New cycle links coming to inner city after $7.5 million funding announcement
Transport Minister Andrew Constance said a 130 per cent increase in cycling in the CBD ‘can’t be ignored’, as new projects change how we will get around Sydney.
Central Sydney
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Bikes, trams and metro trains could soon dominate the daily trip to and from Sydney’s CBD, as a raft of new projects encourage commuters to keep their cars in the garage.
Transport Minister Andrew Constance and Lord Mayor Clover Moore on Thursday announced a $7.5 million contribution from the State Government to help fund four new cycle tracks in the inner city.
An extended cycle link at Pyrmont that will create a traffic-free run between the Anzac Bridge and the CBD via Miller and Saunders streets headlines the program, which will also deliver paths on Liverpool St, Chalmers St at Surry Hills and Lawson St at Redfern.
Cr Moore said the new links would provide safer passage through the city for the 41,000 City of Sydney residents who ride a bike each week, and the more than one million people who live within a 30 minute ride of the CBD.
“We have two key goals in our cycle network, one’s about destination — getting people to work, to shops, to school,” she said.
“The other’s about connection. We have built sections of our network, this contribution from the government is going to allow us to connect up Pyrmont to the Anzac Bridge, the area around Central station, around Redfern station, and Liverpool St in the CBD.”
Mr Constance acknowledged there had been “frustration” in the past over bike paths in the city, but said data around a drop in car use and uptake of cycling meant these projects “can’t be ignored”.
He said a strategy to limit traffic volume in the city has resulted in an 11 per cent drop of cars coming into the CBD between 5am and 10am since 2015, data he called “extraordinary”.
“What’s truly remarkable is in the last few years we’ve seen a 130 per increase in cycling in and around the city,” Mr Constance said.
“What’s exciting about being here in Pyrmont is linking Anzac Bride to the city means that there’s some 1500 people who (can) ride a bike from the inner west into town every day, that’s the equivalent of 30 bus loads of people.
“We just want to make sure people are safe, and the more separation the better.”
Mr Constance said the Sydney Metro, set to open in 2024, project would be the biggest “game-changer” for transport in the city and force people to “leave their cars at home”.
He said the government and council would work to integrate the cycling links into the city’s $2.7 billion light rail network and future metro stations.
“We will see car ownership drop away dramatically, certainly within a three to five kilometre radius of the city and we’re seeing that around the world,” he said.
“The great European cities have great cycling strategies, throughout Asia they’re naturally dependent on cycling. We’re very keen that into the future, we plan this well.”
Cyclist James Hennessey, who rides from Auburn to the CBD every day, said he took up riding to work 10 years ago because it gives him “time to think”.
“I enjoy it. I also tend not to get sick as I’m not stuck on public transport,” he said.
