Cycling in Sydney

Cycling in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia takes place for recreation, commuting and as a sport. Sydney has a hilly topography and so may require a slightly higher level of fitness from cyclists than flatter cities such as Melbourne and Canberra. Sydney depends heavily on motor vehicles where traffic and public transport operate at capacity. This means that cyclist are often competing with motorists for limited space on busier roads, and for limited government resources for expenditure on road infrastructure. In its favour, Sydney has a generally mild climate and there are active cycling groups.

In 2015 the NSW Government enacted legislation that increased fines for many offences that are considered by some as trivial or even legal in most other countries, such as riding without a helmet.

Cycling in Australia has, until recently, been a minority interest sport, and hostility on the road is also common. One Danish cyclist, Thomas Andersen, who had cycled around the world for four years, singled out Sydney in 2014 as being the worst city he had visited for cyclists.

For the most part, cyclists ride on the road with motor vehicles. Historically, bicycle infrastructure was largely constructed in areas for recreational riding or along shared paths such as in parks. Prior to the involvement of Jan Gehl, the City of Sydney created a Bicycle Action Plan in 2007, part of which involved building physically separated cycleways. In May 2009, the first of these, a 200m stretch along King Street in the CBD opened.

Subsequently, longer segregated paths have been built along selected routes through the city. There had been plans to extend these separated routes, however these have largely not gone ahead, and some important commuter paths, like the College Street bike path, have actually been removed at the insistence of Duncan Gay, the Minister for Roads, Maritime and Freight (who has openly described himself as "the biggest bike lane sceptic in government) with the support of Mike Baird, the Premier of New South Wales.

...
Wikipedia