Letters pprinted in SMH, 18/1/07

Adding traffic to reduce traffic jams?

So the operator of the M2 and the NSW Government want to solve traffic congestion by adding yet more lanes to that overcrowded road ("Decision to shut M2 lane leaves cyclists choking", January 17). Using that logic, we could solve obesity by adding more food to our plates.

Easing traffic is rather like losing weight: you can't do it by adding more. What is required is a change in lifestyle choices before the arteries become completely clogged. Jump on a bike or walk to the station. Traffic will ease - as will your arteries.

Scott Ratcliff Strathfield

The State Government has shown its true colours in closing access to cyclists on the M2 and forcing them up and down hills and across main roads.

The Lane Cove Tunnel, the M7 Westlink and the Cross City Tunnel will all raise NSW's greenhouse emissions and have diverted money away from public transport. Combined with the desalination plant, Morris Iemma's actions strongly contradict his Government's rhetoric of being "climate friendly".

Sam McGuinness Bronte

Transurban's spokesman "noted that cycleways still made up 35 kilometres of the M2", which is a bit like having a phone line or water pipe that's "mostly there, just a few gaps".

The elimination of the M2 cycleway is a cynical and arrogant action approved by an RTA blinded by the culture of the private car.

Duncan Bourne Ashfield

Regardless of Transurban's spin, shifting cars to a third M2 lane is not about reducing congestion. The afternoon car park to Beecroft Road will simply be one-third shorter, and move correspondingly slower. The more likely intent of the extra lane is to reduce the likelihood of the car park stretching back as far as the Lane Cove Tunnel, hopefully staving off one source of embarrassment for the Government, at least until after the election.

Unfortunately, this reprieve comes at the cost of safety. With no breakdown lane, a breakdown or accident is going to cause havoc.

Suzy Jackson Lane Cove

The changes about to occur to the M2, banning cyclists and adding a car lane for five kilometres, smack of a bribe to motorists of the north-west, at the expense of everyone who chooses not to drive a car but ride a bike instead.

I boldly predict that the over-representation of motorists on the M2 will clog the new lane in no time.

By all means invest heavily in bus services down this route, but banning cyclists is nought but a mean-spirited political smokescreen. It is not our fault the road is clogged.

David Langley Marsfield