Commuting - Fort Worth, Texas commuting route?

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gandalf23
06-08-06, 04:05 PM
Howdy,

I'm on the southside of Fort Worth, trying to bike to work on the west side of downtown.

I live near Sycamore School and I35 (near the new Mrs. Baird's Bread bakery) and work near 7th and University (nearish the old Mrs. Baird's :) ).

It's 15 miles door to door if I go up 35 to 30 then University. But I can't ride that way, nor would I want to.

I can't figure out how I'd commute by bike.

I could go north on Hemphill, or McCart/Forest Park, from Alta Mesa, but both of those streets look pretty crowded with cars during rush hour.

As far as I know there is no bike path available going north to downtown.

If I can get to Berry Street I can cut over through the zoo and onto the bike path there, take it up to 7th and then I'm almost to work, I just can't figure out how to get to the zoo from my house.

Anyone know of a good way to get to downtown from the southside?

It'll probably be a few weeks before I actually commute, assuming I can find a safe route. Been a few years since I last rode my bike, so I'm getting back into the swing of things gentley. Riding in the evenings, brought a beater bike in to work to ride to and from lunch, riding on the weekends, stuff like that.

Thanks!


-Mike

jabowker
06-09-06, 12:09 PM
It sounds like you are going about it reasonably. I don't know that part of town well so my best suggestion is to look at a map and begin working out a route in the direction you want to go. Then use your training/exercise rides to check it out in bits. That's how I worked out my route from the far northeast side to White Settlement (~26 miles one way and working around a number of obstacles).

It looks like there are residential streets that parallel McCart most of the way up. You will have to hit the major streets when crossing the interstate highways and working around a few places were roads don't inteconnect for various reasons but it looks doable.

I have found http://www.dfwmaps.com (http://www.dfwmaps.com/index.asp?ExtentLeft=2311965&ExtentRight=2337993&ExtentTop=6937822.41702241&ExtentBottom=6911793.58697759&idCmd=&buffer=&x1=&x2=&y1=&y2=&tool=&click.x=&click.y=&product=&Requests=on&selectpt.x=0&selectpt.y=0&selectpt.stat=none&Address=&CityZip=&Label=&Cmd=ZoomIn&msize=large&mapTheme=dfwmaps&mapOption=pedestrian&RAILROADS=on&BPTRAILS=on&N.x=250&N.y=5) to be very helpfull because it can show bike trails and routes in addition to the roads but any map site should be helpfull.