2018/19 NSW Gov Budget says NO to bikes

[AUbicycles]

In the budget information, the government certainly tries to polish it all and make the real information hard to find.
https://www.budget.nsw.gov.au/

But what is really hard to find is any budget for bike or cycling. SMH report $18.8 million which is way down from the $40 - $50 million. There is restart which is spread over years but even these is ignored

Nothing here:
Budget Estimates Transport Cluster (PDF)

SMH Says the losers of the budget include:

Cyclists: No new projects or infrastructure will be built in 2018-19. The government will spend $18.8 million in 2018-19, but $13.6 million of that is for the Parramatta Escarpment Boardwalk and $5.2 million for “planning”.

Can anyone see any actual figures on cycle related spending?

[find_bruce]

I would like to say you are wrong and hidden away in the detail is all the work they are doing on the known missing links. Sadly those links will remain missing for at least another year.

[g-boaf]

But Clover Moore wants to try and simplify cycleway design in order to be able to get them done more cheaply and quickly.

Naturally the state government is trying to deflect away any suggestion that it might be the hold-up...

Good on Clover for trying, but fortunately I don't have to ride in the CBD anymore. Hopefully for those that do, she'll manage to complete the missing links.

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/cit ... 4znae.html

Finishing off all of the missing links is really the key thing to getting more people riding for transport purposes (eg, getting to work).

There are some glaring missing links, like the cycleway running from Guildford to Prospect Dam and on to Fairfield, that should be connected to the Cooks River Cycleway, and with Parramatta Road to be upgraded, surely there is scope to put a cycleway right along the length of it to get people from Western Sydney to the CBD. And another one is a cycleway along the M4 west of Granville to get people quickly to the M7 near Eastern Creek or further out to Penrith or Emu Plains.

Currently people wanting to ride west along the M4 motorway must use the cycleway near the Caterpillar service place, then lift their bike over the barrier and then climb over the barrier themselves and ride on the motorway. Sure, there is a gate there to the shoulder, but it is locked...

There is no other way unless you want to go on circuitous diversions through Merrylands, Greystanes and elsewhere or through Westmead and up Old Windsor Road.

[10speedsemiracer]

A bit sad that NSW will lag behind what needs doing for at least a year (probably 2 by the time they get sorted, if ever).

[march83]

Oh, and the sums of money being poured into the m4 at the moment with no attempt to build any permanent cycling facilities or any real attempt being made to build any decent detours during the construction phase... It's too late to include anything in the current round of upgrades and I don't see them touching the m4 again for some time. I don't see anything being done along the m4 while I'm any position to use it - I'll be too old or I'll have moved away.

Maybe they could link up the back streets to make a tolerable route west but as it stands it's just far too indirect, too disconnected, too busy and too unsafe for anyone but the truly devoted to bother with it. With some meaningful bike paths, segregated multi-use paths or even just well defined bike lanes that are reasonably direct and don't go through industrial estates and the problem is solved.

It's a shame - you only need to shift a few hundred people per hour out of cars and onto bikes and you'd make a massive difference to the traffic on the m4.

I do wonder whether the new train carriages will make any difference to the way people use bikes on their commutes when they eventually arrive in a year or 2. Lots more space for bikes from what I can tell...