

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