Perth

I took a trip to Perth the other week. The number of meetings I had meant there was little time to see daylight. Most people when visiting a new city will try and find time to see some attractions. Not me - I go looking for bike paths and trains. Perth has a couple of both.

While wandering around the CBD, I came across this cycle path:

It's quite similar to the short-lived Sturt Street bike path in that it's too narrow and ends abruptly. Unlike the Sturt Street one though, it has gently sloping sides so you could potentially overtake if you wanted to. Walking further I came across a similar path:

This one went around a square and even gave the appearance of taking priority over side streets:

and off-street car parks:

It went under this beautiful fig tree:

before coming to an abrupt halt like the other one:

Close to Perth station was this two-way path that I later found out was known as the Perth Veloway. It follows the route of the railway line. This part is off road and has proper treatments where pedestrians cross:

A bit of effort can be seen in the paving:

Later on, the Veloway just becomes painted lines on the footpath but it is not a busy footpath and so serves its purpose. Bikes have to share road crossing points with pedestrians though. Still, it's not bad.

By my observations, there seemed to be a similar number of people riding bikes as you see in Adelaide. As with the Eastern States, I saw a fair bit of helmet choice going on that you don't see here. Maybe we're the only ones.

The low numbers though were I think a reflection of the quality of the infrastructure - which is what you find the world over. There are a couple of bits of decent stuff but until it's properly joined up, your numbers are always going to be limited.

Great city though. Fabulous skyline.