The situation on upper Fort Street,where cyclists,pedestrians and cars are funnelled into a congested narrow road and then a shared path during Fort Street Public School drop-off and pick-up,has become “absurd”,parents say.
Cyclists must pass students and parents approaching the entrance to Fort Street Public School on a steep ramp after crossing the Harbour Bridge.Kate Geraghty
After a $68 million upgrade and expansion of the school to cater for 550 children opened this year,cars are now forced to drive across a bike lane and into a playground,while cyclists ride a steep,narrow ramp with no markings as parents pull their children up the same incline on the only path to the school from the city.
Fort Street Public School P&C president Luke Lee said it’s a “debacle” and parents are “livid” that this is what the transport and education department left them with after the upgrade.
“We’ve been talking about this[cycleway upgrade] for six years and nothing has happened,it shouldn’t take a kid to be run over or killed by a cyclist for something to be done,” Lee said.
was opened in 1972 and no upgrades have been made to the busy bike path,despite millions of dollars being sunk into plans and strategies to improve Sydney’s cycling infrastructure.
Construction of a long-delayed cycle ramp at the northern end will start in the middle of the year – six months later than planned – and will cost nearly $39 million. However,plans to fix the link with the city have been dropped.
In 2016,then-NSW roads minister for cyclists would be built on both ends of the bridge by 2020 for $35 million.
Seven years ago, the southern cycleway ramp “is required to improve safety for cyclists,pedestrians and motorists,improve access for cyclists and pedestrians between the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Sydney CBD”.
2017 Sydney Harbour Bridge southern cycleway ramp plan.Transport for NSW
Melanie Tait lives in Millers Point and has two children at Fort Street public. She said parents were forced to walk up the ramp after plans to build a wider separated path were shelved.
Cyclists ride past as Melanie Tait holds the hand of her daughter Stella Comin as they drop off her daughter Kiki Comin,a student at Fort Street Public School.Kate Geraghty
“We have ridiculous yellow bollards and paths that are too narrow for a pram and a bike to safely pass each other,” Tait said. “Hundreds of Fort Street kids and their parents come up the path each morning and a thousand bikes go down.
“There are many near misses daily,with one of the latest being an elderly man almost falling and putting his walking cane out to steady himself – but it went through the spokes of a passing bike causing the cyclist to fall.
“The set-up is absurd and is so unsafe that Schools Infrastructure NSW is currently supplying traffic controllers.”
Bicycle NSW spokeswoman Sarah Bickford said the shared zone is “probably worse than the situation in place before the school’s redevelopment” when there was “continual conflict between school students,parents and commuting cyclists”.
“Fortunately,the landscaping and fencing around the school were designed to be easily adapted to accommodate the future cycleway,” she said.
Millers Point Community Group president Annie Crabb said the improved bike ramp on the northern end is estimated to increase daily cyclist numbers from 2000 to more than 10,000,meaning the interactions between cyclists and children “will only get worse” at the Fort Street exit.
“The community is united in our stance that the cycleway must be budgeted for and built as a matter of urgency,and it must be done so up on Observatory Hill as originally promised,” Crabb said.
A cyclist passes students and parents approaching the entrance to Fort Street Public School in Millers Point.Kate Geraghty
Sydney City councillor Lyndon Gannon said the “gold-plated ramp” in the north contrasted with the “half-baked” bike path in the south.
A Transport for NSW spokeswoman said they “understand there are safety concerns” and it would do a speed survey next school term to decide if the speed limit should be reduced.
“We are working with the City of Sydney council and Schools Infrastructure NSW to investigate potential short-term treatments that will help improve road safety and accessibility around the school,” she said.
The 2017 separated bike ramp plan got “mixed feedback” from the community and stakeholders which was not resolved so it did not progress further,the spokeswoman said.
The project was re-examined in 2019,but the agency decided to spend as it was deemed “more urgent” than the south.
“Staging investment in the cycleway provides an opportunity to monitor increased demand generated by the northern access upgrade and then assess the southern access design in this context,” the spokeswoman said. “This enables a longer-term cycleway solution to be more fully considered.”
Critics point out it took eight years to build the Harbour Bridge,but the cycleway upgrades have been promised for eight years and will only start to be delivered in another 18 months at the earliest.