The question of whether cyclists should be licensed in the same way as motorists has been debated in cities the world over.
However, the hotly debated proposal could become a reality in New South Wales if NSW Roads Minister Duncan Gay has anything to do about it.
The recent death of two cyclists on Sydney’s roads prompted Gay to bring the issue to the fore in a 2UE interview last week, where he said he was becoming “increasingly persuaded” that a licensing system for cyclists should be introduced.
Gay said that while both motorists and cyclists need to take more care, he believes a licensing system, alongside a ban of bicycles from certain roads in Sydney, would help to increase riders’ safety.
“The thing I really need to look at is, if we’re going to put rules in place, and I need to be tougher on car drivers, but I am increasingly persuaded that we need to look at a licence for cyclists,” Gay told 2UE.
“It’s not going to worry the ones that are doing the right thing, but the bad ones that are running lights, crossing over, being aggressive, they’re a large part of the statistic.”
And banning cyclists from certain busy thoroughfares, such the Princes Highway? “We will look at it on a safety basis,” Gay said.
“We need to get people to be more careful, but the key is to get the people in bigger vehicles to understand that they need to be more observant, but the other part is we need cyclists to actually obey the rules and be helpful as well.”
Phil Ayres, chief executive of Cycling New South Wales, said the majority of his organisation’s 10,000 members would be “fundamentally against” a licensing system.
“But we are an organisation that’s grown up to understand there are arguments in favour of it and we’d certainly want to be at the table with government to discuss cyclist safety,” Ayres said.
“It’s important to realise though that licensing bike riders won’t stop them from being hit, as has happened so horrifically in recent weeks and months. Licensing isn’t a safety issue – if you magically licensed all bikes overnight, it won’t stop the accidents.”
Time to remove bike lanes?
Image: sydneycycleways.net
Confidential analysis prepared by Transport for NSW (released under the freedom of information laws) shows that bike lanes within Sydney have increased the number of cyclists on road, but led to fewer total injuries.
“Detailed analysis of injury data shows… the number of reported injuries has been halved on the sections of road where separated cycleways have been constructed,” the analysis said.
The documents show that in a number of cases, the cycleways have been a huge success. For example, the Kent Street cycleway moves 34% of the people using that road during morning peak hour, but takes up just 25% of the road space.
Elsewhere, the College Street cycleway – which the government proposes to remove – moves 20% of the people on 20% of the road space.
Gay has admitted in the past that he is “the biggest bike lane sceptic in the government”, and has said Sydney’s central bike lanes were misplaced, despite the fact that his government’s analysis shows that bike lanes had “no significant impact” on the overall operation of traffic in the city centre.
Perhaps, given the analysis of the situation, more bike lanes, better placed throughout the state would be a better solution than the licensing of bike riders.
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