Cyclists cause traffic havoc in Sydney

THEY have Australia's most expensive bike network, but bike protesters chose to ride on roads causing peak-hour chaos last night.

It forced the state government to allow bus passengers to use their tickets to catch trains to get workers out of the city during the protest.

While motorists were forced to delay travel and avoid roads along the protest route on Sydney's busiest CBD streets, less than a quarter of the expected 300 cyclists bothered to turn up.

The ride - which organisers described as a "good-humoured" event to get cycling and transport issues on the agenda - sparked a backlash on social networking sites as cyclists begged protest group Critical Mass not to go ahead with the plan. Premier Barry O'Farrell said: "If these people think that disrupting Friday afternoon peak-hour traffic on a wet day is going to get support for their cause, they've got rocks in their heads."

Critical Mass urged riders to be polite to cars and pedestrians. "Participants don't block traffic - we are the traffic. Cyclists have a legal right to be on the roads," the group said on its website.