KOM Information Memorandum     KOM Defined Terms     KOM Challenge Series Calendar and Event Costs to 2012     KOM Summary Bullet Points      KOM SWOT Analysis

Section 1(i)         Event Organiser's Summary of "The Wheels of change" article in "Sydney Magazine" - April '07

City of Sydney Council, championed by councillor John McInerney and Lord Mayor Clover Moore with a Ride2Work program, wants more of us to cycle to work.  Sydney Morning Herald journalist, Mark Chipperfield, questions how feasible is it? 

The article informs:

1.    Patrick boss Chris Corrigan, celebrity litigant Jodee Rich, Chip Goodyear CEO BHP Billiton and federal Health Minister Tony Abbott are all serious cyclists.

2.    Cycle traffic over the Harbour Bridge has leapt from 80 a day in 1996 to 340 in 2005 and surveys of numbers on Oxford Street, Ultimo Road and Pyrmont Bridge reveals a similar pattern.

3.    Fear of global warming, congested city roads, E-tolls and a collapsing public transport system have forced many commuters to consider cycling as a viable, healthy alternative.

4.    AMP, ANZ, Macquarie Bank, Telstra, ING, Westpac, Morgan Stanley, BT Financial, Lend Lease, Colonial First State, Bluescope Steel and the Australian Taxation Office have signed up for the Cycling in the City Project (also called Ride2Work) since it was launched in 2005.

5.    Not only do the participating companies need to be bike-friendly, they also have to give employees precious time off during the week to take part in the project. "Apart from the positive feedback from riders, 97 per cent of those who completed the training are still cycling to work on a regular basis," says Gray. "That's impressive since very few had done much cycling before - certainly not in city traffic."

6.    NSW State Government has been less supportive.  Former roads minister Carl Scully was a passionate advocate of cycling but his successors have not been as enthusiastic. Michael Costa slashed funding for bike paths from $15m to $5m in 2004-2005 budget and abolished the department's bike safety unit. The future of the Labor Government's ambitious BikePlan 2010, which promised cycleways in the western suburbs and along the Pacific coast, remains in limbo.

7.    Most of the pioneering work on bike paths, education and road safety is now being done at local government level. Randwick, Parramatta, Leichhardt, Sutherland, Ryde, Bankstown and Canada Bay councils all have progressive bicycle policies but it is the City of Sydney that is really setting the pace. Apart from the Ride2Work initiative, the council funds its own cycling development unit and in February commissioned a $210,000 Public Spaces and Public Life Study, which aims to wrest central Sydney away from the motor car and return it to pedestrians and cyclists. The 10-month study will be led by Professor Jan Gehl, a Danish architect and urban planner who has undertaken similar studies in New York, London, Copenhagen, Oslo, Rotterdam and Stockholm.

8.    While safety remains an issue for commuter cyclists - most would like to use dedicated bikeways rather than face a daily tussle with buses, cars and taxis - serious accidents are rare. According to the RTA, very few cyclists die on NSW roads - in 1994, the worst year on record, there were 23 cycle fatalities compared with 439 people killed in cars. But each year about 1,000 cyclists are injured, mostly by car doors. "I once had some schoolkids throw fruit at me," says Burn, who has been cycling for more than 20 years. "That was pretty scary - especially being hit by an orange."

The way ahead

A.   The Draft Cycle Strategy and Master Plan, which has yet to be ratified by the council, sets out the City of Sydney's blueprint to create "a comfortable and bicycle-friendly environment in Sydney". The plan aims to increase the number of bicycle trips within the city from 2 per cent to 10 per cent by 2016. A key component is the provision of a network of cycle routes, including dedicated bike paths that isolate cyclists from motorised traffic. Tenders for the priority routes have been accepted and construction is expected to begin in June.

B.    Despite these bold decisions, city planners are still dependent on the co-operation of the RTA, which controls all arterial roads and many secondary routes. The RTA has been lukewarm at best in its support of dedicated cycle paths. As the report also points out, for the Master Plan to really work, the NSW Government would need to fulfil its promise - set out in BikePlan 2010 - to build a number of regional cycling routes across the metropolitan area.

C.   The council has moved ahead with a number of initiatives, such as installing 450 bicycle rings around the city, replacing old-fashioned drainage grates and adding free bike parking at major events, improved signage on existing bike lanes and bicycle rails in a number of shopping areas and parks.

D.   The council is also looking at a proposal from outdoor advertising company JCDecaux to provide free or low-cost bikes to city workers. The CityCycle system, which uses bikes housed in electronic racks, is already operating successfully in Paris, Lyon, Vienna, Gijon and Brussels. In Lyon, residents clocked up 12m km on the bikes during the first year of operation. JCDecaux's CEO, Steve O'Connor, says Sydney poses some additional challenges - he is not sure whether the system will appeal more to tourists, city residents or commuters. And he doesn't expect it to make an appearance in Sydney until next year at the earliest.