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Better Funding for Bicycles
Tuesday, 24 April 2007
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Every bike on the road is one less car and that means less greenhouse gases, less air pollution, less traffic congestion, and better health.
The Greens 2007 bicycle strategy aims to promote the bike – not the car – as the first option of travel for Sydney commuters. There are more bicycles sold each year than cars and the RTA bicycle count data shows a 45% increase in bike traffic between 2002 – 2005 in Sydney’s CBD.
The Problem
Labor does not even have a bike policy, and the State Plan's sole cycling commitment is to promote cycle ways in national parks and State Forests. The 'draft' State Plan included a commitment to promote commuter cycling but this failed to make it into the final document.
The government says it will spend $71.3 million this financial year on cycling. This is only $1.29 per head on cycling, compared to almost $500 on roads, and a lot of this money will build highway shoulders that are required regardless of cyclists for road safety.
The 2005 Metropolitan Strategy recognizes the need to encourage commuter cycling. It states:
However the government continues to break its policy commitments to expand cycle facilities. Their actions (or lack of) fly in the face of a growing trend towards cycling. For example:
- BikePlan2010 promised $25 million per annum for ten years for cycling infrastructure - that dropped to $15 million and is now just $5 million per annum. Compare that with the $3.3 billion road budget
- The M2 bike lane closed in February 2007 to make way for a third westbound lane on the M2.
Find out more about the M2 bicycle lane…
- The BikePlan2010 policy states that the government “will make comprehensive provision for bicycles in all new major road infrastructure projects”. Although cycleways, pedestrian paths and bus lanes are a condition of approval for new motorway projects, they have not gone ahead in the case of infrastructure projects such as the Cross City and Lane Cove tunnels
- In fact, the government paid Connector Motorways NOT to construct the associated Lane Cove Tunnel cycling facilities that the company was contracted to undertake. The RTA paid the company millions of public dollars in compensation to postpone the creation of a bicycle lane on Epping Road, in order to appease operators of private vehicles until after the 2007 election. The future of the Epping Road cycleway is now uncertain.
Find out more about the Lane Cove bicycle lane…
- In the Cross City Tunnel objectives, the RTA states that the project “would allow the re-allocation of road space within Central Sydney from general traffic in favour of public transport, pedestrians and cyclists”. But the William Street bicycle lane was soon scrapped in an attempt to settle commuters’ anger over the traffic chaos caused by road closures of the Cross City Tunnel.
Find out more about the Cross City Tunnel bicycle lane…
The Greens Cycling Plan
The 2007 Greens NSW Bicycle Transport Statement includes:
< Previous Next >- creating a safe and secure network of bike routes around Sydney and ensuring all new commercial and large residential developments are built with secure bike parking, shower and locker facilities encouraging cycling through community programs and advertising campaigns
- encouraging cycling through community programs and advertising campaigns
- allocating at least 5% – or $150m – of RTA budget to bicycle programs in NSW
- establishing a special budget initiative of $300m over 4 years to build an extensive network of bicycle lanes in metropolitan areas
- abolishing public transport fares for bikes and requiring that new buses and trains have storage units for bicycles
- working for a 200% increase in bicycle commuting within 8 years and a reduction in bicycle accidents by 25%
- increasing driver education by incorporating cyclist safety issues in the process of obtaining a driver’s licence
- creating a ‘cycle safe hotline’ for cyclists, motorists or pedestrians to report the number plates of dangerous drivers for the police to follow-upDownload the 2007 Greens NSW Bicycle Transport Statement (pdf)...