But for some reason it’s gone rather Greenway mad. Anywhere I want to go anywhere vaguely citywards it will tell me to use the Greenway and Lilyfield-bloody-road and then Anzac bridge.
I presume because Dogwalker Central is a “cycle path” and so bicycles will want to use it. And Lilyfield Road which is lots of single lane each way with parked cars and heaps of uphill is the only way it knows to connect to Rozelle.
I just wanted to h ave some idea how far and how long it might take to take a reasonably direct route to the National Maritime Museum, not go up hill and down dale and fight for road space with dog walkers and runners and rat running cars.
Is there another wayfinding thing? I tried https://cycle.travel/map but it too has fallen for the TfNSW lie that the Greenway is suitable for bicycles.
Ah well, Denison, Crystal, Pyrmont Bridge road it is. At least I know that route exists cos if I didn’t I too might think the only way to get to the CBD is a 3m wide path full of headphone wearing extenda-leash holders.
Greenway is becoming the most used link, so google maps probably believes it is the best link, even if it isn’t. It seems to be a numbers game for the mapping these days. Lilyfield Road is quieter since they cut if off, but that hill, yeah. Bonus, it goes straight through to the Rozelle Parklands, direct to the Anzac Bridge path, then Saunders/Miller/Union run to the Pyrmont bridge/NMM. Could be worse…you could be the delivery rider I watched turn from Robert St, onto Victoria Road, then onto the bridge road deck above Blackwattle Bay…following a map, no doubt.
Running the gauntlet on PB Rd sucks. The off-street path ends either side of the Fish Market as it is marked as dismount and walk, annoyingly (which is arguably 7x worse* than Greenway).
James Craig and the ramp from Somerville is easy. Couple of tight turns but nothing problematic. If you’re on that side and coming through Annandale anyway, might be just as fast to go via Glebe Foreshore Park and Glebe Point Road? Any route is going to land you in a mixed pedestrian zone.
The decision point for me would be cross Parra Rd at Johnstone (rather than at Bridge Rd then up to PB Rd) and as you say Glebe park but then you still have Bridge Rd[1] past the fishmarkets if you don’t want to do Anzac Bridge.
I guess that is a bit less of a pain than Pyrmont Bridge Rd but a bit longer.
As it happens looks like I’ll be taking public transport so I will leave the experiment to another day.
Got a better route on PT from transportnsw.info than I did from Google!
[1] I suppose Bridge Rd Stanmore is a fair distance from Bridge Rd Glebe but it makes talking about this route tricky.
Was looking to go from James Craig Rd to Neutral Bay. OK, cross the Harbour Bridge and then I was expecting to go through North Sydney and cross using the ped/bike bridge near Falcon St.
But no. Google gave me no choice. Cross the bridge, Immediately under the bridge at Milson’s Point station, then hare off to Neutral Harbour around Anderson Park.
Meaning get yourself to sea level then face North and start climbing. 60m of climbing in a bit over 1km. Might be a mild run for some of you but it’s nope from me!
I suppose the issue is that as I remember when I used to work in North Sydney, getting from the Bridge crossing to St Leonard’s Park can involve a bit of footpath cycling to get to the lights at Walker/Blue and so can’t be recommended. (although Google does have a “bicycle lane” marker on that bit of the Pac Hwy. Dunno I’d trust it though)
I might do a bit of exploring on the weekend, see if I can recall the tricks I used to use to get about North Sydney which was not the bicycle friendly then.
I commute from NW Sydney to the CBD and use Lilyfield Road and ANZAC Bridge. It is, unfortunately, the only really direct way to get from that part of town to the city. I go through there pretty early in the day so it’s not so bad really (apart from the hill and the tradies)
As for finding better ways, I use Strava heatmaps. If you’re looking at an area that you already kinda know (ie where the hills are) it can be really handy to see where people are actually riding. I’ve found some really good shortcuts over the years, mostly to avoid traffic in areas where bike lanes don’t exist.
North Sydney to NB you have a couple of routes. One is direct (as you found out, the Broughton/Clarke/Kurraba slog). Then Ben Boyd Road if you want to land near the western end of Neutral Bay, or off to Wycombe if you want to land more near the middle). An unavoidable consequence of the ridge along Military Road.
The other one you mentioned is rather counterintuitive, to go west first. Reverse the commuter route and go along Alfred St, Lavender St, Blues Pt Rd, Miller St, through St Leonards park, then Falcon or Ernest St.
The heatmaps view is a good tip. Might show some difrerent routes that are more common, but unfortunately with North Sydney you gotta do some not-quite-legit footpath riding due to their obstinance about bike traffic.
I don’t have a subscription to Strava so can’t see heatmaps.
Walker St should be named “Walk Up” St! Miller St is better from memory but not all that bike friendly due to parked cars.
I vaguely recall I used to not do Miller, but go up the Pac Hwy a bit then turn down MacLaren to close to the office on Miller but been a long time. And I can’t recall why…
Anyone have any idea how bad the Pac Hwy bit of North Sydney from North Sydney station to MacLaren?
opencyclemap.org seems to imply you get off the Pac Hwy at MacLaren then go North parallel (presumably on. the footpath? Google doens’t mark it as shared) till you get to West St and a shared path then right on Ridge on a shared path and into the park heading for the bridge over the freeway.
I find Google Maps a PITA trying to plan a route with bicycle paths sometimes, if you want to review the route and it comes to where you can turn onto a bicycle way, it just won’t go there!!
I have, over the years, seen too many grossly incorrect Google/ Apple maps results to have any faith in its competence for bicycle route planning.
I am fairly familiar with basically most or all roads/trails within a 200km radius of where I live.
I just look at Strava heatmap and use it to check on my own navigational instincts, sometimes looking at people’s Strava ride reports for additional information - if available.
At the end of the day, local knowledge is very valuable and not always available “online”
Very topical at the moment because magpies are a problem in specific locations, and this information is usually only circulated by word of mouth and Strava ride reports.
