Southeast - Just moved to Charlotte,NC

Hello and help! My family is relocating to Charlotte. I'm temporarily staying in the University area on North Tryon near WT Harris blvd and working in Uptown at 800 West Trade.

I need help with commuting routes from the University area and probably Huntersville. I found the map of greenways but they don't seem to connect to each other and I'm not sure where to get on them or even if they will help. Does sttesville road work well for commuting?

Also how is the bike crime? I seen some bikes locked up outside at public racks but that doesn't seem safe.

Any help is appreciated. Contact me offline if you prefer.

Peter

Not sure if my post was clear. I'm looking for bike routes for commuting.

First, maybe try the commuting forum. There may be some Charlotte folks there that don't check this forum. Also, try talking to the guys at Black Sheep Cycles http://www.blacksheepcycles.com/ or The Bike Line http://www.charlottebikes.net/. Black Sheep has cool amenities for commuters and should be able to help you get into downtown and the Bike Line guys lead rides out around the University area and should be familiar with the best routes there.

I live in the University area as well. I'm on Tryon right next door to the Flying Saucer. I just take Tryon all the way down to the Uptown area. It's busy and the pavement sucks, but I haven't found any better options.

-- Check out http://www.bikementor.org/

You have to register, but they offer to suggest routes and can give more advice and even a ridealong if you're new at commuting, or would just like them to.

-- I've left my bike outside uptown during the day. I'd probably avoid doing it regularly and never do so at night or durig a football game. Meaning my main worry would be drunks and not thieves. Saw a bike at Johnson and Wales recently that had its seat stolen. I'm not sure I'd park there all day, every day, but you'll soon have a pretty good idea about the area.

-- I live South of uptown and work on South Tryon. I'm not sure if you live south or north of Tryon in U City, but I'm going to throw out a route. It might be worse that N. Tryon, but here goes:

From Trade & 6th, take 6th St. Go left on Smith. Right on 10th. Left on Graham. After Sugar Creek, road veers right and becomes Mineral Springs. And then I'm not sure if Neal Rd. or City Blvd. or IBM Dr. can get you where you need to go. I'm suggesting Graham just because it seems to be a little better than Tryon in uptown. I'm not sure how it holds up as it goes along.

-- For Huntersville, I guess I'd look at Statesville Road (U.S. 21?) and Old Statesville Road (N.C. 115?) first to see if I was comfortable with the traffic there.

Sorry I can't give you more firsthand info on the routes.

Here's a route from University Place to uptown:
http://routeslip.com/map.php?map=13256

Hi. Thanks. I have discovered some of those roads riding on weekends and after work. University Research Park is turing out to be a great place to ride because of the wide roads and low traffic. And it connects to the Mallard Creek Greenway.

Research drive connects to IBM drive and that connects to Neal and Mineral springs which will take you to the Equipment Drive I blieve which follows 85 literally on the other side of the barrier for a few miles and crosses Sugar Creek. Pretty low traffic but haven't made it all the way to uptown yet. Craigs Head road seems to be pretty good though and that connects to Davidson I believe which can take you into uptown.

In U.R.P if you take Research Drive to Taylor and then then go up Hunt and come back and then Forman and come back and then turn around at Harris you can get almost 10 miles in the Research Park without going out WT Harris so it's great if you don't mind turning around a few times. Nice rolling hills actually. At night there's some deer so watch out for that.