HabourLink

November 2010

HarbourLink is the proposal to provide overdue improvements for people on bicycles (and pedestrians) seeking access to the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the CBD from the North.  Currently well over 2,000 cyclists use the SHB.  Today, there is no efficient or safe cycleway or cycle paths through several localities including North Sydney to access the Bridge and the 52 steps leading up to it!  Bicycle NSW has now provided two separate responses to HarbourLink proposals - one to North Sydney Council in response to a study they commissioned and another to the RTA's initial plan for the first phase of a plan to provide links starting at the north and connecting to the current cycleway at Merremeburn.

While we note a number of shortcomings in the North Sydney funded study, we are also attempting to be pragmatic in considering that the ideal $50m plus version of an elevated approach is unlikely to be funded in the short to medium term.  We are therefore supporting in our submission both a more accurate reflection of the cost: benefit and a phased approach that provides critical missing links should funding not be readily available for the full solution.

The RTA's concept for an initial phase in our opinion falls short of minimum design criteria for safe passage of pedestrians and bicycles.  It is in fact advocating narrower lanes than can be found on the Gore Hill and Epping Road shared paths - even though congestion would be significantly higher.  Our response to this initiative is to advocate for a scaled-back but accelerated delivery of an overpass from Merremburn to West Street - alleviating a highly dangerous on-ramp crossing.

Bicycle NSW submission