I decided to go to the grand re-opening of our local branch public library this past week, and man, I was sorely reminded at southern Louisiana's cycling shortcomings...
To sum it up, we have a 10-mile stretch of road that goes nowhere, that's filled with "share the road" signs. No shoulders. Just a lot of weekend cyclists ride there.
Meanwhile, I decided to ride only 6 miles to the library, and was utterly disgusted. Though the road there mostly has a shoulder, it's full of gravel. On the way back, there's a 2+ mile stretch of the same highway (the two directions are separated by a canal) that they made with no shoulder at all, just a haphazard sidewalk that has massive curb dropoffs, and everybody uses as a place to put out their trash... I nearly bit it several times just trying to get home. It was either stop and walk around the cans, or try to ride through the massive garbage truck ruts on either side of the sidewalk. I was horrified.
I would rather ride 15 miles to the main library branch than have to do that 6 mile ride again. Simply amazing that anybody signed off on that piece of crap.