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Flinders St

The city, with the shortcuts left in.

We’re building a walking map of Melbourne’s CBD that knows which arcades and lanes cut through the blocks, and when they’re open.

Free pilot in the CBD this summer. We’ll only email you about the pilot. Privacy note

Map of Melbourne's CBD: buildings in bluestone, the arcades through them in gold.

Degraves St

Ordinary maps send you round the block.

Tell A2B where you’re going and it will find the way through the blocks: arcades, lanes and building passages, checked against their hours for the minute you’ll reach each door.

Map apps either don’t know these passages go through, or don’t know when they lock, so they keep you on the streets. This walk turns off Flinders St into Degraves St and only meets traffic again to cross Collins St and Little Collins St.

Block Arcade

Through the arcades, most of the walk is under a roof.

A shortcut saves a minute or so on a 5 to 10 minute walk. The bigger difference is the roof. On three of our prototype’s four demo trips, the way through kept 65 to 84% of the walk under cover, against 0 to 29% by the streets.

Degraves St to Bourke St Mall

Through Centreway Arcade, Collins Arcade and Melbourne Walk. Saves 1.6 minutes.

By the streets 498 m 0% covered
Through 371 m 65% covered

Bourke St Mall to Melbourne Central

Through David Jones, the Emporium and Melbourne Central. Saves 1.6 minutes.

By the streets 617 m 29% covered
Through 484 m 84% covered

Block Arcade to Melbourne Central

Through Block Arcade, Royal Arcade, Myer, the Emporium and Melbourne Central. Saves 1 minute.

By the streets 811 m 10% covered
Through 729 m 81% covered

Flinders St Station to Royal Arcade

The quickest way saves only 0.6 minutes. Asking for the driest way adds 15 m and doubles the time under cover.

By the streets 623 m 1% covered
Through 571 m 30% covered
Driest 586 m 61% covered

Each strip is a walk drawn to the same scale, starting on the left. Gold is under a roof. Worked out by our routing prototype from OpenStreetMap data for a Tuesday at 12:30 pm. It counts distance only, not waits at the lights, and none of it has been checked on foot yet.

Royal Arcade

The shortcut shuts at night.

On a Tuesday, all four passages on the classic walk from Degraves St to Bourke St Mall are open at noon. The arcades lock at about 6 pm, and by 11 pm the only one left is Centre Place, which is an open lane. So at 11 pm A2B will take you by the streets.

It will check each door for the time you’ll reach it, not the time you set off.

Centre PlaceOpen lane, all day

Centreway8 am to 6 pm, indicative

Block Arcade8 am to 6 pm, posted

Royal Arcade8 am to 6 pm, indicative

Tuesday hours, midnight to midnight. Gold is open. Block Arcade’s hours are posted at its doors; the others are indicative until we check them on foot.

The hard part is finding the door.

GPS drifts between tall buildings and gives up under a roof, so the app shows you what to look for instead. These are design mockups for the pilot; the times and hours in them are examples.

Walking screen: a card says in 60 metres enter Block Arcade, by the mosaic-floor entrance, with a photo of the door. The route ahead runs through two arcades.
Before each passage, a card says which door to look for: here, the mosaic-floor entrance to Block Arcade, 60 m ahead.
Inside Block Arcade: a plan of the corridor with the shops on each side, the exit marked, and a card saying exit onto Little Collins St, turn right.
Inside, the map turns into a plan of the arcade with the exit you want, so you’re not following a dot that has lost you.
Rerouted: Block Arcade shuts at 6 pm, before you would arrive, so the route goes through Howey Place and Melbourne Walk instead.
If an arcade will be shut by the time you reach it, the route changes before you get there.

Bourke St Mall

Walk it first, this summer.

The pilot is free and starts in the CBD. Leave your email and we’ll tell you when it’s ready to try.

We’ll only email you about the pilot. Privacy note

Take the 2-minute survey

Four short steps on how you walk the CBD. Your answers decide what we build first and which streets we map first.

Take the survey

Send us a shortcut

Tell us the way through you’d never give up, and we’ll go and check it on foot.

Email us a shortcut

Questions

Can I download it?
Not yet. We’re building a pilot for the CBD, starting this summer. Join the waitlist and we’ll email you when it’s ready to try.
Is it free?
The pilot is free. After that we haven’t decided: it might stay free or cost a small amount a year. The survey asks what you’d think is fair.
How do you know the hours?
Open map data lists 404 possible indoor links in the CBD, but hours for only a handful. So we check them on foot: the signs on the doors, plus visits early, at closing time and at night. Hours we haven’t confirmed are marked indicative, and when we’re unsure we send you by the streets.
Is it OK to walk through these places?
We only route through places that are open to the public, and only during their hours. They’re still private property, so keep moving, mind the shops and follow staff and signs. If a place asks people not to cut through, we’ll take it off the map.
Which cities?
Melbourne’s CBD first, between Flinders St and La Trobe St. Other cities only if it works here.
iPhone or Android?
Not decided yet. The survey asks which phone you use, and the answers decide which we build first.
What happens to my email?
We use it to tell you when the pilot opens and to invite you to test it. Only the two of us can see it, and it’s never sold or shared. Email hello@atwob.app and we’ll delete it. More in the privacy note.