Doohickie

So I mapped out my commute home on Google Maps. The distance is just under 17 miles. It totals up like this:

Hi Risk Sections- 2.1 mi
. Country 2-Lane- 1.1 mi
. Fwy Svc Road- 0.8 mi
. Multi-Lane Hwy- 0.2 mi

Low Risk Sections 14.7
. Residential Streets- 8.2 mi
. Trails- 3.4 mi
. Neighborhood Feeder Streets- 2.2 mi
. Bike Lanes- 0.9 mi

I arbitrarily made up the categories and the risk estimates based on my perception. The bottom line is that I can travel across town and about 15 out of 17 miles are low-risk roads. There are only about 2 miles where I see any kind of traffic or a great speed differential.

Doohickie

I did the route in the opposite direction, using the shortest distance. It basically trades off some distance on MUP for a shorter distance on a freeway access road. There's only about a half mile section of the access road that sees any kind of significant traffic in the morning; the rest is pretty much low risk, but I left it up in the high risk section. I often use this in the morning but rarely going home because there is more traffic on the access road plus it has a long, steep climb in the middle.

Hi Risk Sections- 4.1 mi
. Country 2-Lane- 0.5 mi
. Fwy Svc Road- 3.4 mi
. Multi-Lane Hwy- 0.2 mi

Low Risk Sections 11.0
. Residential Streets- 6.7 mi
. Trails- 0.3 mi
. Neighborhood Feeder Streets- 3.1 mi
. Bike Lanes- 0.9 mi

idiotekniQues

i think people that are first to respond to their own posts are probably on probation for DUI or some narcotics charge.

Standalone 

My only crash so far has been on a residential street. Not that my crash proves this, but I think "High Risk" has a lot to do with perception.

Low traffic is a nice thing, but I'd say go and try out a few different routes and let experience and personal preference help you to settle naturally on what works for you.

Doohickie

My only crash so far was on a sidewalk, so there you go.

Frankly I'm not even sure there is any sense to my characterization of hi risk versus low risk. It's just gut feel to me for local conditions.

I put country 2-lane in high risk mostly because I don't ride that type of road very much so I'm just not very comfortable in that situation. Someone from a more rural area might tell me to just HTFU. That little stretch, though, does seem to warrant the hi risk label on my way to work because it is the "back way" into my office building of about 2000 people and a lot of people are hurrying along trying to get to work on time and have little patience for cyclists.