Bicycle paths in Manly.

I have reported before that Manly is more bicycle-friendly than many other places in Sydney. Here are some of the best routes I know:

• Along the beach front from Shelley Beach to Queenscliff is car-free cycle territory. Some mums mistake the bike path for a pram path but it is car-free. The Norfolk pines shade the path nicely.
• At the Queenscliff end continue under the road into Lagoon Park. This path is shared with pedestrians. The lagoon has been well planted with appropriate native plants for the remnant waterway.
• A dedicated bike path follows Kenneth Road alongside a golf course which has beautiful trees, including riberries, but horrendous machines cutting grass most of the time. This leads to Balgowlah and Seaforth where there are some bike paths too.
• Pine Street in Manly, near North Steyne SLSC, now has a marked cycle path on the road, i.e. shared with cars. It leads from the beach into a traffic-quietened part of Manly where cycling is pretty safe. I use Pacific Parade and Smith Street quite a lot. The 'official' marked bike path goes down Collingwood Street but the corrugations make it uncomfortable. Pacific Parade leads into Balgowlah Road which has a 40km speed limit (not much enforced I think) and a little-used footpath where a bike rarely meets a pedestrian.
• If you like hills, the hillside between Balgowlah Road and the Fairlight shops is now officially bicycle-friendly in some places with traffic quietening, and bikes have right of way in Crescent St and possibly elsewhere. Daintrey St and Francis St, Arthur St and Herbert St now have traffic quietening obstacles making the whole area safely usable for bikes (but hilly).

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