We have the opportunity to create a completely continuous, 4,000 km network, that connects the whole of the Sydney Basin, with fully-separated Multi-Use Paths, without taking any space away from motorists.  

It would allow basically anyone, to get basically anywhere, carrying basically anything, without having to worry about traffic, tolls, petrol, or parking - saving families billions of dollars per year, while making our communities safer, healthier, quieter, and cleaner. 

The vast majority of this network requires zero actual construction. We have 2,000 km worth of excellent sections already built and ready to go, and 90% of the rest just needs designating.

The problem is that these excellent sections are not connected. So they’re as useful as a handful of chain-links. People don’t have confidence that they can get where they need to go without having to share roadspace with cars. So everyone inevitably just drives instead, and we base our whole society around that.

The reason they’re not connected isn’t technological, or financial. It’s purely organisational.

It’s because unlike every other part of Transport Infrastructure, which is designed and delivered by the State Government, we still leave Active Transport planning up to the Local Councils, who have to spend their valuable time and energy trying to convince the State to fund the individual segments in their area, without any macro-level plan to aim for.

So we’re spending multiples of the actual cost on duplicative consulting and administrative fees, for a network we can’t even use.

We need a top-down approach, that takes a basin-wide perspective. When we zoom out to look at the whole city, the connective arteries become obvious. And with a centralised effort, the implementation becomes far easier. 

This is the Map. A Fully-Detailed Plan of exactly how to create all of the routes, right down to the meter, based on the formula of following the Natural Transport Corridors of the Train Lines, Waterways, Motorways, and existing Bike Paths.

It’s not about jamming bike lanes into roads, or taking lanes and parking spaces. It’s about finding the avenues that flow between them. 99% of roads won’t even see the Superhighway, let alone be impacted by it.

Most of what we need isn’t actually infrastructure. The space in question is just flat ground in open space, which is perfectly usable as it is. We just need permission, and a painted green line along the edge, to give people the confidence that the path will safely and comfortably take them where they need to go.

There’s only about 100 km worth of path that needs to be built, and about a hundred bridges, tunnels, and level crossings, to bring this whole seamless network to life. 

In other words, we get all of this:

For the cost of building this:

Which is arguably the best-value investment in the history of infrastructure, by multiple orders of magnitude. 

Most importantly, this would secure our Energy Independence. Currently, Sydney needs to import 15 million litres of fuel, every single day, just to be able to get around. It's expensive, dangerous, noisy, ugly, and robs our communities of space for humans. And even if all the fuel does manage to make it all the way to our shores and into our tanks, one car breaking down on the bridge can bring the whole thing to a grinding halt.

We cannot afford to rely on something so precarious for something so important.

The original Snowy Hydro Scheme was built under the powers of the Defence Act, because we needed to be able to guarantee that our kilojoule production matched our demand. This is no different. It is a matter of Energy Security, which is a matter of National Security, and it should be treated as such.  We need the State to step up, and take bold leadership. Now more than ever, the world could use a positive political story, that shows how we can use the power of Government for good.  

So this is a call for the Premier to adopt this plan, establish a suitable Delivery Authority, and get this thing done, to secure Sydney’s future.