Sydney Cycleways, First Impressions

[find_bruce]

One year, doing the wheelchair marathon as a bicycle escort for the elite athletes, I watched with embarrassment as one of the top US wheelchair competitors took himself from his hotel in the city to the start in North Sydney, not realising there were 55 stairs at the other end. Luckily we were meeting at the bottom of the steps and saw his plight. Two people assisted with his racing chair, but he refused help for himself, instead choosing to walk down the stairs on his hands! All we could do was apologise for our government’s lack of care about it.

While you may have no troubles, parents with trailers or young kids on bikes, cargo bikes, or those less capable, perhaps on an e-bike, can’t navigate 55 stairs and then weave through two narrow bollards. That includes elite athletes in carbon fibre racing chairs.

^^^This. I must say I'm very surprised the government has not been sued for failing to live up to its own disabled access laws...

The Disability (Access to Premises - Buildings) Standards 2010 only apply to buildings covered by the various building classifications found in the Building Code of Australia and public footpaths do not have a building classification. This makes it more difficult, but not impossible, to bring a successful claim. I am aware of a handful of complaints the the Australian Human Rights Commission, but not of any going to court.

Section 23 of the Disability Discrimination Act makes it to discriminate on the ground of the other person’s disability in relation to the provision of means of access to such premises, but the big get out is the "unjustifiable hardship" defence in section 11.

That said, work has finally commenced on building a lift at each end of the bridge on the pedestrian side

[trailgumby]

That said, work has finally commenced on building a lift at each end of the bridge on the pedestrian side

That's what North Sydney Mayor Jilly Gibson wants on the bike path side too, at the northern end.

[familyguy]

Jim, i'd be interested to hear how long it takes and how many kilometres you do?

Here's the strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/1554948207

There are some connection gaps which (I think) are not good for non-confident riders to do the entire loop easily:
- Epping Road where it crosses Lane Cove Road (path ends, no 'bike crossing' light so technically have to walk, bike path actually runs to Allengrove Road then starts again at Paul St opposite but you can't cross at that location, it's a bit unclear)
- crossing Blaxland Road at the top of Rickard St (no marked crossing, bike path is on southern side of Blaxland Road so either direction you cross over, blind corner to the west, nearest traffic lights at Melville Street, four operable lanes in peak times)
- the bottom end of Bowden Street through Meadowbank (narrow, rough, lots of building trade traffic)
- Mason Park to Pomery St along Underwood Road (this is currently a diversion while they do works alongside Powells Creek, some path, road can get very busy, even the car park can get busy with football played there regularly)
- a diversion at Bourke Road beyond the airport due to WestConnex works requires you to travel along Gardeners Road (no path, several big box stores and driveways, can get very busy, some heavy traffic)
- Prince Alfred Park to Central is suggested to go east of Central Station, but going west and down the Regent Street shared zones is easier (the east side is a pedestrian focused zone so bikes can get picked on for ignoring dismount signage there)
- also the obligatory waiting for lights for no reason along Castlereagh/Liverpool/Kent Streets adds to the frustration at that end of the loop

That said, traffic on the path generally was light. There are quite a few parks and ovals adjacent the Cooks River Path section, so just don't flog through the crowds and you'd be ok. We kicked off at 8am, finished back after 2:30, with the added extra end to get my mate to his place, plus a coffee stop and waiting. We ambled (and by that I mean my mate is a not a big rider and was lacking a couple of gears) so we averaged about 15km/h. The actual path loop if you went back up via North Sydney to West St He is not super confident, so we did do a couple of footpath runs where I would have been on the road. All up if you can link it together it's quite a nice ride. All the elevational changes are in the first 1/3, more or less.

I reckon you could do it all in 3 hours on a weekday as the parks would not be in use for sport and pedestrian traffic would be light. I reckon it could be extended to Centennial Park

Jim

[find_bruce]

Here's the strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/1554948207

Nice write up Jim & I agree with your points about direction finding - I have been lost more than once along the way. A couple of comments

• In Meadowbank if you come along See St & left into Angas you can cross over Constitution Rd using the overpass, right at Underdale Lane brings you to the start of the path across the old rail bridge, thus avoiding Bowden St & the climb back up the hill
• An alternative to Underwood Rd during construction works is to turn left onto Victoria St & right onto George St which brings you through to Pomeroy St
• Pemberton St Strathfield is an easier hill to climb than Mitchell Rd - saves that bit of a chicane at Centenary Dr as well
• How long did you have to wait for the lights at George St & McEvoy? I have never got the bike lights to work from that direction
• Despite showing on maps as a cycleway, the path you went up between the Waterloo towers is not a cycleway, but rather the latest battlefield between the City of Sydney and the state government.
• Interesting observation about going down the western side of Central.

[familyguy]

• In Meadowbank if you come along See St & left into Angas you can cross over Constitution Rd using the overpass, right at Underdale Lane brings you to the start of the path across the old rail bridge, thus avoiding Bowden St & the climb back up the hill
• An alternative to Underwood Rd during construction works is to turn left onto Victoria St & right onto George St which brings you through to Pomeroy St
• Pemberton St Strathfield is an easier hill to climb than Mitchell Rd - saves that bit of a chicane at Centenary Dr as well

Might try those next time, thanks for the tips. Hills dont bother me, but for some it might be a better choice.

• How long did you have to wait for the lights at George St & McEvoy? I have never got the bike lights to work from that direction

Unsure. I think it was a little while, but it didn't stand out as overly long.

• Despite showing on maps as a cycleway, the path you went up between the Waterloo towers is not a cycleway, but rather the latest battlefield between the City of Sydney and the state government.

Yep, I was aware of that path issue. Walked some of it plus the place was empty. It is a note I could have include, as it is a disconnect.

• Interesting observation about going down the western side of Central.

[/list]

In light of the previous point, avoiding the ped zone is easier.

Jim

[mikesbytes]

Yes there's a lot of issues with the cycle routes in Sydney but having said that, they are in a lot better shape than they were 15 years ago.

One of the issues is who controls the road, as we know COS has built a lot in recent years but they don't control all the roads within their boundary, for example the missing link on bourke rd is under NSW contrrol, so we see bike path at each end of the NSW controlled part. Having said that COS have done a lot of work giving an alternative route that goes thru Redfern to Central Station

[zebee]

• In Meadowbank if you come along See St & left into Angas you can cross over Constitution Rd using the overpass, right at Underdale Lane brings you to the start of the path across the old rail bridge, thus avoiding Bowden St & the climb back up the hill
• An alternative to Underwood Rd during construction works is to turn left onto Victoria St & right onto George St which brings you through to Pomeroy St
• Pemberton St Strathfield is an easier hill to climb than Mitchell Rd - saves that bit of a chicane at Centenary Dr as well

Might try those next time, thanks for the tips. Hills dont bother me, but for some it might be a better choice.

Pemberton's other advantage is you turn left onto Arthur instead of right plus there's a merge lane at that left turn which helps. Then the right onto Pemberton is at a roundabout. In heavy traffic avoiding the right onto Arthur saves quite a bit.