velocity

How many different ways have you mapped out to get to work? why this many? Fastest. Longest, Most fun, most hills, most flats, training?
I have 3 one for a no brainer morning where I need to put it on auto pilot. One that has hills for training effect and one that has the most Strava segments on it. Definitely keeps me motivated to keep on keeping on.
V

Steely Dan

being that my commute is 5 miles through a fully interconnected city street grid, there are more possible routes to work than i could ever hope to count.

but i take the same routes pretty much everyday because there is really no substantive difference between riding down one city side street vs. another, particularly in a pancake flat city like chicago. the routes to and from work are a bit different because of some one-ways.

fietsbob

I dont live in Portland , number one ..

ThermionicScott 

I really only have two main routes -- the direct three-seasons route that's 100% on roads, and one that largely involves trails when I'm going much slower than traffic in the winter (think ice and snow and studded tires.) People almost universally express surprise when I tell them I don't like the trail route, but it causes me to cross roads perpendicularly, when I'm less sure drivers can see me. My preference is to flow with the traffic.

I have a longer route that takes me by my girlfriend's old house , but rarely have the time to take it. I really ought to get up earlier and do it, since it has some pretty sections with historic houses and less traffic. And a couple of thrilling hills!

CJ Str3tch

To work (a little over 7 miles) I have one route, unless, like for the next several weeks, there is construction. Then two - the normal and the detour. On the way home, I think I have at last count I have at least 6 or 7 different routes to choose from (16 to 20 miles in length). I do like variety!

gregf83 

90+% of my rides take the same route. If it's raining hard and I'm tired I sometimes take a shortcut on the way home to shave a few km off my ride. Occasionally I'll ride by the river in the summer and ride to a local crit on Thur nights but otherwise my route is long enough that I don't feel like lengthening it.

velocity

So you got a 101 commute?

fietsbob

only when I have to brave the 2 lane Bridges , either to Megler or Warrenton ..

Half way Up the Block its walk up and coast down, or coast down then stick to the sidewalk along HWY 30, into Town Proper .


used to have a Partial 202 & 101, for a bout 3 miles total .. but usually got off the street and braved the Trestle planked Trolley track MUP .

caloso

I'd guess half a dozen, depending on whether I'm just commuting or combining the commute with a training. Most direct is 3.8 miles; the long training route is 32.

ItsJustMe

There are only really three major routes I can take from work to home. There are two options for one of them but they hardly make a difference. one extra mile and no gravel or gravel and a little shorter. The other two routes share the last 5 miles as well. My favorite route is the middle one; better roads, less traffic, flatter, about 15 miles, which IMO is a perfect distance.

When my company moves next year, I'll be down to pretty much one route that makes any sense at all and it'll be 26 miles.

KenshiBiker

If it's strictly commuting, then, maybe four: I've got two choices for the last mile or so at each end, but they all give me a one-way commute ranging from about 14.5 to 15 miles. If I want to get some recreational or training miles in, then the possibilities are endless. I think the longest ride I did added about 40 miles to the end of the commute - but they were mostly flat miles along the river. I've been known to add a few hills to my commute when I've felt I needed to get a little more climbing in.

cyccommute 

599. I'll leave it up the reader to figure out why it's 599.

bmthom.gis

I have 1. I've experimented and haven't yet found any alternative worth doing more than once, nor have I found an enjoyable "add on" to get a few more miles...I would rather do that in the morning anyway...come afternoon I just want to get home

PatrickGSR94

I have exactly 2 viable routes - one 14.5 miles and the other 15.5 miles. The 14.5 mile route is terrible, with nearly all 2-lane no shoulder roads and plenty of traffic, and HILLS! The 15.5 mile route has less hills, far less traffic, and a bit less 2-lane roads. I take the latter. I had to take the first route home the other day since I had to stop by the bank, and ughh it was awful.

I recently figured out a way that would connect parts of each route, but there's really no good reason to go that way unless I have to stop by the bank again when leaving the office.

noglider 

Unfortunately, I have only two, and only one makes much sense. There is a bike path along the Hudson River which happens to be the most heavily used bike commuting route in the US, called the Hudson River Greenway. It has very few intersections with motor vehicles, and even those see very little motor vehicle traffic. This makes it highly unusual in NYC. So veering off this path means encountering hundreds more intersections. Yes, hundreds. This takes a toll on time and stress and probably danger, too.

A couple of times I have taken the route along the East and Harlem Rivers, but that involves more riding in traffic.

A couple of times I have done most or all of the commute on streets, but as I said, it doesn't make much sense.

I wish I had more variety available, but riding 13 miles (the length of my one-way commute) in unimaginably heavy traffic is not fun enough to justify. The flip side of that is that I have this amazing, orderly and scenic route, and it covers at least 10 of my 13 miles.

RubeRad

I basically just have one, with small variations, like on the way home I have to turn left across a very wide/busy street into the residential area, but I've got a couple miles to wait for an opening. 5.5mi each way, following suburban arteries, there aren't really any alternatives.

That said, very very occasionally (like a few times a year) I'll take a 3x longer route into work for a longer road ride if I want some extra exercise; or I'll take a 2x longer route home if I want to ride some trails. But for that, I have to prepare bring 2 days worth of clothes into work so I can leave my kittier at work. Wouldn't want that bouncing around on the trail.

But mostly I keep recreational riding for the weekend, with my wife.

Jim from Boston

I recently posted to a fellow Metro Boston commuter:

My straight route essentially bisects two watersheds that encompass the south of Boston, the Charles (“Love that Dirty Water”) and Neponset Rivers. So I expand my routes along either of those regions, both through nice cycling roads, enhanced by the early morning outbound direction. Novelty is important to keep me motivated to ride, and my routes takes me on some of the nicest, and most interesting routes I have ever ridden. I have previously stated,

During the nice weather, I follow and repeat a 10-Week Century Training Schedule with daily specified mileage. On Saturdays for my long rides up to 75 miles, I often go into work for a few hours at my convenience, via a long loop south of Boston; or ride northward into very novel territory, and then double back to Norwood. This way I have become so familiar with the entire region over the years, that I have written a compendium of road cycling around Boston for visitors.

CliffordK

Depending on where I've worked/studied, I usually have had two primary routes, although could do some variations on the routes. In St. Louis, it was mostly a single route.

In the past, I often had one route that took me over a fairly significant hill, and one route that was flatter (perhaps with small rolling hills).

wolfchild

For me it all depends on a season.. During winter when everything is snowed in, I only have 2-3 regular routes which I use. During spring, summer and fall I have more choices.

john4789

Two Routes:
Option1: 8.8 miles through the city, most direct route to the loop.
Option2: 11.2 miles, part city, part Lakefront Trail.

Winter: Morning - 1 Evening - 1 (poor trail conditions, cold so get there faster)
Spring: Morning - 2 Evening - 2
Summer: Morning - 2 Evening - 1 (too busy w/ other users)
Fall: Morning - 2 Evening - 2

alan s 

I have 7 regular starting points given that I drive part way. Then two variations depending on which bridge I use. So I guess that's 14 I use on a regular basis. Lots of small deviations possible, as well. Distances range from 11 miles to 20 miles each way.

cyccommute 

You people are not trying hard enough! Go one block over from your normal route...that's 1. Go two blocks over...that's 2. Go 1 mile further north (or south or east or west or any other point on the compass...it's a circle so you have 360 degrees to choose from and each degree can be divided into 60 minutes and each minute into seconds, etc.). Take a loop that goes 5, 6, 20, or 50 miles out of your way. Hell, go down a road you've never ridden before. Get a mountain bike and find an off-road route.

My 599 routes are only a very conservative estimate of the number of routes I can use. Expand your horizons!

unterhausen

I have 3, give or take the numerous variations on those 3. One is on the bike path, one is avoiding the bike path, and the 3rd takes me about 20 miles

rhm

I ride 5 or 6 miles to a train station, sometimes 7 miles to a different train station; take the same train to NYC from either station; and ride a CitiBike a short distance to my office. For both of the bike rides, there are plenty of options and I know them all. I've tried them all. Which I chose, well, that depends on any number of things. The canal towpath was covered with snow for a couple months earlier this year; so I went a different way. Couple years ago there was a wicked pothole on my main route; I changed my route to avoid it. After I'd been doing the new route for a while, someone hit a deer and I was going by its carcass every evening, in an increasing state of decomposition as the weather turned from spring to summer, until it became unbearable. I changed back to my original route, and found, no surprise, they had fixed the pothole ages ago. That kind of thing has happened a lot over the years.

snow_echo_NY

i have two: the brooklyn bridge and the manhattan bridge.

the manhattan bridge adds almost a mile to my commute. but i get 30 more feet of elevation gain according to strava. from the manhattan bridge, i can go thru downtown brooklyn or fort greene. when it's crazy busy i prefer fort greene. it is more roundabout and completes adding another full mile to my commute but it has more dedicated cycling lanes and far less traffic.

downtown brooklyn can be a nightmare. people and cars not obeying any rules. just everyone on the roads at once. it can be a mess. but it's the most direct route and when it's not overrun it's totally fine.