Kent Street bike path expansion blocked

[g-boaf]

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/bike-path-bla ... 2osgz.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The final bits of the Kent Street bike path have been delayed/blocked.

Personally, I don't see why they need to do any more CBD bike paths. There are plenty already. Any more is just cream on the top of the coffee.

There are many other areas that could do with work far more urgently. Linking existing cycleways together so they become a lot more useful. And by linking, I don't mean linked by a busy road with narrow shoulders (if any at all). They need to get priorities straight.

President of advocacy group Bike Sydney David Borella said the O'Farrell government needed to urgently finish and release its access strategy so the city's cyclepaths could be connected.

"The cycleway is as strong as its weakest link," Mr Borella said.

"It is like building the Harbour Bridge but leaving out the middle 10 metres: people will only come riding once there's a fully connected cycle network," he said.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/bike-path-bla ... z2XAw2XqaC" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Is this part of the same lot that disparaged western Sydney Cycleways because not many people used them? I quote from page 20 of the following document:

http://www.bikeast.org.au/Submissions.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
(2012 Submission to NSW Government - the first document)

During the past two decades NSW Government investment
in cycling has been modest and poorly directed. Under the
administration of Labor Minister Carl Scully, the then Roads
and Traffic Authority built and funded the construction of
many kilometres of off-road shared paths in and around
the minister’s electorate in Western Sydney. The average
commuting distance to work in Western Sydney is greater
than 15 km (see figure 14). A 2010 study found that in spite
of the millions invested these shared paths, usage rates
had not greatly increased within the area.
Urban centres where cycling is already showing high usage
rates or has strong potential for improvement should be
targeted for investment.
Recent leadership by the City of Sydney provides a useful
example of how transport-focussed cycling networks
could be developed more successfully.

Great use of out dated research - and obviously doesn't pay any attention to the amount of people riding around those areas. I don't believe the CBD needs anything more It has had plenty already. Now the trick is to fill in the outer-suburban broken links where existing ones don't link up. That's the next step. So at one point, this organisation calls for cycleways to be connected, but in a weighty document, it calls for only targeted investment in areas where there is already a take up of cycling. Quite a contradiction.

[biker jk]

Well no g-boaf. The point is that Scully built bike paths in his electorate in Western Sydney which go nowhere yet workers in these electorates have a commute of 15km so need paths where they work. Moreover, you're also wrong about the CBD because it's very disconnected and unless the paths are completed bicycle commuting will not grow. The Liberal State government is just pandering to the morons who believe it's their god given right to drive into the CBD. A congestion charge needs to be introduced.

[mikesbytes]

Most parts of Sydney need bike paths. Cycle commuting only becomes popular once they potential commuters feel that they can ride safely.

Historically the cycle paths were put in where there was available space with little consideration to commuting. This allowed recreational riding, such as is seen on the cooks river on the weekends but did almost nothing for reducing the motoring and train overload that burdens Sydney.

The large increase in CBD bicycle commuting can be contributed to the disconnected bike paths laid down so far. I would expect to see a solid increase once the bike paths are connected.

Hopefully the missing CBD links can go in and its subsequent popularity will encourage other areas to look at what they can do.

[find_bruce]

You are absolutely correct about the need to link bike paths - this is a problem in virtually every area of Sydney & is both known and documented

Sydney's cycleways are not so much an organised network as a fragmented collection of winding paths and half-finished ideas. Most were built or designed when cycling was viewed as a pleasant pastime rather than a practical form of travel and are now poorly suited to commuting.

The now forgotten Bike Plan 2010 listed 13 major missing links - see page 10 for a map. That map would look a lot more like the fragmented reality if you took out the "proposed" paths, which like the "priority" paths, have not been built & AFAIK there are no plans to build them in the near future.

Far be it from me to let facts get in the way of a good rant though g-boaf, but there are just a few minor matters that need correcting

1. the pike path will be paid for by the City of Sydney. Funnily enough they are not going to pay for a bike path outside their council area;
2. We are not limited to a choice between building 2 blocks of bike path in the CBD & building bike paths elsewhere
3. David Borella is the President of Bike Sydney - the site you linked to is BIKEast - yes there are places that are east of the CBD. AFAIK Mr Borella has nothing to do with BIKEast

The really sad part is that what is being blocked by the state government is not any of the missing CBD links - most pressing being any east west links, but the removal of about a dozen on street car parking places, in an area where there are already at least 3 multi storey car parks. The excuse that it might affect light rail plans is clearly laughable when there are no plans for light rail on Kent St.

[biker jk]

Come on get writing and email those in government about your wishes to get these bike lanes finished.

Minister Roads and Ports
The Hon. Duncan Gay MLC

office@gay.minister.nsw.gov.au

Minister for Transport
The Hon. Gladys Berejiklian MP

office@berejiklian.minister.nsw.gov.au

NSW Premier
The Hon. Barry O'Farrell MP

office@premier.nsw.gov.au

[g-boaf]

You are absolutely correct about the need to link bike paths - this is a problem in virtually every area of Sydney & is both known and documented

Sydney's cycleways are not so much an organised network as a fragmented collection of winding paths and half-finished ideas. Most were built or designed when cycling was viewed as a pleasant pastime rather than a practical form of travel and are now poorly suited to commuting.

The now forgotten Bike Plan 2010 listed 13 major missing links - see page 10 for a map. That map would look a lot more like the fragmented reality if you took out the "proposed" paths, which like the "priority" paths, have not been built & AFAIK there are no plans to build them in the near future.

Far be it from me to let facts get in the way of a good rant though g-boaf, but there are just a few minor matters that need correcting

1. the pike path will be paid for by the City of Sydney. Funnily enough they are not going to pay for a bike path outside their council area;
2. We are not limited to a choice between building 2 blocks of bike path in the CBD & building bike paths elsewhere
3. David Borella is the President of Bike Sydney - the site you linked to is BIKEast - yes there are places that are east of the CBD. AFAIK Mr Borella has nothing to do with BIKEast

The really sad part is that what is being blocked by the state government is not any of the missing CBD links - most pressing being any east west links, but the removal of about a dozen on street car parking places, in an area where there are already at least 3 multi storey car parks. The excuse that it might affect light rail plans is clearly laughable when there are no plans for light rail on Kent St.

Bike Sydney's logo is on the front page of that submission to government PDF.

Come on get writing and email those in government about your wishes to get these bike lanes finished.

Minister Roads and Ports
The Hon. Duncan Gay MLC

office@gay.minister.nsw.gov.au

Minister for Transport
The Hon. Gladys Berejiklian MP

office@berejiklian.minister.nsw.gov.au

NSW Premier
The Hon. Barry O'Farrell MP

office@premier.nsw.gov.au

Indeed - will do so tonight.

[zero]

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/bike-path-bla ... 2osgz.html

The final bits of the Kent Street bike path have been delayed/blocked.

Personally, I don't see why they need to do any more CBD bike paths. There are plenty already. Any more is just cream on the top of the coffee.

There are many other areas that could do with work far more urgently. Linking existing cycleways together so they become a lot more useful. And by linking, I don't mean linked by a busy road with narrow shoulders (if any at all). They need to get priorities straight.

The government should be developing and responsibly running a skeleton regional fast cycling network, the councils should be doing exactly what COS is doing and filling in the missing local parts. Since the COS stuff comes from the COS budget, and the deferred and not built and non existent and non planned government stuff comes from a long deleted government budget, its almost none of the governments business anyway. Kent st isn't a highway, it is not the RMS responsibility. They neither own it, or pay to maintain it.

There isn't even a way that the extant COS resources can be applied to fix the government level problems beyond the small critical parts like Kent St that they've been forced to, by total government inaction. I mean seriously the idea that the SHB cycleway and the Anzac bridge are not connected by a state government cycleway is on the face of it, absurd.

The fact that government is furthermore deliberately getting in the way of COS - not even via the RMS (since the RMS will in fact reflect in its reports that however awful it is, the cycleway does in fact work from a traffic flow perspective) is just icing on the stupidity cake.

[biker jk]

Premier O'Farrell's office sent me a response today saying they have forwarded my email to the relevant minister (Duncan Gay, Roads and Ports). I sent him the same email but haven't received a response as yet. Gay did have time to bag Clover Moore for signing the contracts to complete the much needed remainder of the bike lanes. I see Les (we can also build more roads to alleviate traffic congestion ) Wielinga is retiring from Transport NSW. Hooray!

[find_bruce]

The excuse for blocking the Kent St Bike path was the possible impact of the light rail plans. More detail on those plans were released - SMH coverage here What do you know, not 1 mention of bikes or Kent St

[g-boaf]

There probably won't be any bikes on there either.

Which is par for the course. I don't think anyone could have expected that the current administration would ever be anything other than pro-motor vehicles.

And the government caring about the trees? I'd be laughing if it wasn't so sad and ironic that a strongly anti-environment government now seems to care about it.

Premier O'Farrell's office sent me a response today saying they have forwarded my email to the relevant minister (Duncan Gay, Roads and Ports). I sent him the same email but haven't received a response as yet.

I'm not surprised you didn't get a response (unless you did). The email was probably deleted or not forwarded.

When you read the following article, you begin to see why nothing happens:

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/n ... 6709375099" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

More of the same old carryings on.

[Xplora]

Light rail. How long will light rail take? Paint the road. Problem solved. Rip up the green road when the time comes. It is not that hard.