It has come to light that the NSW transport minister was racking up road kilometres on the public purse for her own private enjoyment.

While Jo Haylen, from the “left” of NSW Labor, was forced to resign from the ministry for behaviour that didn’t pass the pub test, her legacy as boss of Transport for NSW (TfNSW) also deserves to be scrutinised.

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Haylen’s term is marked by the number of active transport projects in the inner west that her department has canned or scaled back.

NSW currently spends just 0.2% of its transport budget on active travel, 100 times below the recommended by the United Nations.

Recent progress has been little better than during the days of the Coalition governments of Barry O’Farrell, Mike Baird and Gladys Berejiklian. Back then, roads minister Duncan Gay was notorious for his hatred of bike lanes and had the College Street cycleway in the CBD ripped up, at great expense.

After many ministerial reshuffles towards the end of the Coalition’s 12-year reign, Rob Stokes was appointed Minister for Active Transport — a first — and he started to reverse some of the previous damage.

Prior to the 2023 NSW election, the College Street cycleway was reinstated.

When Labor won office in March........

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