At the crossroads

I got myself a bike. If you can’t beat them, join them, right? My favourite ride is down a traffic-free Oxford St early on a Sunday morning, turning right at Hyde Park then on to Cook + Phillip Park Pool for a few laps. 

Early activity is my way of buying a lazy Sunday. Because of this I have taken an active interest in the Oxford St East Cycleway debate. I have never seen anything so silly. If I want to use a cycle lane, I can use the one on Moore Park Rd. It’s already there, and motorists are used to it, coupled with the restrictive 40km/h speed limit. 

Why rip it out and smash Oxford St, and all its businesses, with a single lane of traffic each way? It makes no sense. I also wonder who, and what, it would be built for. Yes, the planet. But again, refer to the Moore Park Rd cycle lane a couple of hundred metres to the south. 

Is the Oxford St one going to make more savings on carbon emissions than the Moore Park Rd one? Hardly. Would it be built for some politicians, to ideologically feel good about themselves? Definitely.

Is it for the average person? Now, this is where it gets tricky and not politically correct. But I am happy to say it. Cycling, as a mode of transport to school, university, work or everyday activities such as shopping, is not for everyone. Not even close. 

The biggest beneficiaries of these cycle lanes are fit young men in their 20s to 40s, who live in the east and work in and around the CBD in office jobs complete with showers and places to store ironed shirts and suits. I can hear the howls of protest about these words, but they’re true. What of the elderly? For the vast, vast majority, bikes are a no go. 

And what of women? Dangerous territory, this. But how many women in the eastern suburbs want to ride to work in the CBD each day? And shower and change and get ready for work there? Some do and that’s great. And, I say it again, if they do, they can use the cycle lane already there.

Personally, I am fit enough to ride. But I don’t work in the CBD. I travel to Frenchs Forest and Lane Cove for work. Cycle there? Not on your life. Unless I was training for a 50-plus version of the Tour de France. 

I also thought about my other activities just this past week, and whether I could have used the bike. There was the visit to the orthodontist in Randwick with my nine-year-old. That’s a no. A family shop at Bondi Junction. Riding home with $350 worth of shopping hanging off the handlebars would put lives at risk. I played golf at Little Bay. A healthy activity, but deadly if I tried to ride there with golf clubs on my back.

Sydney is not Amsterdam or Oslo. Not even close — in geography, or the built environment. A better debate would be the reinstallation of trams all the way to Bondi. Now trams are something everyone can ride. Unlike a bike.