Yes — Sydney can absolutely follow Paris. In just over a decade Paris rebuilt its streets around bikes, and by 2025 bicycles made up 18.9% of peak-hour trips in the city centre while cars fell to just 6.6% (Bicycle Network). Sydney’s bike lanes are decades behind that, but the same playbook — protected lanes plus e-bikes to beat the hills — is exactly what our sprawling, congested city needs.
At Cyberbikes on 281 Parramatta Road, Leichhardt, we watch riders swap gridlock for a 25 km/h glide every day. Paris didn’t get lucky. It made a choice. Here’s what Sydney can copy.
How did Paris flip from cars to bikes?
Paris went from car-clogged to cycling capital by building protected infrastructure faster than almost any city on earth. Since 2014 the city has added around 300 km of new bike lanes — a 35% increase in bike-friendly streets — and turned pandemic-era pop-up “Corona pistes” into permanent, separated cycleways (Bicycle Network).
The results compounded fast. Paris’s bike modal share more than doubled, rising from around 5% of all journeys in 2020 to over 11% in 2025, and the city was named Europe’s Capital of Cycling in 2025 (Fast Company). Its Vélib bike-share now runs roughly 19,000 bikes, 40% of them electric, so anyone can jump on without owning one. The lesson: when you make cycling safe and direct, people ride — in enormous numbers.
Where do Sydney’s bike lanes stand today?
Sydney’s bike lanes are effective but tiny — the City of Sydney has built only about 26 km of separated cycleways, and even that small network has driven cycling trips up 187% since dedicated lanes started rolling out in 2011 (City of Sydney). The council’s own target is for 10% of all trips in the city to be made by bike.
The pieces are starting to connect. The new Sydney GreenWay and related projects are stitching together roughly 70 km of continuous walking and cycling routes that will eventually link 18 suburbs (Bicycle Network). The problem isn’t demand or terrain — it’s that the network is still fragmented. A protected lane that suddenly dumps you into four lanes of Parramatta Road traffic isn’t a network; it’s a dare.
What can Sydney actually learn from Paris?
The single biggest lesson is that connected, protected lanes beat painted lines every time. Paris didn’t ask people to be braver — it made the safe choice the easy one. Here’s how the two cities compare right now:
| Measure | Paris (2025) | City of Sydney |
|---|---|---|
| Bike share of trips | Over 11% citywide; 18.9% in peak hour | Target of 10% (well below today) |
| Separated cycleways | ~300 km added since 2014 | ~26 km built since 2011 |
| Public bike-share | ~19,000 Vélib bikes (40% electric) | No permanent citywide scheme |
Three things Sydney can copy tomorrow: build lanes as a continuous network, not disconnected fragments; reallocate road and parking space rather than squeezing bikes into leftovers; and lean on electric bikes to erase the two excuses locals reach for most — distance and hills. Paris is flat; Sydney is not. That’s where the e-bike changes the maths.
How do e-bikes make Sydney’s hills and sprawl work?
An e-bike turns Sydney’s biggest cycling objections — long distances and steep climbs — into non-issues, because a legal pedal-assist motor flattens the ride. Under NSW law an e-bike is treated like a normal bicycle when the motor is a 250W continuous pedal-assist unit that cuts out at 25 km/h — no licence, no registration, no rego (Transport for NSW). That’s the same legal standard Paris riders enjoy, and it’s what makes a 12 km commute from the Inner West feel effortless.
Our Cyberbikes Centauro is built exactly for this kind of city. It pairs a 250W rear hub motor with a 48V 25Ah Samsung battery, full suspension for Sydney’s patchy roads, hydraulic brakes and a welded rear rack for cargo — and it’s certified to UL 2849, UL 2271, ISO 4210 and EN 15194 (verified today on the product page). Priced at $3,999.99, it’s also available in Sydney on rent-to-own, so you can go car-lighter without a big upfront hit. If you want the full playbook on ditching the car, read our complete guide to car-free e-bike commuting in Sydney, or see how the numbers stack up in e-bike vs car commuting.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can Sydney become a cycling city like Paris?
Yes. Paris more than doubled its bike share in five years by building protected, connected cycleways. Sydney has proven the same effect at small scale — cycling trips rose 187% after separated lanes appeared — so the model works here; it just needs to be scaled and connected across more suburbs.
Are e-bikes legal in NSW without a licence?
Yes. A pedal-assist e-bike with a 250W continuous motor that cuts assistance at 25 km/h is legally a bicycle in NSW, so it needs no licence, registration or insurance. You can ride it anywhere a normal bike is allowed, including cycleways and shared paths.
Why are e-bikes better than regular bikes for hilly Sydney?
The motor flattens hills and stretches your range, so distance and terrain — the two reasons most Sydneysiders give for not cycling — stop being barriers. That makes an e-bike far more likely to replace real car trips across a spread-out, hilly city than an unassisted bike.
Sydney doesn’t need to be Paris. It needs to make the same choice: give bikes real, connected space and let electric assist do the rest. Swap one car trip a week for an e-bike ride and see what changes — then come talk hills, cargo and rent-to-own with us at Cyberbikes, 281 Parramatta Road, Leichhardt.
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