William Street Bike Lane

In the Cross City Tunnel objectives, the RTA states that the project “would allow the re-allocation of road space within Central Sydney from general traffic in favour of public transport, pedestrians and cyclists”.  Cross City Motorway consortium was contracted for the construction of a bike lane along William Street as a condition of approval for the CCT.  As a result of the Cross City Tunnel and road changes, the traffic on William Street was predicted to reduce, and the project went ahead.

But when the tunnel opened in August 2005 the road changes created chaos for city traffic, and it became apparent that the plan was never intended to improve traffic flow but instead to funnel commuters through the tunnel for private profit.  Faced with community anger, the William Street bicycle lane was deemed dispensable, and in June Premier Iemma called for it to be dismantled to create a third lane.  By doing so the government broke numerous policy commitments, once again failing to understand that the solution to traffic chaos is more people travelling by bike and public transport.

On 16 July Lee Rhiannon joined 100 cyclists in a ride along William Street, and called on Premier Morris Iemma to drop plans to scrap Sydney's only bicycle lane, and to stick by its own policy which spells out the need for road space for cyclists.  Many more protests rides were organised by BikeSyney, and the Greens campaigned strongly in parliament and in the media, but the government went ahead to remove the bike lane, as well as reverse some of the road changes that had been previously made.

In September 2006 however, the removal of the bike lane was stopped, and the RTA withdrew its planning modification request to remove more cycle ways in Kings Cross and Craigend Street.  It was decided that the reversal of road changes was enough to improve traffic flow, and the closure of the bike lane was unnecessary.  While it is no longer a formal bike lane, cyclists have the opportunity to “claim” the old bike lane, and motorists are warned to expect cyclists.  Unfortunately the lane is now discontinued, and it is no longer free of parked cars.  A spokesperson for the RTA has said there are no plans to re-do what has been undone.