Sydney bike paths: 26 danger zones found in safety audit
Residents living next to one of Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore and Transport NSW’s inner city pop up cycleways have paid for a safety audit that found a string of potentially fatal danger spots.
NSW
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Angry residents living next to one of Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore and Transport NSW’s pop up cycleways have paid for a safety audit that found a string of potentially fatal danger spots.
The crowd-funded audit of Bridge Rd in Glebe identified 26 areas including several at high risk of causing serious or catastrophic injury to cyclists and pedestrians.
“This cycleway should be stopped right now and moved to a more suitable location,” Sydney City councillor Kerryn Phelps said.
“This is an unprecedented situation where a group of local residents have become so concerned about safety they have commissioned their own safety audit.
“The cycleway is an ill-conceived debacle.”
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The report was commissioned from the Traffic Engineering Centre and was performed by independent auditors who have worked on previous Sydney City Council cycle paths.
Among the problems it found was a “blind spot” at the start of the cycleway on Bridge Rd where the lanes “abruptly” drop to one which “increases the chance for the cyclist to be squeezed between the kerb and a vehicle … which would possibly result in a very severe or fatal accident”.
It also found the cycle path merged with the footpath under the light rail overbridge where it is illegal to ride a bike and warned of a potentially fatal collision between pedestrians stepping off the stairway and into the path of cyclists.
At another point the “poorly planned” cycleway stops at a bus stop increasing “the chance for a cyclist to be struck and smashed either by a car or a bus resulting in … severe or even fatal outcomes.”
Dr Phelps said the pop-up cycleway had been forced through with no safety planning and was an example of the Lord Mayor putting her “ideological belief” in cycle paths ahead of “practicality and safety”.
Bridge Rd resident John Young said: “I think Clover Moore is obsessed with cycleways and thinks they are all great but this one is extremely unsafe. Somebody is going to be killed.”
Neighbour Di Anstey has lived on Bridge Rd for 40 years and said it was “a political decision” to put in the cycle path not a practical one. “During peak hour last Friday night I counted eight cyclists actually using it,” she said.
A spokesman for the City of Sydney said the audit had been conducted while the cycleway was being constructed. It said the report had been sent to Transport for NSW, which was responsible for the cycleway, and had reassured the council that “most of the issues identified” had been addressed.
Ms Moore said: “I make no apologies for supporting the NSW Government pop up cycleway initiative. These pop up cycleways are about saving lives. Providing infrastructure to separate cyclists from fast-flowing vehicular traffic is a critical safety measure.”
A Transport for NSW spokesman confirmed the department had received the resident’s report on Tuesday morning and would review its findings.
The spokesman said the department “undertook a complete safety audit as part of the design of this cycleway which is being delivered as a public health measure and again prior to its opening.
“Transport remains committed to working with the local community to ensure any concerns it might have are addressed,” he said.
Originally published as Sydney bike paths: 26 danger zones found in safety audit