Push to shut Clover Moore’s City of Sydney shared cycleways: No risk assessment of city’s shared paths increases threat of law suit by: JIM O’ROURKE TRANSPORT REPORTER From: The Daily Telegraph November 08, 2014 12:00AM A cyclist narrowly misses an oblivious pedestrian on a section of shared cycle way between Darling Harbour and the CBD. Picture: Richard Dobson Source: News Corp Australia Cyclists and pedestrians compete for room while crossing the Pyrmont Bridge at Darling Harbour in heavy rain. Source: News Limited A PUSH has begun for Clover Moore’s City of Sydney shared cycleways — where pedestrians battle for space with bikes — to be closed down. Lawyers predict the council could be sued by a person injured in a collision between a bike and a walker because a proper risk assessment of the city’s 51km of shared paths is not in place. Pedestrian Council of Australia chairman Harold Scruby said a risk management plan for shared paths, prepared for council in 2009, defines a cyclist as a “rider of a bicycle or a human powered vehicle, with a maximum speed of 15km/h”. But Mr Scruby said a series of studies show that cyclists are averaging speeds of more than 20km/h on paths that were also used by pedestrians. He also pointed out that the national Austroads road safety guidelines state they should only be proclaimed if they are used by fewer than 10 cyclists per hour and the maximum speeds are under 20km/h. Legal advice obtained by the Pedestrian Council, from Slater & Gordon, states: “Local government road authorities may be found to be in breach of duty of care for failing to impose safe speed limits for cyclists on Shared Bicycle Paths”. Cyclists and pedestrians on a crowded section of shared pathway joining the CBD with Darling Harbour. Picture: Richard Dobson Source: News Corp Australia Pedestrians navigate cyclists to cross the pedestrian bridge at Darling Harbour. Source: News Corp Australia Mr Scruby said the mention of the 15km/h maximum speed in the current risk plan, prepared by consultants Parsons Brinckerhoff, underpins council’s entire risk assessment. “If this is the risk assessment for the City of Sydney, and it’s all based on cyclists having a maximum speed of 15km/h, then it’s clearly wrong,” he said. In a response to a series of Questions on Notice about shared bike paths from Liberal councillor Edward Mandla, the council said it did not have to adhere to the Austroads guidelines for shared paths because they were “discretionary”. Council said its own study of the paths, done in March this year, showed “most average speeds were less than 20km/h” and that all paths underwent risk assessment. “In the event of an incident on a shared path, the city could not be held liable for the action of an individual using the path,” council said. .