Cycling in Sydney, Australia is common for transport, recreation and sport.
While Sydney has historically been hostile for cycling, with the construction of significant amounts of new cycling infrastructure Sydney is "increasingly becoming a cycling city" according to NSW Transport Minister John Graham. Since the introduction of separated cycleways in 2011, trips in the City have increased by 187% with mode share work commuting reaching 15-19% in some precincts. Sydney is now the second highest users of Lime share bikes in the world (after London). By early 2026, the number of shared e-bikes in Sydney had quadrupled in less than two years.
While the City of Sydney (inner Sydney) has cycling levels similar to some dutch cities, councils outside the City have little safe infrastructure. With higher fuel prices, interest is growing in family e-bikes and commuting bikes. E-bike sales have grown from 9000 in 2017 to around 200,000 by 2022.
Sydney's overarching obstacle with implementing cycling infrastructure is its jurisdiction. Some cycleways in Sydney reflect "very ingrained views" in the NSW Government prioritising vehicles over pedestrians and cyclists. Slow approvals, limited government funding, and a lack of political leadership are barriers to wider cycleway delivery.
Moral panics over bicycles, cyclists and e-bikes in Sydney are common. Cycling and cycleways face persistent opposition from motorist lobby groups, conservative media, commentators, and heritage or other resident groups. The NRMA claims the government wastes money on cycleways and calls for them to be scrapped, along with advocating for confiscation of bicycles for illegal use, and spearheading campaigns to introduce mandatory registration and identification requirements for e-bikes. Business Sydney often call for a review or pause to implementing cycleways, and states the bike lane experiment or share bike experiment has failed. 2GB radio has a history of bike-bashing.
Infrastructure
People riding bikes are allowed to cycle on the road, cycleways or shared paths, but only on footpaths cyclist is under 16 years old (or accompanying someone under 16 years old).Cycling in New South Wales#Regulations Historically, bicycle infrastructure was largely constructed in areas for recreational riding or along shared paths such as in parks. Prior to the involvement of Jan Gehl, the City of Sydney created a Bicycle Action Plan in 2007, part of which involved building physically separated cycleways. In May 2009, the first of these, a 200m stretch along King Street in the CBD opened. In the following decade the number of commuter cycling trips doubled and the City of Sydney produced a Cycling Strategy and Action Plan 2018 – 2030. The plan sets out to prioritise connecting the cycleway network, supporting people to ride, supporting business to support their employees to ride and to lead by example.
Subsequently, longer segregated paths have been built along selected routes through the city. There had been plans to extend these separated routes, however these have largely not gone ahead, and some important commuter paths, like the College Street bike path, have actually been removed in 2015 at the insistence of Duncan Gay, the former Minister for Roads, Maritime and Freight (who has openly described himself as "the biggest bike lane sceptic in government") with the support of Mike Baird, a former Premier of New South Wales.
Another criticism of Sydney's separated paths is that the traffic lights preference cars over both pedestrians and cyclists. Not only are cyclists critical of the reported difficulty in triggering a light change, they are also unhappy that priority is afforded to cars by default, in much the same way that pedestrians must push a button before being included in the traffic light sequence.
Coinciding with the City of Sydney's new investment in cycleways, the state of NSW has repeatedly released statewide plans for bicycle infrastructure, including in 2010, BikePlan NSW. The plan is acknowledged by Bicycle NSW, but thought to be underfunded by local bicycle groups. While premier of NSW, Kristina Keneally bicycle commuted 10 km each way from the suburb of Pagewood to the CBD.
Bicycle Parking
There are many bike sheds and lockers across the Sydney train and metro network. This includes opal card operated security parking such as at Redfern, Green Square, Waterloo and Victoria Cross stations.
The City of Sydney council offers free parking for bicycles at Goulburn Street and Kings Cross car parks
Velodromes and criterum tracks
Sydney has several velodromes including the indoor Dunc Gray Velodrome (Bankstown), part of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. Outdoor tracks are located Hurstville Oval, Lidcombe Oval, Merrylands Oval and Tempe. The Heffron Park Criterium is a 2.04 km track in Maroubra, utilised by the Randwick Botany Cycling Club.
Many velodromes have been demolished including sites at Wiley Park, Camperdown and Surry Hills.
Participation
According to the Minister for Roads John Graham, Sydney is increasingly becoming a cycling city. Sydney is the second highest user of Lime bikes in the world, behind London. Shared e-bike trips nearly doubled in 2025.
After a 2 month electric bicycle program in Western Sydney, a 2025 University of Sydney study found resulted 59% of participants reduced their car usage, 92% had increased confidence riding, 75% had higher levels of everyday cycling, along with well-being and social connection improvements. The program included subsidised e-bike access and additional guidance.
The 2025 National Walking and Cycling Participation Survey found that 33.1% Sydneysiders had cycled in the past year. 24.6% had cycled within the last month, and 14.2% within the last week.
One restaurateur in Sydney utilises Lime bikes to transport wine from one restaurant to another. The most expensive they ever transported was a $5000 bottle.
Sydney has many cycling focused businesses offering services such as courses to build confidence and learn how to ride safely on road, bicycle fitting, frame and custom building, bicycle hire and guided tours.
Planning and governance
Local government
One of the aims of BikePlan 2007–2017 is increasing total percentage trips in the city from 2% to 5% by 2011.
Aside from building cycleways, City of Sydney has engaged in a publicity campaign, subsidised cycling courses, installed parking rings throughout the city and subsidised bicycle parking at City of Sydney events which also fund BIKESydney (the local BUG). New development controls have been suggested which, among other things, require increasing bicycle facilities in residential and commercial properties. The City of Sydney's '2030 Sustainable Sydney' plan (2008) has a section dedicated to cycling.
Cooperation with other associations is often required. For example, the two bridges leading into the CBD are controlled by the Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority (Pyrmont Bridge), and the RMS (Sydney Harbour Bridge). The NSW government, through the RMS, control all traffic lights (including along cycleways), arterial roads and speed limits. Although there are plans to limit major CBD roads to private cars, on-going efforts to make the city more friendly to non-motorised transport are made through agreements with the NSW state government.
Other city councils also have bicycle plans of varying scope, based on funding, local demand, and current facilities. In July 2010, Parramatta City Council installed secure bicycle storage area in their city areas, while proposing to reduce overall funding for cycling facilities.
State government
Transport for NSW is the state responsible for road infrastructure and safety. Their latest bike plan was produced in 2022.
The 'Action for Bikes 2010' plan, published in 1999, set out a costed, 10 year plan for the creation of a series of arterial bicycle networks across NSW.
Regulations
Seizure of e-bikes
In February 2026 the New South Wales Government introduced new laws permitting NSW Police new powers to seize and crush illegal e-bikes. The proposed new measures were welcomed by the NRMA, which urged the community to get behind them. In 2026 the NRMA "spearheaded" a campaign to "introduce registration and identification requirements for e-bikes" and "calls for set of reforms around e-bike use".
Operation E-Voltage
Operation E-Voltage was conducted in March 2026. NSW Police officers spoke to 215 e-bike and e-scooter users, and issued 170 fines and 99 cautions. Some vehicles were classified as motorbikes under legislation.
In September 2026, NSW Police seized 36 e-bikes under the new regulations, as a joint operation of Transport for NSW and NSW Police named Operation E-Voltage. Police issued 16 penalty notices and 46 caution notices, for offences such as not wearing a helmet and mobile phone usage. Multiple trailer of bicycles were seized. Some bicycles were towed away by a NSW Government TMC Transport Commander vehicle and trailer. Police utilised drones to monitor the area and had born-worn cameras.
Police used a speed-testing dynamometer to detect suspect devices. Three of the 36 seized e-bikes was tested as being non-compliant. One bicycle tested registered a motorised speed of over 40km/h.
Local newspaper the Northern Beaches Advocate claimed the following day was noticeably quiet across the Northern Beaches as word appeared to spread. A number of comments on social media were noted and some riders claimed their bike was seized because of a minor traffic infringement.
The owner of Manly Bikes stated he was in contact with a teenager whose e‑bike he says was legal when police seized it.
The Opposition Member for Manly, New South Wales, James Griffin (Australian politician), commended the operation and called on NSW Labor to adopt mandatory bicycle licences.
October e-bike crushing On 1 October 2026, the NSW Government crushed the first batch of illegal e-bikes seized under the new law. They were crushed into scrap metal at a wrecking yard in Blacktown. Of the 36 bikes seized in the operation, applications for the return of 13 bikes are still being assessed by NSW Police. In an ABC program titled Is it time for an e-bike crackdown?, Kellie Sloane was quoted claiming "E-bikes are a menace on our streets." Richard Buning said many devices are being listed as e-bikes when a lot of them are legal electric motorcycles. Kellie Sloane said the announcement was a 'photo op'. News Corp described it as a show-of-force.
On the same day Ed Lewis from St Vincent's Hospital was quoted in multiple stories about the crushing. The hospital published a press release on e-bike injuries on the same day.
Community Bicycle NSW is a member-based association representing bicycle users across New South Wales since 1976. Launched as the Bicycle Institute of NSW to advocate for the use of bicycles for transport, they continue to advocate for infrastructure to improve rider safety, along with hosting events. Membership of Bicycle NSW includes personal accident and third party liability insurance for cycling. Bicycle Network, originally Bicycle Victoria, is also a cycling membership organisation.
Bicycle User Groups (BUGs) are local volunteer groups of bike riders. These groups organise cycling activities and are active grassroots organisations for advocating for improved cycling infrastructure. Bicycle NSW maintains a list of BUGs across NSW.
Cooperatives Sydney has several community based bicycle cooperatives or organisations. Their activities include repair workshops, bike recycling, training and education. Cycle Re-cycle Workshop is in Waterloo helps working bikes go back into the community. Bicycle Garden in Alexandria runs weekly workshops and collects bikes for asylum seekers in Sydney. Bower Bikes, Tune-Ups, Rebuilds & Guided Repairs