Swanston Street bypass?

crazney

I often do the standard beach road ride. Generally along from where Kerferd Rd (Albert Rd) joins it.

However, living in Alphington, it's a good 10km down to there. I normally ride down heidelberg rd -> Pricess st -> Swanston st -> St Kilda rd -> Albert rd -> Beach rd. Which is mostly fine. Except for bloody Swanston st. It's so narrow, full of trams, tram tracks, taxis, trucks, horses, etc etc etc.

Does anyone know of a viable alternate route around the city to get to Beach rd? I could do Hoddle st / Punt rd - but that's almost just as bad.

Thanks

David

nitrous

Slightly different route and may be a bit further but if you're coming down Heidelberg Rd then why not try to head towards the Yarra, through the boulevard, up to St Kilda Rd on the bike trail.Alternatively, try Smith St (athually, I think Exhibition has a bike lane), up to Spring and then down Flinders or through the parkland to St Kilda Rd.

Can't think of any other alternatives. There's always Punt Rd...

crazney

Hey,

I went down to mordialic today, took a little of your advice.

On the way in I went down Exhibition st. It doesn't have a bike line all the way, but it's two lanes and a bit wider. More importantly it has no trams and no tram tracks! Yay. It's a bit nasty at the end where it gets to Flinders st, doing the right hand turn.
I suspect some other streets in the city may carry less traffic, too. As Exhibition st connects to CityStink.

On the way back I took the Yarra trail (well, the road along side of it for what I could). I often do that anyhow, so it wasn't new. But man I hate the surface of that path.

By the way, to get to Exhibition st, I turn off Alexandre Pde / Princess st at the set of pedestrian lights where cars can't turn left, go along that awesome road (no cars, big bike line) till the round-about and take the 2nd turnoff, very easy.

Cheers

David

geekylucas

I don't ride Swanston St that often, but I agree, it's terrible.

Nearly every time I've been there I've ended up in a situation where you have a long line of tour buses on your left, a long line of trams on your right; leaving room for only 1 bike in between. Which is an extremly frustrating when you have a -really- slow cyclist in front of you.

I find it odd that it's not more bike-friendly. I think a lot more people would ride to work if it was.

rek

I live in Ivanhoe, which is close enough to be useful

Swanston St sucks, mainly due to aimless pedestrians, taxis and oh so many trams and nasty tram tracks (not to mention high voltage tram lines that mess up HRMs and wireless computers )

My "100% Tram Free" route is as follows: go citybound down Heidelberg Rd and just after the Merri Creek bridge, turn left and go through the side-streets and eventually make your way down to Johnston St. Then go down Johnston St (city-bound) and turn left into Lygon St, which then turns into Russell St.. from there go east one block (I tend to go straight at the Russell/Flinders St T-intersection, and half-pedal-half-walk down the footpath) to Exhibition St, then go south down the bike-path section of that new bridge onto the north side of the Yarra Trail, cross the Yarra either at the Swan St bridge or the footbridge a few hundred metres down, and follow Alexandra Ave/City Rd all the way down to Station Pier.

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Peter
Cannondale Synapse Carbon Scalpel Cyclocross Ultra