Update 23 Oct, 2023

We’ve recently received an ominous letter from Transport Minister Jo Haylen which says in part “the linear design …. has been determined to proceed with construction to commence in 2024 (and is) the NSW Government’s final position in relation to the matter”.

Why has it been so hard to get our side of this issue covered in mainstream media? This week's cheery photo says it all. From the outset, multi-party support of TfNSW’s preferred linear ramp has meant that conflict, on which most media depend, has been absent, leading mainstream media players to conclude that there was nothing to see here.

Like Macbeth, Transport for NSW (TfNSW) is “in blood / Stepped in so far, that, should I wade no more, / Returning were as tedious as go o'er”. Easier to continue its folly of pursuing a linear monorail like bike ramp to the harbour bridge than acknowledge the superior attributes of an alternative, such as the Community Cycle Ramp (CCR), a fold back reverse loop that does not impinge on the visual curtilage of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and its surrounds.

TfNSW’s engagement was built on a false base, overestimating the height required, meaning that any alternatives were doomed to fail. TfNSW’s linear design is not appropriate to place or heritage. No amount of tweaking can overcome the problems it causes.

The Review of Environmental Factors on the linear ramp was assembled by a consultant, engaged by TfNSW to develop its ramp. That review is tainted. This consultant critiqued the CCR, its report described by TfNSW and successive Transport ministers as independent – it was not.

TfNSW’s public engagement was a sham, designed to deliver what TfNSW wanted all along. A linear ramp with a 2% gradient is meaningless when the surrounding topography in which a ramp will land is well in excess of that.

A linear ramp is unsafe where it meets the pedestrian footpath. There are upwards of 10,000 pedestrians in the Milsons Point area daily. Don’t they matter? TfNSW’s bridge counts indicate only 590 individual cyclists daily. TfNSW admit up to 20% of bridge cyclists from the east will continue to use the existing stairs, so a linear ramp does not cater for all present and potential cyclists. It fails to deliver.

Like the former city monorail, a linear bike ramp is a mistake. We’d see a disfiguring “slash across the Mona Lisa” (to quote Engineers Australia) to remind us of bureaucratic self-serving adhocracy and government subservience to it.

It is not too late. If the Minns government is really interested in serving the community according to its MPs oath of office, a way to realise the CCR can be found and acted on. I hope.

Join the Conversation:  facebook.com/groups/cycleramp

Sign the Petition: https://chng.it/BQCzQpVkvQ

Write to:

             Treasurer Daniel Mookhey

             https://www.nsw.gov.au/nsw-government/ministers/treasurer

             Transport Minister Jo Haylen

              https://www.nsw.gov.au/.../ministers/minister-for-transport

                Premier Minns

                https://www.nsw.gov.au/nsw-government/premier-of-nsw/contact-premier

Many thanks.