What's the point of a shorter route if you're stopped by traffic lights every 2 minutes?
A.C.A.M. is an attempt to establish a grassroots movement to layout alternative cycleroutes that are most definitely not fed down car-infested main drags. The idea is to find (and post along) alternative routes that have infrastructure but fewer or no traffic lights.
These routes may be slightly longer, but they will be quieter, sometimes lower speed residential streets, rather than the horror plazas of St Georges or St Kilda Roads, to list just 2 examples of apparently "good" infrastructure that are truly awful, stinky and noisy because of the "rat rods" and "monster trucks" predating on cyclists and pedestrians in the wild.
The aim of this website will be to provide route information, along with advocacy and infrastructure tools to make these alternative cycling routes more widely known and used.
An extra kilometre or two of backstreets and roundabouts is always going to be quicker!
There are little or no health benefits to cycling a noisy polluted street!
When motorists take backstreets, we call it "rat-running," and it's an objectional practice, but for cyclists to do this is safer and often faster than roads designed for cars. Broadway, through Elwood, has great cycle lanes and no traffic lights. It's an easy connection from suburbs further south via Elster Creek Trail and it has zero traffic lights from the Gardenvale shopping precinct to St Kilda. From St Kilda, the route to the CBD is via the Fitzroy St protected bike lane, through Albert Park and a host of choices to reach the city from Clarendon or Dorcas Streets. It's 1 kilometre longer than St Kilda Road to the Arts Precinct, from the Gardenvale shops, and has less than one third of the traffic lights.
The cleaner, healthier air is off the "main drag." Back streets and parklands recharge the soul!
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