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Australia's biggest bike-lane skeptic 'wants to destroy cycling in Sydney'

Read More: http://www.theguardian.com/cities/20...-gay-cycleways

There are currently posters on bus stops all over Sydney saying: “A metre matters.” An initiative of the Amy Gillett Foundation, the campaign has a simple aim – stopping drivers from hitting cyclists. Gillett died on 18 July 2005, when she was struck by a teenage driver while training in Germany with the Australian cycling squad.

If Duncan Gay has seen those posters, however, he has not let it affect his views. Gay, a member of the junior party in the Liberal-National coalition, is minister for roads for New South Wales, and has described himself as “the biggest bike-lane skeptic in the government”. The NSW government is about to get rid of a much-loved and much-used AU$5m (£2.4m) protected cycleway in Sydney’s city centre – a move Clover Moore, lord mayor of Sydney since 2004, describes as “a shocking breach of trust”.

Gay’s move seems to go against the flow, with cycling increasingly feted as a potential congestion and pollution game changer in major cities around the world. Take the segregated bike lanes currently under construction in the centre of London, for example, or the introduction of protected cycleways in New York, where pedestrian and cyclist injuries are down and traffic is moving quicker.

But he is not alone. Earlier this year Gainesville, Florida, returned bike lanes to cars on a 1.6km stretch, resulting in cyclists moving to the pavement. In San Antonio, Texas, the city council removed 3.7km of bike lanes, which the local Express-News paper described as “a failure of leadership from council”. And, in Toronto, the colourful former mayor Rob Ford oversaw the removal of bike lanes at a cost of CA$300,000 (£147,000).

Stephen Hodge, a former professional cyclist who now works for Australia’s Cycling Promotion Fund, says the decision will put cyclists at greater risk. “The one unifying measure everyone agrees on, that has been shown to increase both perception and actual safety of cycling, is infrastructure such as cycleways,” he said. “Duncan Gay is a hero to Nationals for breaking through barriers. By hook or by crook he has got his mind fixed on [removing the College Street cycleway], so he’ll do it.”

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