Oxford St East cycleway: City of Sydney extend Moore Park cycleway for further three years

A controversial inner-city cycleway has been granted a stay of execution, after delays to a permanent fixture were revealed. See what it means for motorists and cyclists here.

Oxford St in Paddington, where there is a plan to halve the number of traffic lanes to accommodate a new cycleway on Oxford St, between Paddington Gates and Taylor Square. Picture: Julian Andrews

A controversial Moore Park cycleway has been granted a stay of execution – after a plan for a permanent bicycle path on Oxford St was pushed back following delays.

A City of Sydney Council meeting this week saw a majority of councillors voting to retain the pop-up cycleway, which runs along Moore Park Rd, for a further three years after construction delays pushed back its permanent replacement on Oxford St.

In March it was revealed that residents were outraged with the cycleway plan to permanently slash traffic lanes on Oxford St, between Taylor Square and Centennial Park, from four to two.

Paddington Fine Wines owner, and local resident, Stephen Harris said reducing car lanes required “deep consideration”.

“For most of the retailers around here, parking is our lifeblood,” Mr Harris said.

Renders of the permanent Oxford St cyclepath, which would replace the Moore Park pop-up.

On Monday, council resolved to continue the controversial cycleway pop-up until May 2026, or until the permanent path was built, whatever came sooner.
Mayor Clover Moore said the permanent route was a “casualty” of Covid-induced delays.

“I understand a lot of people that live in Moore Park Rd are upset about the cycleway,” Cr Moore said.

“We did not want it to continue for extended time but we had Covid and this is one of the projects that was a casualty of that – it had to be extended.”

At the time of the project’s announcement, former Transport Minister Andrew Constance, Lord Mayor Clover Moore (second-right), Sydney NSW MP Alex Greenwich and former Wentworth MP Dave Sharma

Ms Moore said she had a meeting with new Transport Minister Jo Haylen, who conveyed her support for the city’s bike network and said would try to “accelerate” the Oxford St project.

Labor councillor Linda Scott, who voted for the extension, said the council was balancing residents’ concerns.

“We need to urgently provide safe cycleways in the city to ensure people can move around,” she said. “However, it’s really critical we fastrack the Oxford St cycleway to resolve the legitimate safety concerns that Moore Park residents have over the temporary cyclepath.”

Sydney councillor Linda Scott said it was “critical” the Oxford St cycleway was fastrack. Picture: Christian Gilles

Council’s chief executive Kim Woodbury said construction on the permanent route “hadn’t progressed as far as we had hoped”.

The cycleway proposal was part of the former state government’s $77m investment in projects for walkways and cycleways.

If approved, the new 2.7km bike path would link to a 1.7km cycleway between Taylor Square and Hyde Park, with the City of Sydney responsible for its build.

Transport for NSW will undertake investigations and studies to inform the concept design, which will be placed on public display.

A City of Sydney spokeswoman said construction on the permanent path would start in October and a request for tenders was currently being advertised.