![\"\"](\"http:\/\/yewenyi.net\/wpblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/CQ09_tagalong.jpg\" "\\"CQ09_tagalong\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\n\nThe Battle for Randwick Council\u2019s Transport Soul
\n************************************************
\nIt is being billed locally as the \u201cThe Battle for Randwick City Council\u2019s
\nTransport Soul\u201d.
\nNext Tuesday night (22nd June) Greens Councillor Murray Matson will go head
\nto head with No Parking Meters Party Councillor Charles Matthews over
\nwhether unregistered bike riders are a subsidized danger to the community.
\nMatthews is running for the NSW state upper house on a hard-line policy that
\nbike riders represent both a safety threat and an economic burden on the
\nstate.
\nMatson is a former Mayor of Randwick who pioneered an annual “semi-naked
\nbike ride” from Randwick race course to Maroubra on the grounds that it
\nwould help save the planet and raise money for charity.
\nOn the night Matthews will be attempting force through a motion that other
\nNSW Councils be lobbied to impose a $50 annual registration fee on bike
\nriders.
\nMatson will oppose the motion on the grounds that \u201c\u2026it will act as a
\ndisincentive to New South Wales residents trying to adopt a low carbon foot
\nprint and who are already sacrificing a lot for the common good.\u201d
\nMatthews has justified the motion in a number of suburban newspapers by
\nexpressing some hard-hitting comments designed to provoke the bike lobbying
\ninto coming out fighting.
\nThe Cumberland Courier reports that Matthews has tried to establish a link
\nbetween bicyclists and violent crime.
\n\u201cHowever, Cr Matthews insisted the plan would also help police deal with
\nbicycle-related crime, such as a recent incident in Eastlakes when a man
\nriding a bicycle allegedly caused the death of an elderly woman.\u201d
\n(http:\/\/cumberland-courier.whereilive.com.au\/news\/story\/on-your-bike-rta-say
\ns\/)
\nThe same paper outlines Matthews\u2019 economic rationalist analysis of the
\ncommunity cost of bike riders.
\n“I encourage bike riders, for sure,” he said, but added that although a lot
\nof money was spent getting cyclists onto the roads, they paid nothing in
\nreturn.\u201d
\n(http:\/\/cumberland-courier.whereilive.com.au\/news\/story\/on-your-bike-rta-say
\ns\/)
\nMatson has countered by speaking up for the bike fraternity. He said today,
\n\u201cThe NSW bike lobby has been thrown into emotional free fall by news of the
\nNo Parking Meters Party motion at Randwick. Up until now they were used to
\nbeing regarded as lycra glad urban heroes who went out and tried to reduce
\nroad congestion by dodging death every day on un separated bike paths. No
\nsuddenly its\u2019 they themselves who are being condemned as the potential
\nkillers. Matthews has also added insult to injury by insisting that they
\nshould be paying for the practically non-existent bike paths that are
\nactually threatening their lives.\u201d
\nCr Matthew\u2019s motion to Tuesday night\u2019s meeting reads as follows.
\n\u201cThat this Council submits a motion to the next Local Government Association
\nConference requesting all NSW Councils to adopt a state wide approach to
\nintroducing registration fees for bicycles in all Local Government areas,
\nsuch motion to read as follows:
\nThat all NSW Councils, as part of their respective transport plans, look at
\nways of introducing a registration fee for pushbikes in their Council area.
\nThis fee would be payable to the Council and would ensure that cyclists pay
\ntheir fair share towards the upkeep of roadways and cycle ways in the
\nCouncil area.\u201d
\nCr Matson has slammed the wording of the motion as \u201c\u2026unthought through
\nbecause bike riders already pay Councils their fair share to up keep roads
\nand bike paths either directly through their own rates or indirectly via the
\nrates that their land lords pay. The No Parking Meters Party has just
\ndeclared that it stands for the economic persecution of bike riders.\u201d
\nCr Matson has also called Cr Matthews political usage of the Eastlakes death
\nas \u201cshameless\u201d. He said,
\n\u201cThis will be an unfair rate slug on a section of the community that the No
\nParking Meters Party thinks it can intimidate into silence by shamelessly
\nexploiting the death of that poor woman in Eastlakes.\u201d
\nCONTACT
\nRandwick City Greens Councillor Murray Matson 0409-984-587<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If only Gilbert and Sullivan were still alive. They would have a field day with this, their next plot for[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[403,2104,3004],"class_list":["post-4899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cycling","tag-bicycle","tag-licence","tag-randwick-council"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yewenyi.net\/wp\/old\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4899"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yewenyi.net\/wp\/old\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yewenyi.net\/wp\/old\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yewenyi.net\/wp\/old\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yewenyi.net\/wp\/old\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4899"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/yewenyi.net\/wp\/old\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4899\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yewenyi.net\/wp\/old\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yewenyi.net\/wp\/old\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yewenyi.net\/wp\/old\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}