Support the Greenway - bicycle ride!

There's a ride to support the innerwest Greenway on Sunday February 26, starting at the bottom (western end, corner with Canal Rd) of Lilyfield Road, Lilyfield at 10:30am. It will finish up at the Cooks River at around 12:30 (full details at bottom of this post). 

If you haven't heard, the Greenway is a green corridor from the Cooks River in Earlwood to the Iron Cove Bay Run in Haberfield. "Greenway" in this context basically means a linear piece of land that hasn't been environmentally ruined by roads and cars or demolished for housing. Amongst other things, it is very beneficial for biodiversity as it allows flora and fauna to move around the city despite the human build up. It's basically what roads would be like if cars hadn't been introduced into cities.

The Friends of the Greenway want to see a cycling and walking path along the Greenway so that there is safe and pleasant walking and cycling connecting two other major off-road cycleways and walkways - the Cooks River and the Bay Run. The cycleway would run alongside the soon to be built Dulwich Hill Light Rail Line. This would be a huge boost to cycling in the inner-west and a major win for quality of life. Installing the Greenway along the light rail was the previous State Govt's policy and was costed at $30 million before they were voted out. The current State Govt thinks that it would cost $37 million and used that as an excuse to not install the cycleway. All local councils that the Greenway runs through are supportive of the project, though they did not offer to pay the $7 million 'gap', not that they should have to.

It's extremely important that the cycleway is built while the light rail is being built as it is a complicated bit of engineering to retrofit it with challenges that include dealing with safety issues of separating pedestrians from the railway line and getting machinery into an area that already has a railway line with electric lines above. There is a similar urgency involved in the proposed City West Link cycleway which is meeting a similar lack of enthusiasm from the anti-cycling NSW State Govt. In addition, each of these cycleways feeds off the other so that one going through strengthens the case for the other.

The Friends of the Greenway have organised successful support rides in the past and recently collected over 10,000 signatures in support of building the cycleway and presented this petition a few days ago to MPs. This will trigger a debate in NSW Parliament on the issue. 

You can support the Greenway by working with the Friends of the Greenway, by bothering your local MPs, talking to your neighbours about it, blackmailing the Minister for Transport or better still, by just riding your bicycle. 

Full details of the support ride are below.

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