Letters: Bourke Streeters riled over cycleway

Michael Leyland’s letter in The City News (05/01/09) on the Bourke St. cycleway cannot go without comment.

The City of Sydney, when designing the separated cycleway, has treated Surry Hills as a Terra Nullius. It has ignored the narrowness of large sections of the street, residential and pedestrian safety, amenity and the very real need to park a car for a large number of houses without car access.

Leyland says that the proposal (now passed through Council) strikes a balance between improving safety for cyclists and minimising disruption of amenity and parking. This is plainly farcical considering some residents face loss of both. Health issues of fumes and noise are also involved where cars will now run in the gutter lane metres away from their homes.

To say that 75 per cent of cars in the City of Sydney do not have passengers shows a very selective use of statistics. This may be true for the CBD but is certainly incorrect in a predominantly residential area like Surry Hills. What about unloading parcels or children and babies’ The choice is into the cycleway or into the oncoming traffic lane.

The discussion about which side of the door is more damaging to cyclists in a collision once again completely misses the point. Passengers, particularly children, will have body parts jammed in the closing door!

Everything the City of Sydney says about the separated cycleway completely ignores anyone other than cyclists when considering the problems. Where is the City’s Duty of Care to residents’

Rosemary Potts,
Surry Hills.

Michael Leyland says ‘Bourke St cycleway safe’, but fails to provide any supporting data to back up City Council’s case. A project of this size needs hard facts to convince ratepayers, residents and cyclists it is safe enough even for our kids to ride on. All the promotional photos are touched up graphics, just to good to be true!
The City News is to be congratulated for giving the cycleway excellent investigative coverage while mainstream media sits on its hands, having been bought off by City Council’s ratepayer-funded advertising budgets.

Brian Noad
Nichols Street Community Group, Surry Hills

Michael Leyland’s argument for the Bourke Street cycleway should be viewed with the same scepticism as the deceptive diagram his department provided at Council.

The cycleway was made to look unrealistically spacious because the bicycles on it measured just 10mm across the handlebars which scaled up to a ridiculously narrow 50cm.

One wonders if the Council is going to provide these skinny bicycles so cyclists can safely negotiate cycleways which will be only half the width of standard European cycleways.

Neither does Mr Leyland consider the safety of car occupants who will get out directly into the path of cyclists on one side or road traffic on the other. This is a huge concern for people with children, especially those with babies in car seats, for the elderly, and and others unloading shopping from vehicles. The 40 cm buffer to the cycleway is less than half a normal car door width.

The City Council is completely ignoring the wishes and needs of the local community.

Far better to make Bourke Street one-way as it already is between Devonshire and Cleveland. This would provide more space for the cycleway, the divider, and for parking, and reduce the problem of circling traffic seeking lost parking.

The Council’s argument that this would be bad for emergency vehicles ignores the fact that Bourke Street already is one way in part, and as any resident could tell them emergency vehicles only go south along Bourke towards Cleveland St.

Alternatively they could make the street into a cycle-friendly boulevard, or simply leave it as it is. Cycling is not a problem on it, and there are plenty of other routes to choose from nearby including Riley St, Crown St, Moore Park and the Anzac Parade cycle paths.
Guy Ollivier, Surry Hills

I am a long time resident of Bourke Street and have serious concerns over the proposed cycleway, and the so-called ‘Community consultation’ by City of Sydney.
Bourke Street is already congested because of the many high-density apartments that have been built over recent years. Public transport is struggling to meet demand. With a new Coles Supermarket to open later this year this will only get worse, and my concern is that the bicycle route will just add to these problems.

I find it hard to understand how Council could possibly fit a two-lane bicycle path along an already congested and crowded street, nor do I beleive it will actually be used enough to make it viable.

With regard to council’s ‘consulation’, I attended one hoping to express my opinion in a public forum, but found it was purely an information session, with councillors there to discuss issues one-on-one. I dont believe they took our concerns or suggestions seriously, as nothing substantial appears to have changed in the plans for the cycleway since.

I have been a supporter of Clover Moore and her council, but I think that perhaps Council may be starting to get too big an ego and not listening to its residents.

Steve Miklos, Surry Hills