What is the best route? I'm a pretty experienced city biker, but all the bridges look suicidal!

the best route is to ride to North Station, put your bike on the commuter rail and just take the train

less facetiously, you are right, most of the bridges are pretty risky and require you to be comfortable with riding in heavy traffic. If you want easy and don't mind going a little out of the way, then head north to Medford, head east to Malden via Rt. 60, then left (north) on Lynn St. There's a bit of a hairy rotary when 60 passes underneath 93 and you have to deal with a rotary populated by merging highway traffic, but you can duck this by taking Riverside Ave out of Medford Center.

if you can't deal with that much of a detour, then your next best option is to take North Rutherford Ave past Charlestown, then take the Rt. 99 bridge over the Mystic. Follow 99 through Everett then bear right onto Lynn St. when you get to Wehner Park near Woodlawn Cemetary.

Lynn St. becomes Salem St. shortly after it passes under Rt. 1. Follow that to Lincoln Ave, then follow Lincoln until it becomes Boston St. as you enter Lynn.

I have begun riding in earnest again recently and have been obsessing about trying to figure a way to bike from my home in Marblehead to my office in Waltham. So when I saw this thread I was pysched. I don't think I can handle the rotaries and the crazed commuters. But I could easily ride to Swampscott and then take the train to North Station and then bike out to the office via the Charles River. Can I take my bike on the train during rush hour? I know that bikes are allowed but I thought that you couldn't do it at the times when it would make sense to do commute via bike/train combos.

unfortunately, you can't take your bike on commuter rail during rush hour if you're going in the direction of the rush. I've got a friend who commutes to Pawtucket, RI and he rides his bike to South Station, boards the train and gets out in Attleboro, but he's travelling in the reverse direction from the rush.

but as I said in my previous reply, you can dodge the Rt. 60/I-93 rotary by heading south and taking Riverside Ave. Basically, if you're coming from Marblehead, once you get on 60 in Malden, before you get to 93, make a left on Park St. then right on Riverside and follow that into Medford Center.

Rubel maps has a set of directions to lynn and so does salem cycle.

what is that Salt Marsh Road that is described in the Salem Cycles article?

Does he mean the Salem Turnpike? (Highway 107)? That's about one of the least pleasant roads to ride along in the North Shore, imho. You have wide shoulders, but they're strewn with glass and debris, and you are constantly being passed by highway traffic travelling in excess of 50 mph. There's also a pretty decent crosswind blowing in off the shore that's just like a kick in the teeth. I've done it twice and regretted it both times. Though, the Salem Cycles guy is probably right, it probably is the fastest, most direct route. It just doesn't strike me as enjoyable.

And also, no responsible shop owner should provide commuting advice by telling people to ignore traffic laws and ride on the sidewalk.

Isn't it "trot trot to Boston, trot trot to Lynn"? Yeah, that's it. You have to take a horse.

Also, spokenword, you should know that many towns and cities allow riding on the sidewalk (Cambridge, for example), provided the cyclist has a bell or horn and yields to pedestrians.

You can't get there from here!

Thanks for the help! I probably won't try till spring now, but when I do, I'll be a lot less nervous. Bob, I hope you find something that works. I love commuting to work.