Grade: S-X
Distance: 13.5 km, one way
Road Conditions: Mainly cycle paths
Route: From Family Court building, University Ave/Childers St, City; via Sullivan's Creek bike path, Bruce Ridge, the AIS, Lake Ginninderra to end at the Belconnen Town Centre, Belconnen.
Map: Location Map (Ride No 4) and detailed Map 2, 3, and 5 of ride
Starting Point: Family Court building, University Ave/Childers St, City
Description: For the first 8 km of this commuter route follow the same directions as for Commuter Ride 3 until you reach Alberga St., Kaleen, immediately after cycling through the Ginninderra Dr. tunnel. Turn left here to follow the cycleway down to the intersection of Ginninderra, Baldwin and Haydon Drives. Traffic lights enable the crossing to be made in reasonable safety and after this cycle on downhill parallel with Ginninderra Dr. passing the intersection with Allawoona St giving access to the University of Canberra.
Another major road, Aikman Dr., is passed on the left and soon afterwards, 10 km out from City, the cycleway veers to the right to sweep left under Ginninderra Drive Bridge and run along the shores of Lake Ginninderra. Just before you reach a bridge over a section of the lake, notice a path leading off to the left. This takes riders into the University of Canberra, after about 1 km.
The path heads right over the bridge and then left to move up to Emu Bank road before passing the Benjamin Way intersection down from the Westfield Shopping Town at the Belconnen Town Centre. Near here the cycleway turns right, crosses a lake access road and reaches a point where it divides--the left fork takes you up to the junction with the Florey cycleway at the intersection of Lathlain and Luxton St. If you cycle down the Lathlain St footpath for about 0.5 km you will find yourself in the middle of the Belconnen Town Centre.
Should you continue past the left fork where the path divides you would be heading towards Belconnen North or around Lake Ginninderra (see Commuter Ride 7 and Lake Ginninderra Ride). It is worth noting also that if you continued across Ginninderra Drive Bridge instead of moving right to cycle under it, then you would reach the Mckellar bike path turnoff after about 0.7 km (see Commuter Ride 6).
Pedal Power is grateful to Graeme Barrow for agreeing to allow this material and
maps to be reproduced here from his book "Riding Canberra's Bike Paths: A
commuter/tourist cycling guide". Other titles by Graeme Barrow include:
