WHY has Clover Moore decided to spend millions of ratepayers’ money to build a network of under-utilised cycleways? This will drive customers away from Sydney’s shopping, professional and business precinct — hurting the very people who are paying those rates. Despite what the City CEO says (The Daily Telegraph Your Say, September 12), there’s been no real consultation with those most affected. Nor have they seen any cost-benefit analysis. The proposition that the City Council was somehow bullied into the Castlereagh Street cycleway by the state government is somewhat disingenuous. This is the same financial centre the Premier is trying to sell to the Chinese as a financial hub. But they — like any visitors to a modern city — rightly expect to be dropped right at the front door and picked up there. They won’t be impressed when they are dumped in the rain, well away from some appointment, because Clover does not like cars. And it’s not only the world’s movers and shakers who will be impacted. It’s the hardworking taxi drivers who drop and pick up passengers. They include the disabled who, through a system of discounted fares, are encouraged to use taxis. Has Clover thought why the government set up this scheme? It’s to ensure those people who can hardly walk are dropped at their destinations and not blocks away. And God help you if you’re in a wheelchair and have to negotiate the concrete slabs put there to protect the sacred cycleway. Clover’s also forgotten about the delivery van drivers, plumbers, and electricians who have to get right to their jobs without needing a second mortgage to pay for their annual underground carpark bill. Not only is she liquidating, with one stroke of the Lord mayoral pen, every parking and loading spot on one side of Castlereagh Street, she is also ripping out a large number on the other side. The people who are going to be particularly affected run or work for those many businesses now based in Castlereagh Street. They face a significant rundown in their businesses, as people avoid the CBD. Jobs will inevitably be lost. What the Lord Mayor is forgetting is that Sydney is not Melbourne. It’s not a city of grand boulevards. It’s a city of narrow winding streets. In fact the streets are so narrow that other politicians once decided to pull out one of the largest tramway networks in the world. The problem is that when Clover went into overdrive over cycleways, the state government finally decided she had gone too far with that unpopular white elephant — the $4.6 million College Street cycleway. After a couple of years the government decided, as part of its transport plan, to demolish the cycleway. But their solution is worse. Sydney is to be strangled by cycleways spread across some primeval ancestor of the octopus. Once Castlereagh St is wrecked, they’ll move on in realising Clover’s green utopia. Don’t get me wrong. I like bikes. Provided they’re not on footpaths, don’t go through red lights, don’t run down pedestrians on crossings, and don’t ride next to each other. But when they don’t pay any registration fees and don’t take out third party insurance, why should ratepayers subsidise them for something they have indicated they’re not very keen about? And why is the state government allowing Clover Moore to drive shopping, business, financial and other professional services from the City of Sydney? Jai Martinkovits is spokesman for the #SaveOurStreet Campaign. saveourstreet.au. [This article first appeared in The Daily Telegraph on 16 September 2014. dailytelegraph.au/news/opinion/a-city-strangled-by-an-octopus-of-cycleways/story-fni0cwl5-1227059488903]
Posted on: Mon, 15 Sep 2014 23:22:59 +0000
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