The NRMA favours no side, whether they cycle to work from their inner-city enclave or are forced to endure hours in cars on our manifestly inadequate motorways. Our members are in both camps. The fact is, Sydney – a city where the population will exceed 5 million during the next decade – has neither a functional motorway network, nor an adequate public transport system. Why should achieving the one preclude the other? In what respect are they mutually exclusive? A key feature of a working transport system is a unified and connected motorway system that can move people and goods efficiently, just as a connected and extended public transport system is crucial to increasing the state's productivity. Opponents of WestConnex insist the completion of this vital artery will come at the cost of rail, both light and heavy, and all manner of amenity besides. Yet, the very report commissioned by the City of Sydney presents positive outcomes for King Street Newtown and Petersham, sites of recent protests by opponents of the motorway. It is unfortunate this has not been reported, as opposed to the Lord Mayor's highly dubious contention that WestConnex will force a multitude of toll-dodgers on to Parramatta Road, only a few kilometres of which run in her domain. In any case, this is a contingency contradicted by the traffic daily choking the M4 and M5.

WestConnex is supported by the NRMA, not least because it will divert traffic off Parramatta Road into a tunnel bypassing 52 sets of traffic lights, finally allowing for the urban renewal of this beaten and much-abused strip that was the infant colony's first interurban route. Parramatta Road is consistently voted among the top few worst roads in Sydney in our annual Seeing Red on Roads survey of more than 30,000 NRMA members. Without WestConnex, it will deteriorate still further. With WestConnex, commuters get significant time savings and residents reap the social benefits. Yet, in no way does our ardent support of WestConnex diminish the NRMA's advocacy for public transport. NRMA is not merely for vehicle owners. Why would we be, when 50 per cent of our members use public transport? The fact is, Sydney has neither a functional motorway, nor an adequate public transport system. We welcome the commitment to the North West rail link and are pushing for the second harbour rail crossing, the eastern suburbs and CBD light rail project and the Olympic Park to Parramatta Western Sydney light rail proposal.

The NRMA has pioneered the first wide-scale survey of public transport with its Seeing Red on Rail, in which more than 20,000 members voted on the stations and services most in need of improvement. Since receiving the results, with recommendations including more facilities for cyclists to secure their bikes at rail stations, the NSW government has committed to undertakings including 180 more parking spaces at Ashfield Station. Our cycling strategy aims to keep riders safe, recognising the importance of bicycles in our daily travel and infrastructure mix. Most of all, it aims to fill in the vast gaps in the cycle track network to make commuting feasible for more people and safely separated from vehicles. But transport systems aren't simply about commuters. Goods need to be transported to market; they cannot be emailed. The national freight task will double by 2020 and while the NRMA wants to see more transported by rail, Sydney's growing population means also enhancing the road routes for freight transport as well. Suffice that a truck stuck on Parramatta Road emits far more carbon monoxide than one achieving the speed limit in a tunnel. It is obvious to the NRMA that Sydney will descend into permanent peak hour – indeed, on Saturdays, it pretty much has – unless all aspects of the transport equation are addressed. Equally, we expect transparency from the WestConnex Delivery Authority. It needs to actively consult the community and find means to diminish the impact of construction.

In this and all aspects of the process, business and the community need to be together. Members of the public are not users, but customers, of the tollway and are entitled to all the respect that entails. While the necessity of WestConnex is an unpalatable truth to some, a necessity it nonetheless is. If you can see past the cheap slogans and selective misinformation of the past weeks, you will see that not only do these serve neither side, but that there is, in reality, only side and that is the completed WestConnex will serve all. Kyle Loades​ is president of the NRMA.