Safer passage: Cyclists ride along the bike lane on College Street. Credit:Peter Rae But Fairfax Media can reveal that research by his own department shows the government is well aware of measures that can help protect cyclists. Confidential analysis prepared by Transport for NSW shows separated bike lanes installed in central Sydney have doubled the number of cyclists on the road but led to fewer total injuries among them. The documents also show that the separated bike lanes in central Sydney regularly carry as many people as in cars on adjacent traffic lanes. Using freedom of information laws, Fairfax Media obtained the "technical analysis" supporting the City Centre Access Strategy released last year by the former O'Farrell government.

The documents demonstrate the benefits of the bike lanes installed by the City of Sydney Council in 2010 and 2011. "Detailed analysis of injury data shows … the number of reported injuries has been halved on the sections of road where separated cycleways have been constructed," the analysis says. Nevertheless, the Coalition government stopped the construction of more bike lanes until this year. It has now committed to a major expansion of bike lanes in central Sydney, but faces a race against time to build some before construction starts on a light rail line next year. Arthur, 47, knows the importance of good relations between cyclists and motorists.

Until last week, she would cycle most days from her home in the inner west to her job in North Sydney and “would probably give 10 or 15 smiles and waves in that 15-kilometre journey". Partly she smiled because she loved what she was doing. "Cycling makes me so happy." But partly it was because Arthur believes cyclists and motorists would both have a better time if they were simply more considerate and gracious. "Every time I get on my bike and ride to work, I’m not in a car,'' she says. "So If I am slowing you down a little, I am also helping because I’m not another car on the road. ''Let’s work together. Cyclists, can you please follow the road rules? Drivers, can you please treat us as human beings?"

According to the government’s documents, the City of Sydney’s bike lanes have been a rare success. The Kent Street cycleway moves 34 per cent of the people using that road in the morning peak, but takes up 25 per cent of the road space. The College Street cycleway, which the government proposes to rip up, moves 20 per cent of the people on 20 per cent of the road space. Mr Gay has in the past described himself as "the biggest bike lane sceptic in the government". He has also claimed he has been told by departmental officials that the central Sydney bike lanes were in the wrong spot. But the documents says that Roads and Maritime Services has studied the bike lanes and concluded they had "no significant impact" on the overall operation of traffic in the city centre.

The trigger for Mr Gay’s comments on Friday that he was considering a licence system for NSW cyclists, was the death of a male bike rider on Thursday afternoon in Neutral Bay. "If we're going to put rules in place, and I need to be tougher on car drivers, but I am increasingly persuaded that we need to look at a licence for cyclists," the minister said. But the idea has been rejected by the NSW Labor opposition, the Greens and cycling advocates. David Borella, the head of advocacy group BIKESydney, said leadership from the state was critical. "People are dying and being critically injured here," he said.

Seven cyclists have died this year on NSW roads, compared with an average of 4.3 people for the same period between 2011 and last year. A Transport for NSW spokesman said the department "supports separated infrastructure, but covering every road in the state is not feasible, so we need to continue our work to improve understanding between motorists and cyclists, so they look out for one another". The department said it would prepare a report for Mr Gay on licensing cyclists.