I have a a few routes that I can take on my ride to work. Fortunately Lincoln has alot of bike paths and bike routes. I take these pretty much the whole way. In the last couple of months I have found a better route that actually pretty much what Google maps bike route beta would have told me to go, but it took me a couple years to realize it. The new route includes a nice wide residential street plenty wide and hardly any traffic at all. Its a steady up hill climb, but that last leg of the journey includes this no matter what way you go. The only part I don't like is one intersection you really have to watch for cars turning right as I pass through it because often they are not paying any attention to anything to do with the bike path. In general if there is no bike path options residential areas seem nicer to go through since they have less traffic more relaxing and in general more interesting as well. The exception is if they are too narrow with cars parked on both sides.