DEPENDING on your perspective the “rat run” through Applecross that avoids Canning Highway congestion is either a godsend or a curse.

Melville city council is in the second camp, and is moving to put an end to it.

It recently presented two options to the local community to divert traffic back to the highway.

The council hopes the measures will bring relief to residents along McCrae, Matheson, Dunkley and Kintail Roads.

Gabrielle Kerr-Sheppard, who has lived on McCrae St for 27 years, is fed up with the growing amount of traffic through the pretty suburb every peak hour.

“In five minutes I counted 82 cars,” she told the Herald.

Local ward councillor Nick Pazolli isn’t convinced speed bumps and cul-de-sacs are the answer, saying they shift the problem, not solve it.

“People are just going to use other streets,” he says. “Obviously, rat runs are a consequence of increased traffic congestion.”

Saying a “five-to-ten per cent reduction” in commuters will improve things he’d like to see a focus on getting people walking, cycling, scootering and using public transport.

Over the past five years, 14 cyclists have been hit by cars along McCrae Rd.

“The more you utilise your street the more people respect your street,” Cr Pazolli says.

The council is likely to vote on the diversion recommendations at its meeting next month.

by ROSIE HENDERSON