Three out of five stars for the network overall, and thats being generous to a few sections that havent seen a resurfacing crew in a while. That's the blunt version. The longer version is that Perth's Principal Shared Path network is one of the better pieces of transport infrastructure in the country, but it's uneven enough that recommending it as one thing is a bit lazy. Some PSPs are flat out the pick for a Sunday ride. Others exist purely so someone in Armadale can get to a train station without dying on Albany Highway. Both are useful. They are not the same experience.
What a Principal Shared Path actually is
For anyone new to Perth and wondering why half the cycling maps have thick green lines running alongside freeways, the Principal Shared Path network is the state's backbone of separated, sealed, shared-use paths built mostly alongside major roads and rail corridors. They're wider than your standard footpath, generally 2.5 to 3 metres, and built to carry commuters, joggers and recreational riders without everyone fighting for the same 40 centimetres of concrete. Main Roads WA built most of it over the last three decades, piggybacking on freeway and rail duplication projects, which is why the best sections tend to run next to the Kwinana Freeway, the Mitchell Freeway and the various rail lines radiating out from the city.
The thing to understand is that a PSP is not automatically scenic. It's infrastructure first. Some happen to run along the coast and look terrific. Others run next to six lanes of traffic and smell like brake dust. Knowing which is which saves you a wasted Saturday morning.
Scarborough Beach PSP — the one everyone's heard of
The Scarborough Beach PSP gets talked up as Perth's answer to a proper coastal ride, and on a still morning before nine, it mostly delivers. Flat, wide, sealed the whole way, with the ocean doing its job on your left the entire time. I rode it solo a few weekends back on the gravel bike, though there's genuinely no need for anything more than a hybrid or a road bike with 28mm tyres here. Pressure around 60-70 psi is plenty; you're not hitting anything rougher than the odd bit of sand blown across the path near the dunes.
Here's my mildly contrarian bit: I reckon Scarborough's reputation runs slightly ahead of the actual riding experience once you factor in foot traffic. By midday on a warm Sunday it's dog walkers, prams, e-scooters and tourists four abreast, and you're doing more braking than riding. It's a good path. It's not the meditative coastal cruise the brochures suggest unless you're out early. Go before 8am or don't bother on a weekend.
Whitfords Beach PSP — quieter, less fussed-over, still solid
Head further north and the Whitfords Beach PSP gets a fraction of the attention Scarborough does, which is honestly the best thing about it. Same coastal formula, similar surface quality, noticeably fewer people. The path surface has a few patchier sections where tree roots have pushed up through the seal, nothing dramatic, but worth backing off the pressure slightly if you're running skinnier road tyres, because a sharp lip at speed isn't fun on 100+ psi. Drop to the low 80s and you'll barely notice the joins.
It's not going to win any awards for drama. There's no big landmark to build a ride around. But if you want the Perth coastal-PSP experience without dodging a hundred families on scooters, this is where I send people who've already done Scarborough and are slightly over it.
Armadale Railway – Roe Highway PSP — the unglamorous one that actually works
This is where my opinion gets a bit less popular. The Armadale Railway - Roe Highway PSP isn't scenic. It runs next to a rail corridor and then along Roe Highway, and nobody is putting it on a postcard. But as a piece of cycling infrastructure it's arguably more useful than either of the beach paths, because it actually gets people somewhere — station to station, suburb to suburb, without a single traffic light interruption for long stretches.
I've ridden it a few times now on the old hybrid, mostly on weekday mornings testing commute times for other stories, and the surface holds up better under consistent use than you'd expect for something built along a freight and passenger rail line. Sight lines are good, the gradient's basically nonexistent, and because it's not a destination path, you don't get the weekend pedestrian pile-up that ruins Scarborough after breakfast. If I had to pick one PSP to actually rely on rather than enjoy, this is it. Unglamorous beats crowded, in my book, every time.
Surface, gearing and the tyre pressure question everyone asks
People email asking what bike to bring for the network generally, and the honest answer is: anything reasonable. You don't need mountain bike gearing for any of the sections above — they're flat, sealed, and forgiving. A gravel bike with 32-35mm tyres run around 50-55 psi handles every surface transition without complaint, including the odd bit of gravel patchwork where a path meets a service road. A road bike works fine too, provided you're prepared to walk the occasional rough joint rather than hit it at 30km/h and regret it.
Where the network does get genuinely technical is at the fringes, where PSP sections haven't been finished and riders get dumped onto verge or footpath for a few hundred metres. That's less a bike problem and more a route-planning problem. Check your section before you commit, particularly anything under construction near new rail extensions.
How the PSP network fits into the bigger picture
None of this happens in isolation. The state's broader cycling advocacy work, done largely through WestCycle, has pushed hard for the PSP network to actually connect rather than exist as disconnected commuter fragments, and you can see the improvement over the last several years in how many gaps have been closed. It's still not perfect — there are missing links that make you detour onto suburban streets you'd rather avoid — but the direction is right.
If you want to see what a genuinely long-distance, off-road cycling network looks like once it leaves the city entirely, it's worth comparing the PSP system to something like the Munda Biddi Trail Foundation's trail running down through the south-west forests. Different beast entirely, mostly unsealed and built for a totally different kind of riding, but it's a useful reminder that Perth's PSPs are a metro commuter and recreation network first, not a wilderness trail system pretending otherwise.
So which one do you actually ride
If it's a Sunday and you want scenery, go Whitfords over Scarborough unless you're leaving stupidly early. If you're testing your commute or just want kilometres without fuss, Armadale Railway – Roe Highway does the job better than anything with a beach attached. And if you're new to the network altogether, don't assume every green line on the map is worth a special trip. Some of them are just very well-built ways of getting to work.