We're going to allow ourselves a small moment of pride for this one.
At last week's Council meeting, Councillors Mat Howard and Kerrie Fergusson moved a motion congratulating Bike Marrickville for our Bicycle Valet service at the Muddy River Festival in March — and asking Council staff to work with us to expand it to at least three more events in 2026-27.
The motion passed. Council staff from the traffic and events teams will now meet with Bike Marrickville to explore opportunities, with a formal plan due at the August Council meeting covering logistics, promotion, and any financial support needed.
The Muddy River Festival showed what's possible. Hundreds of riders used the service — handing over their bike to a volunteer, collecting a ticket, and picking it up safely at the end of the day. No locking up to poles, no worrying about theft, no reason not to ride. Simple, practical, and enormously popular.
Bike valet services have a strong track record in cities like Vancouver and Portland, and in other Sydney council areas. They reduce traffic and parking pressure at events, cut emissions, and give volunteers a brilliant opportunity to chat with residents about cycling in the Inner West.
We're thrilled that Council has recognised the potential here. Watch this space — if you'd like to volunteer at a future Bike Valet event, get in touch. The more hands we have, the more events we can cover.

Aside from the new Lilyfield Road Cycleway, also approved at last night's Council meeting: a motion calling for urgent action on safety along the Carrington Road Cycleway in Marrickville.
The Carrington Road Cycleway holds a special place in Inner West cycling history — opened in 2014, it was the first separated cycleway built by the former Marrickville Council. But more than a decade on, safety problems persist. Vehicles regularly park in and across the cycleway, and drivers frequently fail to yield to cyclists at intersections. A recent ABC news report brought the issue to wider attention, and residents have been calling for action.

The human cost of inaction was made painfully clear last night by Sophie, a south Marrickville resident who used to commute to Sydenham station by bike via the Cooks River and Carrington Road. On the morning of 11 June 2025, a car hit her at the T-intersection with Renwick Street — a paint-only section of the bike lane with no kerb extension, no raised surface, and no signal to drivers that they need to slow down. She was thrown into the middle of Carrington Road at peak hour. "I was extremely lucky that no car ran me over as I was lying in the middle of the road," she told Council. Since the crash, she has observed the intersection firsthand: cars racing down the hill from parallel streets, barely pausing before turning, while delivery trucks park directly in the bike lane, forcing riders into traffic.
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Councillor Mat Howard's motion, adopted by Council last night, directs staff to review signage, markings, kerb extensions and other traffic calming along the route. Importantly, it also requires Council to write to — and doorknock — all businesses on Carrington Road to make clear their obligations not to park on the cycleway, and to work through solutions with them directly.
Bike Marrickville will be consulted on options to improve cyclist safety, and a report with feasible improvements is due at the Local Transport Forum before October 2026. The motion also asks Council to consider a new pedestrian crossing at Renwick Street, improving access for students at Tempe High School.
We welcome this motion and thank Sophie for her courage in speaking last night. The Carrington Road Cycleway was a landmark when it was built — it deserves to work properly.

After months of submissions, speeches, and showing up — the Lilyfield Road Cycleway has been approved. Inner West Council voted last night to formally adopt the recommendations of the Local Transport Forum, and the project now moves into detailed design. Construction is expected to start in early 2027/28.

This is a big deal. The Lilyfield Road Cycleway fills one of the most frustrating gaps in the Inner West cycling network — a steep, bus-and-truck-filled road that has kept all but the most confident riders off what should be a key connection between the GreenWay/Bay Run, Rozelle Parklands, and the Sydney CBD. That gap is finally being closed.

The approved design includes a separated two-way cycleway along the full length of Lilyfield Road from Maliyawul Street to Victoria Road, with raised crossings, kerb buildouts, speed cushions, a new roundabout at Denison Street, and a net gain of 47 parking spaces thanks to new angle parking along the Rozelle Parklands frontage. Watch or rather listen to last night's speakers from Bike Marrickville and other groups at the Council Meeting.

Trees and verges protected
The approval didn't just rubber-stamp the original recommendation — it came with important amendments that strengthened the project, moved by Councillor Kerrie Fergusson (Labor, Balmain) and Councillor Ismet Tastan (Greens, Balmain).

On the steep western section, the minutes now formally confirm that the cycleway will be at least 2.8 metres wide — correcting an error in the agenda documents that had suggested a narrower 2.4 metre path. Advocates from Bike Marrickville, AshBUG, Bike Leichhardt and GreenWay all raised this at the Local Transport Forum last month, and it landed.

On the slip lane at Mary Street, Council committed to advocating to Transport for NSW — which controls traffic signals in NSW — to maximise intersection efficiency as the project progresses. Residents' concerns about traffic impacts were heard, and their petition will be formally referred to TfNSW for consideration.

And on trees: Council has guaranteed that existing trees and grass verges will be protected wherever feasible. If any do need to be removed, they will be replaced with mature specimens in the immediate vicinity.

What happens next
Detailed design is funded and planned for 2026/27. Construction funding will be sought through the TfNSW Get Active Program, with works expected to commence early 2027/28.
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Bike Marrickville will stay engaged through the detailed design phase — there are still opportunities to push for the best possible outcome on width, crossings, and connections. Watch this space.

Inner West Council has released a draft Parking Strategy and we think it's worth paying attention to — and supporting.
For too long, kerbside parking has been treated as a given. Every metre of kerb devoted to storing a private car is a metre that could be a protected cycleway, a street tree, or a café table. This strategy starts to change that default, and that's a big deal.
The strategy commits to repurposing parking for better community uses, constraining parking in new developments, opposing new road capacity, and using parking revenue to fund transport improvements. Council's own road user hierarchy puts cycling above private vehicles — and this strategy starts to put that into practice.
Bike Marrickville is making a submission asking Council to go further: explicitly linking parking reform to cycleway delivery on arterials like Marrickville Road, Sydenham Road and Addison Road, using reclaimed parking space for traffic calming on local streets, and kerbing the long-term storage of boats, trailers and caravans on public streets.

How you can help
The submission period is open until 25 May. The more voices Council hears in support of this strategy — and in favour of going further on cycling — the harder it is to water down under pressure from those who want to keep the status quo. You can make a submission at yoursay.innerwest.nsw.gov.au. Even a few sentences saying you support the strategy and want to see more protected cycleways funded from parking revenue makes a difference.

Since the opening of Rozelle Parklands and its connection to the GreenWay, a remarkable off-road cycling route has taken shape across Sydney's inner west — running all the way from the Cooks River to the CBD via Anzac Bridge. Almost entirely separated from traffic. Almost.
The missing link is Lilyfield Road. Right now, cyclists connecting the Bay Run to Rozelle Parklands must navigate fast-moving traffic on a steep, narrow road — conditions that are fine for confident riders but a barrier for everyone else. Parents with children, older residents, teenagers, and anyone who wants to ride but needs to feel safe simply don't make that trip.
Inner West Council has created a concept design for a separated two-way cycleway along Lilyfield Road that closes this gap for good.
The project goes to Inner West Council for final approval on Tuesday 17 May at 6.30pm, Level 6, 260 Liverpool Road, Ashfield. Showing up matters — a room full of supporters sends a clear message.
Can't make it in person? Email your support to [email protected].
Let's get this built.