Originally Posted by m_yates

I grew up in New Orleans, and went to college there. Parts of the city are dangerous, and I do mean DANGEROUS. Particularly for a young single woman traveling alone. I worked for 7 years for a landscaping/property maintenance company. We did work all over the city and surrounding region, including some of the poorest parts of town. A lot of the work was on bank owned/foreclosed property. I'm fairly certain that if I had commuted by bike to those job sites, I'd have been harassed by the local drug dealers and addicts and imagine my bike would have been stolen one way or another before the end of the day.

The 9th Ward (where a lot of restoration work is still going on) is not the safest area. Some areas like Central City are war zones that I wouldn't walk or ride through. I'm not trying to sound scary or shoot down the idea of bike commuting in New Orleans. However, she needs to talk to locals about different areas and where it is safe to travel. Bike commuting can be done there, but you have to be careful. I commuted by bike while in college in the Uptown area. It was safe, and I never had problems, but I was only commuting 3-4 miles each way. Getting across town can be difficult on bike. She will just need to be very careful and consult someone who knows the area for planning a route.

I agree with the previous poster about road conditions. Some roads are rough, and some have potholes big enough to swallow your entire bike (and I'm not exaggerating).