How I plan my routes
- Tom Watson
- Route planning
- October 22, 2025
Route planning is probably the biggest challenge for someone new to riding in the Inner West. When you’re accustomed to getting to most places in a car your whole internal map of the city is focused on places that are pretty miserable for people on bikes.
The dedicated bike infrastructure in the Inner West, while improving, is still pretty sub-par and poorly connected.
The fear of getting stranded and finding yourself out of your comfort zone or feeling unsafe is a pretty high barrier to a lot of people who might be keen on riding.
Fortunately for those in the Inner West, we have a pretty dense network of quiet local roads that make getting around by bike not so bad. It takes a bit of learning to re-configure your internal atlas, but I find I can get to plenty of places I need to get to on bike all on routes that are safe and pleasant.
How I navigate
I’m a cautious rider, especially when I’ve got my kid on board. You won’t find me cycling along a busy road and the only time I come near them is to cross at intersection.
My golden rule for planning a route is to think “how would I drive there” and then completely avoid all those roads.
Instead, I’ve got my own bike friendly version of the road network in my head
- Arterial routes that I know are good over a long distance and
- Collector routes that get me to an arterial