Cycling in Sydney Australia
Bourke Street presence
Hello All,
I'm getting rather tired of hearing naysayers stating that they never see any bikes on Bourke Street.
Today I rode from Bondi Jungle to the Opera House and decided to make sure I did as much of of the trip as possible via Bourke Street.
I propose that cyclists should start to use this wonderful route (regardless of treatment, its a great link from Alexandria and beyond to the city).
Let's inhabit it, swamp it, make it a grand cycling focus point. Pull up out front of the businesses that are complaining about lost trade and make a point of supporting them.
I have seen people on fixies pulling great moves in the flat area where Bourke crosses Oxford.
I think cyclists should try to have a strong positive rallying presence here.
I know its a mess right now, but I think if we don't use it we'll lose it, and it could become to the cycling community what Oxford Street is/was to the gay community.
I'm getting rather tired of hearing naysayers stating that they never see any bikes on Bourke Street.
Today I rode from Bondi Jungle to the Opera House and decided to make sure I did as much of of the trip as possible via Bourke Street.
I propose that cyclists should start to use this wonderful route (regardless of treatment, its a great link from Alexandria and beyond to the city).
Let's inhabit it, swamp it, make it a grand cycling focus point. Pull up out front of the businesses that are complaining about lost trade and make a point of supporting them.
I have seen people on fixies pulling great moves in the flat area where Bourke crosses Oxford.
I think cyclists should try to have a strong positive rallying presence here.
I know its a mess right now, but I think if we don't use it we'll lose it, and it could become to the cycling community what Oxford Street is/was to the gay community.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Andrew Mac on -
I agree its just that originally we were being told we were getting a cycle way into the city center. It hasn't happened. A route for W'loo cyclist to get to Surry Hills and visa versa would not be high on the list of Must Haves for Cos
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Permalink Reply by Kylie on -
KimR, this is part of my commute and I generally just go up St Mary's Rd like so.
The traffic isn't bad at all, because there isn't far between intersections. St Mary's Rd itself is a bit of a hill but you're from the North, you'll be right ;-)
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Permalink Reply by TerryM on
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Share the OP's view using the cycle paths.
However, with the state of the cycle paths on Bourke Rd/St as you have described, it really is a premature calling.
Need to wait for the path to be opened officially before encouraging cyclists to use it.
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Permalink Reply by Freewheelin' Franklin on -
to quote LateStarter
Bourke St from Phillip / Crescent to Wyndham (Bourke Rd) - nothing , become a car
back in the day I used to commute from bondi to hurstville. Bourke rd/st between coward and just past phillip/cresent was a main spline. It was only this (above italics) section that gave me the willies - the rest of it was fine sharing with traffic.
I reckon this is the missing link for us (newly embedded) southies to get to the employment mecca every day.
Still theres a difference between getting the willies and actually having an incedent
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Permalink Reply by Kim on -
I went for a ride on the Bourke Street cycleway on Saturday and Sunday. The parts that we did ride on were excellent and I am not sure what all the fuss is from businesses there. In fact, it would make me go to those areas more often. There were lots of bikes around and it had a lovely 'village' feeling with everyone cycling and walking and very few cars.
My only issue is that there are some 'give way' signs written on the path at some intersections. This confused me and the car drivers as the person I was riding with went through without stopping but I stopped and all the cars looked at me expecting me to have right of way. I am confused, was I suppose to give way and why should I give way when the cars already have to give way to the cars on the road? In the end I ignored the give way signs because the cars were giving way to me which was very nice of them.
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Permalink Reply by Saskia Howard on -
you know the time is now, open or not, we need to ride Bourke St on whatever bit of the cycleways is open.
Cycle Chic Sundays Sydney is going to do just that in the next few weeks - anyone interested in joining us please follow and check the blog for details. We may look frivolous but we mean action......
Gotta change this uninformed bad image of bikes for good.
www.aspiritofplace.com
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Permalink Reply by Llewster on -
I also rode the Bourke Street cycleway on the weekend. I was coming up with ways to use this cycleway to commute to the CBD - one option i could see would be a Anzac Bridge type corkscrew path at the end of Wilson Street to conect to the pedestrian bridge already in place there to go over the Eastern Distributor (it goes over the Distributor where the toll gates are). Then you can just go through the domain to get to the CBD. At the moment there is a lift there to get to the pedestrian bridge and it can only fit one bike.
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Permalink Reply by Colin on -
I don't mind the lift - it's not a bad way to get to the northern end of the city, cos you go down the hill into Woolloomooloo, and then get the lift up. But coming home it's all wrong - getting the lift down and then having to make up the altitude loss.
If that route ever got too crowded they could always put in another, bigger lift - probably cheaper than building a corkscrew path. The CoS should think about marking/signposting that little pedestrainised bit of Wilson St to indicate that it's a good route into the CBD from the Bourke St path.
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