It's no surprise. When I was first elected lord mayor of Sydney, it was the financial services sector and big end of town that lobbied me to build a network of safe separated cycleways. Around 70 per cent of bike riders in the city centre are in the top two income brackets, and they are most likely to be employed as managers or professionals. Business people tell us attracting talent is a huge challenge and top priority – and to attract talent, Sydney has to be seen as somewhere the top talent want to live as well as work. Being an easy city to get around on a bike is now a key metric. Sydney would top city rankings for liveability – except transport consistently drags us down. The gridlock costs greater Sydney $5 billion a year in lost revenue and productivity, and without action, that's projected to nearly double by the end of the decade. Global cities such as London, Paris and New York City have experienced similar urban development patterns, and they're competing in the same global marketplace to attract and retain the best talent. They're not investing in roads, they're putting their money into public transport, and importantly investing in bicycle networks and public bike share schemes.

The other thing we're hearing from business is that they want options to keep their people moving – both to and from work, and during the work day. A good bike network is one of them. When more than 120 CEOs, including the top executives from Microsoft, Unilever, Deloitte, Coca-Cola and the Financial Times, publicly backed plans to build protected cycling routes in London, the message was clear – city governments need to give workers safe and attractive transport alternatives. Last year more than 4000 Sydney employees of businesses like Qantas, Hilton, Commonwealth Bank and Apple took part in our Sydney Rides Challenge, making it the biggest in the world. They logged over 600,000 kilometres on their bikes, built morale, got fitter, rediscovered hidden corners of our city, and explored our expanding network of bike routes and cycleways. Thousands of Sydneysiders are planning to get on their bikes again for the 2017 Challenge in March. Of course not everyone can (or wants to) ride. But there isn't enough space in our city for everyone to drive either – and the thing is, the more people riding, the more space there is on roads for people who need to drive.

We're focused on building a network of bike routes. You can now cycle across the Harbour Bridge, through the city to Central Station and as far as Green Square on traffic-free paths. Around 30 busloads of people ride their bikes across the Harbour Bridge every day. And across greater Sydney almost 400,000 daily trips are made by bicycle – more trips than on the harbour ferry network. For the increasing numbers of residents moving to the inner city – to places like Green Square – and for the thousands of people working in our busy city every day who need a simple solution for travelling short distances, the bike makes sense. Join them in the 2017 Sydney Rides Challenge and find out for yourself – it's fast, free, and you're always guaranteed a seat. Clover Moore is lord mayor of Sydney.