Transport Minister John Graham snubs residents against Glebe cycleway

NSW Transport Minister John Graham has snubbed opponents of an inner-city cycleway as the community and government hold a stand-off over the plans.

NSW Transport Minister John Graham has snubbed opponents of a an inner-city cycleway as a war of words erupts over the controversial bike paths.

Residents pushing back against the $4.5m Bridge Rd Cycleway in Glebe claim the design will cause dangerous collisions due to gaps in the 1.2km path, which would require bike riders to merge with traffic every hundred metres.

Concerned locals and an ‘independent road expert’ plan to raise 15 safety issues with the bike lanes on Sunday at a community meeting and invited Mr Graham.

But they claim he ignored their offer and in a letter seen by The Sunday Telegraph, declined to send any representatives to the meeting in his place.

Speaking on behalf of the Bridge Road Friends group, Di Anstey said it was “astonishing” the minister would give the community the cold-shoulder and forge ahead with the project, which has already started construction.

Renders for the Bridge Rd Cycleway project. Picture: NSW Government

“The government won’t listen to us and they refuse to meet with us, as did the previous transport minister Jo Haylen,” Ms Anstey said.

“The major issue is that the cycleway is not continuous, it stops and starts, and the roads are too narrow for a separated cycleway and traffic lanes … cyclists will suddenly have to merge into the traffic risking collisions and accidents.”

Plans for the Bridge Rd Cycleway Project show cyclists will have to regularly merge onto the road. Picture: NSW Government

A cyclist peddles along the pop-up cycleway which the government intends to make permanent. Picture: Richard Dobson

“(The government) have claimed to address these issues but they are totally inadequate, it seems they are addressing the issues with more green paint, line-marking and signs.”

The million-dollar project intends to make the current pop-up cycleway along Bridge Rd permanent after it was temporarily set-up during the pandemic in 2020.

When contacted for comment, a spokesman for Mr Graham cited the same letter sent to the community group and local MP Kobi Shetty, who has raised safety concerns with the plans.

“I appreciate the advocacy of the Bridge Road Friends group … and can assure the group the NSW government is committed to delivering safe active transport infrastructure,” Mr Graham wrote.

The Sunday Telegraph understands local residents have been invited by Transport for NSW to arrange meetings with the team overseeing the project, but these offers have been refused.

But Ms Anstey said the offer was only a personal invitation and she turned it down because the meeting would be “meaningless … as nobody in the team is a safety expert and neither am I”.

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