Bike battle fizzles
Fears of a clash between pro- and anti-cycleway demonstrators fizzled when no-one turned up to a protest rally reportedly spruiked by 2GB announcer Alan Jones at Town Hall last Tuesday evening.
But about 200 cycleway supporters, with horns tooting and flashing lights reflecting off flouro vests, did ride in to St Andrew’s Square.
Senior police said they had been worried about a clash between the two groups, pointing out that it would be the anti-cycleway people who were more likely to be aggressive. They spoke to the cyclists, seeking reassurance that the rally would not be embarking on a Critical Mass-style impromptu ride.
The rally sang an adaptation of Queen’s Bicycle Race and cheered Lord Mayor Clover Moore who arrived unannounced, moonlighting from the Barangaroo rally being held at the same time inside Town Hall.
Ms Moore gave an impromptu thank-you speech highlighting her current message: that you can’t judge the under-used network until the parts are linked up to create useful routes. She posed with a T-shirt the cyclists had brought which read: ‘On ya bike Alan Jones’.
Bike Sydney secretary Chris Virtue rigged up a mobile PA and spoke about a future Sydney that would not be dominated by cars.
He said peak hour now lasted for eight hours a day and he enjoyed listening to Paul Latta’s tales of chaos during his morning traffic reports on radio.
While economists were very concerned with productivity, he questioned the productivity of so many drivers spending two hours a day stuck in gridlock.
Although Alan Jones’ supporters were not in evidence, a lone cyclist carried a banner criticising the Kings Street Cycleway.
Bill Holliday rides to work every day from Lilyfield to Broadway and is not happy with the cycleway design on King Street in the city.
“This cycleway seems to be an attempt to cater for a much more timid, slower kind of cyclist, perhaps mum,dad and the kids,” he said. “But in doing so, the designers have removed the really attractive aspects of cycling: speed and ease of access everywhere in spite of traffic jams, and compounded the danger level at intersections, without introducing any real benefit.”
“If the City Council really wanted to do something cost effective for cyclists then they should append ‘cyclists exempted’ signs to all the one-way signs on the city’s one-way streets, to ‘No Left Turn’ and to ‘No Right Turn’ signs. Cyclists are the perfect traffic for narrow lane ways and also should not be impeded in the city’s attempts to curb the rat-running motorist.”
by Michael Gormly
