Cycling Infrastructure in Sydney improves

From the Sydney Morning Herald, May 4 2009: Dedicated cycleway opens in the city after months of frustration.

The cycleway - about 200 metres of road with median strips separating cars, bikes and pedestrians, and a set of bicycle traffic lights - is the first step in what the City of Sydney promises will be a safe, easily accessible cycling network across the CBD.

Cyclists can now get on to King Street via a dedicated turning lane and take the short uphill journey west into the CBD. Previously they had to go against the traffic or use the footpath illegally.

The cycleway is a boon for one of the council's key political constituencies - inner-west residents wanting to cycle to work. Linking with the shared path on Pyrmont Bridge, the cycleway will eventually be part of a continuous route between the CBD and the inner-west.

Eventually there will also be routes into and out of the city from the south, north and east.

The council intends to rationalise the disparate strands of Sydney's poorly designed bike paths by creating a 200-kilometre network with 50 kilometres of separated lanes and 145 kilometres of cycle ways, dedicated lanes and shared zones.

Read the full story: http://www.smh.com.au/national/dedicated-cycleway-opens-in-the-city-after-months-of-frustration-20090503-argv.html