Bicycle NSW recently made the trip to the site of Western Sydney International (WSI) to learn more about what is happening in the area. And very importantly – to understand if the multiple projects underway are delivering the very best outcomes for active transport. Visit the airport site on two wheels – a recommended day…
Three Roads to Affordable Housing and Better Transport
There’s a golden opportunity along three of Australia’s oldest roads Parramatta Road is Australia’s ugliest, noisiest, dirtiest road. Half of the businesses along it are empty soot-caked shells. Its life has been sucked dry by 70 years of planning for cars. However, it’s also Australia’s first road with an amazing heritage, still visible under all…
Motorway Mangles Pyrmont
Bicycle NSW, City of Sydney and Walk Sydney urge the NSW Government to press ‘pause’ on plans to expand the capacity of the Western Distributor A tangle of overpasses already blights the delicate urban fabric of Pyrmont. The Western Distributor ‘improvements’ project will further expand the motorway capacity. (Image: Poyt on Flickr) Sydney has come…
NSW Budget 23-24 Rundown
Peter McLean, Bicycle NSW CEO The NSW Government was under significant pressure to deliver a thrifty budget. On that measure it’s a relief to see a continuation of ongoing major active travel infrastructure projects. Labor also honoured its modest election commitment of a second $60 million tranche for active travel. This corresponds with the previous…
Greenways for a Healthy City
“Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where Nature may heal and cheer and give strength to body and soul alike.” These are the wise words of environmentalist and philosopher John Muir who campaigned to establish Yosemite National Park in the 1890s. More than a century later, over…
Pedestrians Are Fed Up With Begging
Bicycle riders and pedestrians are done – so very done – with having to wait forever. The beg button is a joke and the joke is on us. Jan Gehl, the esteemed Danish urbanist who inspired City of Sydney to turn around decades of car-first planning, wrote in his 2007 Public Spaces Public Life Study:…
Bollard Busters!
Riding group takes out two useless bollards in Homebush Bicycle User Group (BUG) Bike North may have set the record for speedy bollard removal. And possibly alliteration! Because on a recent Botany Bay Bacon ride, Bike North Secretary Brian busted two bollards. Just north of Parramatta Road at Homebush, there were U-shaped barriers on each…
Parramatta’s Brand New Walking and Cycling Path
Bicycle NSW has celebrated the opening of the new active transport link (ATL) shared user path alongside the Parramatta Light Rail Stage 1 tracks. All the fences came down for a ‘soft launch’ on 31st May. The advocacy team enjoyed a ride along the full length of the ATL from Tramway Avenue in Parramatta to…
Sydney Stadium on Collision Course with Cycleway
Whether we like it or not, cycleways are political. This is despite the fact that they encourage healthy, cheap and emissions-free transport. However, they remain a novelty in Australia and arouse deep emotions. The pop-up cycleway on Moore Park Road recently won a three-year reprieve, demonstrating government and community resolve to prioritise people over vehicles. Read…
Breathing Life into Parramatta Road
Parramatta Road is no longer a road. It’s a stroad! What’s a stroad? A stroad is best described by what it isn’t. Neither a street nor a road. Roads convey people and goods from one place to another, and the primary goal is efficiency of movement. Streets are places to be – to live, to…