Transport for NSW’s latest “Oxford Street Cycleway Community Update” (November 2025) paints a glossy picture, wider footpaths, more trees, and a “greener, safer” Oxford Street.
It sounds good on paper. But beneath the renderings and artist impressions are serious concerns that the community cannot afford to ignore.
The Reality Behind the Numbers
Transport for NSW notes that “Oxford Street is a popular travel route with over 900 bike riders, but 25,000 bus passengers and 34,000 motorists travel along it each day.”
That statistic says it all. Oxford Street is a major transport artery, not just for cyclists, but for tens of thousands of commuters, small businesses, and residents who depend on reliable bus and car access.
Reducing Oxford Street to a single lane in each direction risks creating mass congestion, slowing buses, and diverting traffic into Paddington’s already narrow residential streets.
Promises of “Green and Beautiful”
The update highlights plans for “wider footpaths, new trees, and landscaped areas.”
No one is against greening Oxford Street, we all want a more attractive public space, but these benefits ring hollow when they come at the cost of access, parking, and safety for locals.
If customers can’t reach shops, if residents can’t park near their homes, and if delivery drivers are forced to double-park or block traffic, the “green” vision quickly turns grey.
What’s Missing
The document focuses heavily on aesthetics but fails to meaningfully address:
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How single-lane traffic will impact bus reliability for 25,000 daily passengers.
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The loss of essential parking and loading zones that support local businesses.
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The potential for rat-running through residential Paddington streets.
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The lack of genuine community consultation on alternatives that could balance safety with accessibility.
A Balanced Vision for Paddington
The Paddington Project supports better cycling infrastructure, but not at the expense of the community’s fabric.
Oxford Street deserves thoughtful planning that considers all users: cyclists, pedestrians, commuters, businesses, and residents alike.
We urge Transport for NSW and the City of Sydney to pause and re-examine how this plan can truly enhance, not divide, Paddington.
7 comments
More attention needs to be paid to local citizens’ wishes.
Dangerous for pedestrians, frustrating for car drivers, miserable for bus drivers, aporling for shop owners, impossible for emergency vehicles. The council must be mad. More park road is enough for bike riders.
As someone who’s lived in Paddington for 15 years and uses an electric bike every day I love the idea of a bike lane on Oxford Street but that’s just me
I have lived in Paddington in the 1970’s when nursing at St Vincent’s and again for the last 28 years. Now at 76 years of age I, like other mature residents seem to be invisible to younger visitors as we navigate walking past them on our narrow footpaths and dodge the dreadful lime bikes haphazardly & thoughtlessly dumped blocking footpaths. Many young people walking two abreast seem to expect us to hop onto the road so we don’t collide!
This ridiculous bike lane in Oxford Street was appalling designed without any consultation with long standing residents and will make it even more difficult for residents to enjoy our local area.
Who is benefiting from this crazy idea?
It’s doubtful that pub patrons in high heels & smart evening attire would be cycling to and fro!
It’s time that those who live outside our suburb leave us to decide what’s best for us. Why are they favouring the destruction of our beautiful heritage environment? Again we wonder WHOis benefiting from this idea …. Developer mates?
With mobility difficulties commensurate with my 80 years of age, Paddington’s narrow streets with their narrow pavements, often mean I need to step from the pavement onto the road to avoid the Lime bikes etc, dumped on the pavements, thoughtless people who walk two abreast on a narrow pavement and don’t appear to even see me and at times the dustbins etc left out. This means stepping onto the road hoping to avoid cars (particularly silent EV cars) which crowd Paddington’s narrow roads now. With a cycle path down Oxford St turning that very busy arterial road into a clogged one way lane in each direction, will result in traffic, particularly time constrained service vehicles, preferring a rat run through the residential areas. I and my fellow ageing residents will have to get used to replacing a relatively quiet stroll to the shop with what could be, potentially, our last walk if we can successfully negotiate the abandoned bikes and other obstructions, hope our knees and hips will allow us to step off the curb on to the road and then say a quick prayer that we are kept safe from traffic and hopefully can get back up to the pavement. Then hope, if an ambulance is required, it can even get to us quickly!
This thoughtlessly ill thought out project will result in an increase in accidents for both pedestrians and frustrated vehicle drivers.
If ‘demonstrably incorrect’ can you please demonstrate? A good place to start would be lower Oxford. How has that bike lane decreased cyclist safety?
Oxford street is full of oversized vehicles – is everyone buying fridges and lounge suites along there? Or is a truck required to pick up a dress?
Worth checking out the huge increase in head injuries treated in the hospitals around cycle paths. The government claim that they enhance cyclist safety is demonstrably incorrect.
In fact the opposite is true. There is little enforcement of any road rules when it comes to e bikes and cyclists.