Illawarra Greens. Social justice, environmental sustainability, peace and non-violence and grassroots democracy.

Other options should be considered before we bypass Bulli

13 January 2025

The NSW Government has released an initial consultation report into the proposed Bulli bypass. While support for the project among respondents was strong, Greens Councillor Jess Whittaker said it also demonstrates there are other options to ease traffic congestion in Bulli that have community support and should be looked at first.

Cr Whittaker said that while 23% of respondents reported they use bicycles or walking to get where they need, 69% want better active transport. Only 18% of people use buses or trains, but 64% want better public transport.

“This shows there is a community desire for other transport options in our northern villages and we should pursue this before we look to build more roads as a solution to our car problem. People want to use their bikes, their new e-bikes, as well as take the bus or a train, but there are currently barriers stopping them. Addressing this issue will reduce traffic, improve our lifestyle in our villages and ease the cost of living,” Cr Whittaker said.

“Around the world we have seen other cities bust traffic congestion by getting people out of cars on short trips and journeys. We can do that by helping to get people active and invest in great public transport so people know they can get to where they need to go reliably and safely without a car. Investing millions in consultant reports for road projects that are possibly decades away, to fix a problem we have right now, is quite literally kicking the can down the road. We should be funding solutions that make a difference to accessibility in Bulli right now.”

The Active transport Economic Model was released in December by NSW Health to show the cost benefit of active transport investment to health budgets:

The Model quantifies the health-related impacts of physical activity, air pollution and road trauma associated with active transport over the lifetime of a population. The Model derives active transport health-related benefits expressed as dollar per kilometre values for walking, cycling (on and off-road) and walking to and from public transport.

“The NSW Government's own report shows that for every kilometre walked, as opposed to driven, there is a saving of $5.24 for the health budget," Cr Whittaker said. "For every kilometre cycled the value is $2.95. It is completely baffling why the State Government's current offering for active transport funding is so lean, while they’re prepared to spend billions on roads. It is outrageous that the $20 million allocated by the Health Minister to the Bulli bypass road project feasibility report is one third of the value of the NSW Get Active Program which is the entire annual State government contribution to walking and cycling in NSW.”

Cr Whittaker said: “We have seen a great increase in people using e-bikes in the last few years, and what I’m hearing from residents is that our infrastructure simply hasn’t kept up with this revolution. We don’t want to see people deterred from cycling because they are being forced into unsafe situations with cars, or their bikes are being stolen because there’s nowhere to securely park them, or there's conflict between pedestrians on footpaths and bike riders. Every bike we see taking a short trip is one less car on our road or in a parking space. This revolution in transport is a huge opportunity governments can’t keep ignoring.”