Six out of ten, and thats being generous once you hit the exposed stretch past Beechboro in a westerly. The Reid Highway shared path isnt going to win any beauty contests and I dont think it should. What it does is get you from the Malaga end of the northern corridor through to the coast without touching a single set of shopping strip traffic lights, and for a commuter route thats worth more than any river view.
I rode the full length on the old hybrid last Sunday, solo, because nobody from the bunch fancied a headwind grind alongside six lanes of freight traffic. Fair enough. Its not a ride you do for company, its a ride you do because it works.
What the Reid Highway shared path actually is
The path runs alongside Reid Highway itself, tracking the road reserve from around the Alexander Drive interchange near Malaga through Beechboro, Noranda, Dianella and Balga, before threading down toward the coast near the Hepburn Avenue and West Coast Highway roundabout. It's one of the more useful pieces of the Department of Transport's Long Term Cycle Network plan for the northern corridor, built primarily to shift commuters off Reid Highway itself rather than to give tourists something scenic to photograph.
It doesnt pretend otherwise. There's no lake, no dune backdrop, no espresso van parked at a scenic lookout. It's a strip of bitumen doing a job, and it does that job reasonably well.
Surface and gradient notes
The bitumen is in decent nick along most of the Dianella and Balga sections, resurfaced enough recently that you wont be chasing potholes. Where it gets rough is the older Beechboro stretch, where tree root heave has pushed a few seams up enough to catch a narrow tyre if youre not paying attention. Run something with a bit of volume here. I had 32mm on the hybrid at around 55 psi and that was fine, but if youre on a proper road bike with 25s pumped to 90, you'll feel every joint in the concrete sections near the overpasses.
Gradient-wise it's flat, which is the whole point of a highway-side commuter path. No climbs to speak of. The only elevation change worth mentioning is the underpass dips where the path drops to clear cross streets, and a couple of those get slick gravel wash-in after rain, so watch your line coming out of the dip rather than carrying speed through it blind.
Where it actually connects to
This is the bit that makes the route worth knowing rather than just tolerating. Riding it south-east you pick up a link toward the Mirrabooka Avenue Shared Path, which gets you into the Mirrabooka town centre precinct without dealing with Wanneroo Road traffic. Head the other direction toward the coast and, with a bit of street riding to bridge the gap, you can work your way to the Mullaloo Beach PSP if you fancy finishing somewhere with actual ocean air instead of highway noise.
Further south there's a connection worth knowing about too, over toward the Collier Link PSP, though that's more of a stretch-goal ride than a natural extension of a Reid Highway commute — it's there if youre building a bigger loop on a weekend rather than trying to get to work on time.
If youre trying to work out which of Perth's principal shared paths are actually worth your legs versus which ones just have a good reputation, I'd point you at our rundown on Perth's Principal Shared Path network: which PSP is actually worth riding. Reid Highway doesnt always get top billing in those conversations, which I reckon is a bit unfair given how consistently it moves people.
Traffic, crossings and the pinch points
The path itself is separated from the highway by verge and, in most sections, a decent buffer of landscaping, so you're not breathing exhaust the whole way. The pinch points are the cross-street crossings — Beechboro Road, Camboon Road, Alexander Drive itself — where you're at a signalised crossing waiting on pedestrian phase timing that clearly wasnt designed with a bunch of commuters in mind. Budget extra minutes if youre timing a commute against a start time. It's not a fast corridor once you count the stop-start at every arterial.
Morning versus afternoon riding
Morning westbound, heading toward the coast, you get the sun behind you and generally calmer wind. Afternoon eastbound back toward Malaga is where the sea breeze starts working against you from around 2pm most days through summer, which is standard Perth stuff but worth knowing if you're planning the return leg on tired legs after a work day.
The scenic-loop comparison, and why I dont rate it the way most people do
Here's the bit where I'll get some pushback. Everyone talks up the river loops and the coastal paths as the