An academic says that Sydney, a city known for its aggressive surfers, is one of the developed world's most hostile cities for bicyclists.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported on Friday that the Australian city did not invent "aggro," but to Rutgers University Professor John Pucher, who spent a sabbatical year in Sydney, it's downright hazardous there.

He said,' 'Whether I was a pedestrian or cyclist I found the level of the hostility of enough Sydney motorists worse than I had seen anywhere in the world."

Pucher and two Australian colleagues will have a paper published in the Journal of Transport Geography showing Sydney falling behind much of the developed world in cycling friendliness.

The Herald further said that when comparing bicycling in Sydney with Melbourne, the researchers found twice as many trips were made by bicycle in Melbourne than Sydney with the rate of trips in Melbourne growing at three times that of Sydney.

Pucher said of his efforts to ride to Sydney University from his Stanmore home,'' I did not cycle that often because I almost got killed several times, people cutting me off, squeezing me off the road and not stopping.'' (With Inputs from Agencies)