Australia's biggest bike-lane skeptic 'wants to destroy cycling in Sydney'

Duncan Gay has made it his mission to rid Sydney of its network of segregated bike lanes. Cyclists and the lord mayor are up in arms at what they see as a dangerous backward step in the city’s development

There are currently posters on bus stops all over Sydney saying: “A metre matters.” An initiative of the Amy Gillett Foundation, the campaign has a simple aim – stopping drivers from hitting cyclists. Gillett died on 18 July 2005, when she was struck by a teenage driver while training in Germany with the Australian cycling squad.

If Duncan Gay has seen those posters, however, he has not let it affect his views. Gay, a member of the junior party in the Liberal-National coalition, is minister for roads for New South Wales, and has described himself as “the biggest bike-lane skeptic in the government”. The NSW government is about to get rid of a much-loved and much-used AU$5m (£2.4m) protected cycleway in Sydney’s city centre – a move Clover Moore, lord mayor of Sydney since 2004, describes as “a shocking breach of trust”.

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from Health & wellbeing | The Guardian http://ift.tt/1hDUf8A
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