For Beat the Bus no 5, Nick Carreiro from the Sydney Commuters FaceBook group said
“I generally do Alexandria to the Darling Quarter in 15-20min by bike and it takes 30min+ for train or bus in peak hour.”
Back to me, I needed an easy ride after a few weeks of feeling poorly, this was a perfect choice. Looking at the maps I realised that the trail would go near the Australian Technology Park which I had never gone to. I decided to try that first before heading down the usual paths that I go through Redfern and Chippendale. I am so glad I did. The tech park is so good, I would love to cruise thru that area every day. Then there are other great treats on this ride like Chippendale Green and The Goods Line and then there is Darling Harbour. This could be Sydney’s best short commute. Ok there is a few metres of Redfern station to negotiate and a busy road to ride alongside but that’s not much of a penalty. If you live in Erskineville or Alexandria and work on the Darling Harbour side of the city, give this track a go. Its now my favourite way to get to the city from Sydney Park.
I headed to Erskineville Oval as my starting point, it seemed quite central to Alexandria. I didn’t look at my maps at all and easily rode through the technology park, snapping away. On the way back, I went straight through Chippendale Green and retraced my ride and did the whole trail in 17 minutes on a perfect Sunday morning. I cannot see it taking much more than 20 minutes any day. I have reviewed the bus time tables from Alexandria and a good time is well over 25 minutes on a Sunday, peak hour Monday morning is worse according to Google directions.
Find Strava Here and RideWithGPS here
Summary – ALEXANDRIA TO DARLING HARBOUR PRECINCT 18 mins by bike at 16km per hour saves 7 to 12 minutes – Well done Nick
Safety Note: Take it really easy around Redfern station, lots of cars and people.
Overview: I am writing a series of articles called Beat the Bus in Sydney. The purpose of these articles is to come up with popular ride where you can easily beat public transport whilst not riding too fast. To qualify, a ride needs to be going to a place with a decent sized working population, the roads need to be shared path or at least a decent enough well marked council road. Average speed must be under 20km per hour. And the whole journey needs to be under 45 minutes.
Anyone can do this in any city, just study your maps, do a few practice rides on Sunday morning, get fit and ride some or all the way to work if you can find decent enough roads. If you can’t find a way, can you ride to a station or take your bike part of the way in a car. Give it a go.
Beat the Bus 3 for Glebe to Martin Place and The Goods Line
Find this trail and others in the area on The Sydney BikeTrail Map >>