We passed them on a recent Sunday: a huddle of confused cyclists. They had powered their way up Sydney's King Street bike path, opened in May this year. It is a protected haven between the footpath and the cars that honk their way across the city.
And then, presto! The cycleway suddenly disappears. Only two short streets away are the intersections described in 2007 by Danish town planner Jan Gehl as part of one of the most car congested city centres he has ever seen.
Bicycle NSW and Bicycle Victoria have called on their members to support the development of the King Street cycleway with its phased lighting, arguing that the cycleway has national significance because it is bi-directional.
Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore has promised $70 million more worth of cycleways through the city, so maybe Sydney cycling will get safer.
But cycleway proposals in Sydney seem to upset people. Surprisingly even Royal Prince Alfred Hospital has objected to one planned to pass beside its perimeter.
These days it's serious business riding to work in Sydney. To my endless admiration my sister and brother-in-law cycle in and out several times a week. They have regaled us with stories of Sydney cycleways that suddenly finish. At those points, as they turn to car drivers to plead for their lives, they face snarled teeth. And recently, when one of their sons was hit by a car while cycling, instead of getting out to check on his injuries, the driver got out and roundly abused him.
You can understand the response of Sydney cyclists: to ride in protective bunches, dress in lycra and wear space-age helmets and Darth Vader sunglasses. This garb helps to sheer the wind but it seems also to be a subconscious effort to say to drivers, 'Don't mess with us' — a message as outsized as their vulnerability.
In Sydney the car completely dominates.
For all Moore's creativity, she cannot escape the consequences of the state government's inertia in developing public transport. Whatever it does, the City of Sydney is eventually hamstrung by the historic lack of government investment in public transport and by the current government's lack of vision and budgetary provisions.
Ride through any suburb in Sydney, such as Willoughby. It has 'cycleways' but these usually leave the road to cars, and squeeze cyclists into the kerbside lane that they must share with parked cars.
Melbourne is luckier. The city's new