(OPEN TIL 22 OCTOBER 23) The Inner West Council is currently consulting on their blue green grid plan - that means greenways and rivers, which means cycling and walking! Have your say: yoursay.innerwest.nsw.gov.au/planning-inner-wests-blue-green-grid
LRT in the Inner West should also run like crazy - an eventual achievable long-term goal would be having all of the Inner West within 1.5 km of either an LRT, train, metro, or ferry station. Cycling infrastructure will help achieve it become Sydney's new go-to district for visitors.
Just on the Railway Tce at Lewisham point, what I suggest they could do: 1. Extend the train platforms about 40m West and build a new second entrance at the Old Canterbury Road/Railway Terrace intersection, which would cut down the distance from the Lewisham West Light Rail stop. 2. Either move the Lewisham West LR stop closer to Longport Street, build a short walkway from the existing platforms or build steps up from the Greenway there to provide a much closer connection from L1 to the new Sydney Trains platform extension at my proposed new second entrance. Looks entirely possible to get this down well below 250m rather than the current 400m+. 3. Now you can knock down the easterly 40m of Lewisham Station platforms (essentially moving the entire station and platforms 40m westwards). This then gives you space to widen the road corridor at it's narrowest point there which is between Hunter Street & Victoria Street. 4. Reroute the bus route (413) which goes along Railway Terrace, you could continue it down Old Canterbury Road with a stop adjacent to my proposed new Lewisham Station entrance at the Old Canterbury Road/Railway Tce intersection. 6. There are 6 street parking spaces on Railway Tce just East of Lewisham Station, remove them and build a protected cycle lane the whole length of the road. 5. Close through traffic on Railway Tce in one direction, I would suggest westbound, between Old Canterbury Road and Hunter Street. You could make all westbound cars turn left at Hunter Street. Using the freed-up space by removing traffic from the westbound lane you can build a wider two-way bike path.
Brilliant! It's a tricky spot and I think that would be the perfect solution. Even if there wasn't the money to shift the platforms making Railway Terrace one way for a cycleway and creating a prioritised walking path between Lewisham Tran and LR station would make a huge difference. I used to live literally right on Railway Terrace and the traffic calming from the one way street would've done a lot to offset the fact that my bedroom windows were probably worse than single glazed if such a thing exists haha
As someone who cycles via the cooks river (from the west) into the Inner West, I genuinely use New Canterbury road, as it is easier to navigate. I hate being sweaty afterwards, but it's either New Cantebury Road, or a very prolonged hell between Strathfield to Summer Hill, with many stops worsening the cycling experience. Although, I only started one year ago, when Sydney Trains just wasn't working on my morning commute.
I feel like that's the trade-off a lot of the time in Sydney - either a quiet, indirect route with lots of stops or a busy (read: dangerous), direct route built for cars. The Strathfield to Summer Hill stretch along the train line is pretty awful though.
I actually work near Leichhardt Town Hall and ride to work most days along Marion St. It's an absolute nightmare due to the concrete slab construction for the outer lanes. There's a 5-10cm drop from each slab to the next.
Oh yuck, that sounds horrible. I tend to avoid Marion Street on my bike because of the traffic but now you've given me another good reason to (until they build the cycleway of course!)
Legacy from the old tram route which used to run all the way from Parramatta up Norton Street turning into Marion Street up to Ramsay Street (and on to Haberfield and Five Dock) isn't it? They paved the old tram routes over with these concrete slabs, or which section are you talking about?
Excellent points, how good would it be if there was an influential positive individual in the inner west that could encourage and implement this sort of change 🤔
I'm glad you made this video. IW council have done such a poor job on their cycle network when CoS are blazing ahead. Some of the new cycleways IW have delivered are pretty shocking, like Livingstone Rd that starts and ends and random to acomodate car parking.
@@xr6lad There are thousands of car parks in the area, removing another 10 or so is not going to be the end of the world. Cars are only the dominant form of transport because they take up so much space that could be used by other modes.
@@ChrisTopher_Urbanism I find that after watching one of your videos that I am spurred into action. I emailed Chris Minns, Georges River and Bayside councils over local cycling infrastructure issues this morning. I got my e-bike and it is pretty great. I now cycle 4/5 days rain hail or shine. I can leave 5min later on the days I cycle and I save a whopping 30min on the way home as I was going a safer diversion route but now I just power up the “quiet street” designated route into the headwind. The cars don’t overtake me anymore. I still think we should have a channel meet up. I think there is something powerful about getting together on a bunch of bicycles and being like “hey Sydney, we are a group of people who commute to work with bicycles. Give us a protected cycleway”. Kind of like a poorly organised protest with beers instead of signs.
@@dominicgalvin Thank you so much for saying that! Your comment put a huge smile on my face, inspiring positive action is why I decided to make these videos! The ebike life is fantastic, it's so good you're reaping the benefits. I think a channel meetup is a fantastic idea. I'll be out of Sydney visiting family for Christmas and New Year's but a late January get together would definitely work!
it would be awesome to see cities like los Angeles or Adelaide fully go Amsterdam and just have bike routes everywhere because it would significantly change the quality of life of the city
Unfortunately I haven't spent much time in Penrith so I'm not too sure about solutions specific to that location - maybe Penrith could look to Canberra as a potential model? Canberra is quite suburban and has a good network of off-road shared paths
When a New Chris Topher video drops you bet I'll be there. I feel like part of the problem is The Inner West having all these east-west roads going through it which are meant for people further west to get to the CBD (i.e. people not living in the Inner West) I know this is more of a NSW government job but more light rail would be nice, basically your Parramatta road video but also for King Street/Enmore road and Victoria road (Even bring back trams on Glebe Island Bridge if you're feeling in the mood) MAKE THE INNER WEST GREAT AGAIN!
Aww yeah! For sure - as I said, if you design against rat running and build overpasses and underpasses, the east-west roads don't become as much of a problem, and then with half of them made walkable and cyclable by trams and the subsequent pedestrianisation, it would basically just be City West Link left, which is surely redundant after WestConnex!
The big sell for Westconnex is thag it would take the traffic off the roads and allow King Treet and Parramatta Road to be returned to the people. This was clearly a lie.
There may be a temporary drop - and we need to take the lanes back for the people before the traffic gets back to where it was - which 100 years of evudence says it will.
While I applaud your video and your ideas, the path behind you is not a cycling super highway. It meanders all over the place which while it might be suitable for parents taking their kids for a cycle, really could be so much better designed for a commuter cycling route. If you have a look at the well used routes in places that have a lot of cycling like Utrecht, they run parallel to streets and give cyclists priority at crossings. It's fantastic being able to just ride along and have the traffic lights change as you approach a crossing due to sensors in the paths. If you ever travel to Canada, then give Calgary a miss and go to Montreal instead which has a much better cycling network and far fewer pickup trucks (and much better beer). Montreal has been building and expanding it's cycling network since the late 80's and it's well used even in winter. Not many cyclists in lycra as everyone just rides seemingly everywhere. There's many great examples of how things should be done but unfortunately things seem to be just done as an afterthought here and when cyclists don't use the appallingly badly integrated network of paths they say theres insufficient demand to do better
The Greenway is reasonably direct but prioritised road crossings would be fantastic. The main reason I referred to it as a highway was to contrast it with car highways as far as noise, space, etc. I've heard good things about Montreal! The reason I chose Calgary was because it's a pretty bike-unfriendly place but even there an active transport bridge can be built and get good use
I'll look into that! Strangely enough I don't think I've even been there even though I've lived in the inner west for a good few years, but a video would be a good excuse to explore it
@@akswalia6588 That would be great! I've actually started commuting through parts of Canada Bay Council (Epping to Strathfield) and yep, definitely lacking in bike infra. They're working on a draft bike strategy at the moment but it hasn't been prepared yet - once it's on exhibition would be a great time to make a video, similar to what I did with Inner West Council's. In the meantime, it would certainly help to get familiar with the area. Here's the site for their plan if you want to follow it: collaborate.canadabay.nsw.gov.au/draft-bike-plan
Unfortunately many of the cycle ways that IW Council have created are not used, and cyclists are on narrow footpaths hazarding pedestrians, even on local roads with little car traffic.
IWC is still in the very early stages of building a cycling network so unfortunately a lot of people won't be able to get to the cycleways in order to use them due to a lack of connections. A lot of their cycleways are also terribly designed.
It would be so easy to improve it, too! Adding a western concourse to Lewisham station would almost half the walking distance. Hopefully the improvements happening at Dulwich Hill are a sign of things to come
@@ChrisTopher_Urbanism A new LR stop under the rail tracks with acess to the rail station and to Old Canterbury Road wouldn't be cheap but would add so much to Inner West connectivity.
@@ChrisTopher_Urbanism Yes I understand your point. However , as we know the government doesn't work for its money like we do , so it doesn't care about saving money .. it's process is stealing money. You don't care about saving money that you never had to sweat for.
(OPEN TIL 22 OCTOBER 23) The Inner West Council is currently consulting on their blue green grid plan - that means greenways and rivers, which means cycling and walking! Have your say: yoursay.innerwest.nsw.gov.au/planning-inner-wests-blue-green-grid
LRT in the Inner West should also run like crazy - an eventual achievable long-term goal would be having all of the Inner West within 1.5 km of either an LRT, train, metro, or ferry station. Cycling infrastructure will help achieve it become Sydney's new go-to district for visitors.
Just on the Railway Tce at Lewisham point, what I suggest they could do:
1. Extend the train platforms about 40m West and build a new second entrance at the Old Canterbury Road/Railway Terrace intersection, which would cut down the distance from the Lewisham West Light Rail stop.
2. Either move the Lewisham West LR stop closer to Longport Street, build a short walkway from the existing platforms or build steps up from the Greenway there to provide a much closer connection from L1 to the new Sydney Trains platform extension at my proposed new second entrance. Looks entirely possible to get this down well below 250m rather than the current 400m+.
3. Now you can knock down the easterly 40m of Lewisham Station platforms (essentially moving the entire station and platforms 40m westwards). This then gives you space to widen the road corridor at it's narrowest point there which is between Hunter Street & Victoria Street.
4. Reroute the bus route (413) which goes along Railway Terrace, you could continue it down Old Canterbury Road with a stop adjacent to my proposed new Lewisham Station entrance at the Old Canterbury Road/Railway Tce intersection.
6. There are 6 street parking spaces on Railway Tce just East of Lewisham Station, remove them and build a protected cycle lane the whole length of the road.
5. Close through traffic on Railway Tce in one direction, I would suggest westbound, between Old Canterbury Road and Hunter Street. You could make all westbound cars turn left at Hunter Street. Using the freed-up space by removing traffic from the westbound lane you can build a wider two-way bike path.
Brilliant! It's a tricky spot and I think that would be the perfect solution. Even if there wasn't the money to shift the platforms making Railway Terrace one way for a cycleway and creating a prioritised walking path between Lewisham Tran and LR station would make a huge difference. I used to live literally right on Railway Terrace and the traffic calming from the one way street would've done a lot to offset the fact that my bedroom windows were probably worse than single glazed if such a thing exists haha
As someone who cycles via the cooks river (from the west) into the Inner West, I genuinely use New Canterbury road, as it is easier to navigate.
I hate being sweaty afterwards, but it's either New Cantebury Road, or a very prolonged hell between Strathfield to Summer Hill, with many stops worsening the cycling experience.
Although, I only started one year ago, when Sydney Trains just wasn't working on my morning commute.
I feel like that's the trade-off a lot of the time in Sydney - either a quiet, indirect route with lots of stops or a busy (read: dangerous), direct route built for cars. The Strathfield to Summer Hill stretch along the train line is pretty awful though.
Don't despair if you missed the feedback cut-off! You can still email feedback to: brigid.kelly@innerwest.nsw.gov.au
I actually work near Leichhardt Town Hall and ride to work most days along Marion St. It's an absolute nightmare due to the concrete slab construction for the outer lanes. There's a 5-10cm drop from each slab to the next.
Oh yuck, that sounds horrible. I tend to avoid Marion Street on my bike because of the traffic but now you've given me another good reason to (until they build the cycleway of course!)
Legacy from the old tram route which used to run all the way from Parramatta up Norton Street turning into Marion Street up to Ramsay Street (and on to Haberfield and Five Dock) isn't it? They paved the old tram routes over with these concrete slabs, or which section are you talking about?
Excellent points, how good would it be if there was an influential positive individual in the inner west that could encourage and implement this sort of change 🤔
That would be pretty good... Chris Topher for mayor 2025?
@@ChrisTopher_Urbanism 100%
I'm glad you made this video. IW council have done such a poor job on their cycle network when CoS are blazing ahead.
Some of the new cycleways IW have delivered are pretty shocking, like Livingstone Rd that starts and ends and random to acomodate car parking.
Thanks! Yeah I was so disappointed when I rode down Livingstone Road. All the driveway bumps as well... ugh
@@ChrisTopher_Urbanism yep, a few loud anti cycleway people got the project reduced to something almost useless.
Yes imagine people wanting car parks for the major source of transport.
@@xr6lad It's a residential street near a train station. Besides, cars are only as major as they are since so much is sacrificed for parking space
@@xr6lad There are thousands of car parks in the area, removing another 10 or so is not going to be the end of the world. Cars are only the dominant form of transport because they take up so much space that could be used by other modes.
Peace bridge reminds me of the shared bridge over the Nepean river between Emu Plains and Penrith.
I can definitely see that
@@ChrisTopher_Urbanism I find that after watching one of your videos that I am spurred into action. I emailed Chris Minns, Georges River and Bayside councils over local cycling infrastructure issues this morning.
I got my e-bike and it is pretty great. I now cycle 4/5 days rain hail or shine. I can leave 5min later on the days I cycle and I save a whopping 30min on the way home as I was going a safer diversion route but now I just power up the “quiet street” designated route into the headwind. The cars don’t overtake me anymore.
I still think we should have a channel meet up. I think there is something powerful about getting together on a bunch of bicycles and being like “hey Sydney, we are a group of people who commute to work with bicycles. Give us a protected cycleway”. Kind of like a poorly organised protest with beers instead of signs.
@@dominicgalvin Thank you so much for saying that! Your comment put a huge smile on my face, inspiring positive action is why I decided to make these videos! The ebike life is fantastic, it's so good you're reaping the benefits.
I think a channel meetup is a fantastic idea. I'll be out of Sydney visiting family for Christmas and New Year's but a late January get together would definitely work!
@@ChrisTopher_Urbanism late January sounds good to me!
@@dominicgalvin excellent! Expect an announcement in the next video!
it would be awesome to see cities like los Angeles or Adelaide fully go Amsterdam and just have bike routes everywhere because it would significantly change the quality of life of the city
Definitely!
Any ideas for what can be done here in the far west, in Penrith, to improve active transport?
Unfortunately I haven't spent much time in Penrith so I'm not too sure about solutions specific to that location - maybe Penrith could look to Canberra as a potential model? Canberra is quite suburban and has a good network of off-road shared paths
When a New Chris Topher video drops you bet I'll be there.
I feel like part of the problem is The Inner West having all these east-west roads going through it which are meant for people further west to get to the CBD (i.e. people not living in the Inner West) I know this is more of a NSW government job but more light rail would be nice, basically your Parramatta road video but also for King Street/Enmore road and Victoria road (Even bring back trams on Glebe Island Bridge if you're feeling in the mood)
MAKE THE INNER WEST GREAT AGAIN!
Aww yeah!
For sure - as I said, if you design against rat running and build overpasses and underpasses, the east-west roads don't become as much of a problem, and then with half of them made walkable and cyclable by trams and the subsequent pedestrianisation, it would basically just be City West Link left, which is surely redundant after WestConnex!
The big sell for Westconnex is thag it would take the traffic off the roads and allow King Treet and Parramatta Road to be returned to the people. This was clearly a lie.
Yeah, it's been like 4 years and still not even the promised bus lanes on Parramatta Road between Burwood and Haberfield have been added :(
@@jack2453 You mean to tell me more lanes doesn't equal less traffic????🤯🤯🤯🤯
There may be a temporary drop - and we need to take the lanes back for the people before the traffic gets back to where it was - which 100 years of evudence says it will.
Inner west council has a blue green grid consultation open at the moment. Worth putting in supportive submission if you can!
Done! I'll update the pinned comment with the link, too
While I applaud your video and your ideas, the path behind you is not a cycling super highway. It meanders all over the place which while it might be suitable for parents taking their kids for a cycle, really could be so much better designed for a commuter cycling route. If you have a look at the well used routes in places that have a lot of cycling like Utrecht, they run parallel to streets and give cyclists priority at crossings. It's fantastic being able to just ride along and have the traffic lights change as you approach a crossing due to sensors in the paths. If you ever travel to Canada, then give Calgary a miss and go to Montreal instead which has a much better cycling network and far fewer pickup trucks (and much better beer). Montreal has been building and expanding it's cycling network since the late 80's and it's well used even in winter. Not many cyclists in lycra as everyone just rides seemingly everywhere. There's many great examples of how things should be done but unfortunately things seem to be just done as an afterthought here and when cyclists don't use the appallingly badly integrated network of paths they say theres insufficient demand to do better
The Greenway is reasonably direct but prioritised road crossings would be fantastic. The main reason I referred to it as a highway was to contrast it with car highways as far as noise, space, etc. I've heard good things about Montreal! The reason I chose Calgary was because it's a pretty bike-unfriendly place but even there an active transport bridge can be built and get good use
please do a video covering canada bay councils plans haha, (the inner west's little brother)
I'll look into that! Strangely enough I don't think I've even been there even though I've lived in the inner west for a good few years, but a video would be a good excuse to explore it
Their current plan is to build cycleways and then rip them up a few months later. th-cam.com/play/PLjttJMnMmSobKLEvOdspjAy1BrPodLgu8.html
@@ChrisTopher_Urbanism a bit late! but i will be your personal tour guide!
@@akswalia6588 That would be great! I've actually started commuting through parts of Canada Bay Council (Epping to Strathfield) and yep, definitely lacking in bike infra. They're working on a draft bike strategy at the moment but it hasn't been prepared yet - once it's on exhibition would be a great time to make a video, similar to what I did with Inner West Council's. In the meantime, it would certainly help to get familiar with the area.
Here's the site for their plan if you want to follow it: collaborate.canadabay.nsw.gov.au/draft-bike-plan
Unfortunately many of the cycle ways that IW Council have created are not used, and cyclists are on narrow footpaths hazarding pedestrians, even on local roads with little car traffic.
IWC is still in the very early stages of building a cycling network so unfortunately a lot of people won't be able to get to the cycleways in order to use them due to a lack of connections. A lot of their cycleways are also terribly designed.
Lewisham. Don't get me started... the government spends $billions on light and heavy rail - but there is no interchange between the two.
It would be so easy to improve it, too! Adding a western concourse to Lewisham station would almost half the walking distance. Hopefully the improvements happening at Dulwich Hill are a sign of things to come
@@ChrisTopher_Urbanism A new LR stop under the rail tracks with acess to the rail station and to Old Canterbury Road wouldn't be cheap but would add so much to Inner West connectivity.
For sure!
There's no money in cycling for the govt.
there's plenty - massive savings on road maintenance and healthcare, as well as increased productivity and decreased traffic congestion
@@ChrisTopher_Urbanism Yes I understand your point. However , as we know the government doesn't work for its money like we do , so it doesn't care about saving money .. it's process is stealing money.
You don't care about saving money that you never had to sweat for.