Originally Posted by
Stacy
I'll leave the Brooklyn section to folks who live in Brooklyn.
My current route to get from the Manhattan Bridge to the west side is to just continue along Canal Street, across the Bowery, to Elizabeth. Then turn west on Prince Street and from there on it's bike lanes. Follow Prince till it turns into Charlton. Then take a quick right on Greenwich Street, left on Houston for two blocks where you can catch the West Side Greenway.
Traffic gets pretty thick on Elizabeth but I haven't found a better street in that area between the bridges. The upside is it's a through street, with mostly passenger cars, and you don't have to dog leg around the Bowery or ride against traffic.
There's a more-or-less marked route that takes you uptown on Chrystie to Rivington for a block on the Bowery to Prince. Prince becomes Charlton as you say which you take all the way until it ends whereupon you make a right on Greenwich up to Houston. Much safer and smoother since Charlton was repaved, IMO, though the bike lane on Prince is some kind of sick practical joke on cyclists (I swear it was safer to ride there w/o it).
As for the Brooklyn bit, from R&A (a LBS, FYI) the other day I rode up 5th Ave to Bergen to Smith which becomes Jay St which goes to the Manhattan Bridge. Jay becomes extremely hairy for the last block before the bridge but it's otherwise pretty good and mostly bike lane / "sharrow".