Originally Posted by
TamaraEden
Although I don't commute but picture me doing it every day when I drive basically the opposite of you
I used to live off Normandie/Franklin until 4 months ago and now am in Pico/Robertson. I now go from Pico/Robertson to Sunset and Wilton...ANYWAY. I drive lots of different ways to check out the streets on the off chance I can get myself to commute 7ish miles.
I suggest trying this:
Get down to Van Ness. I'd head south to Fountain, turn right. Left on Van Ness. Lovely street, a few of those nice wide speed bumps but an easy ride and wide enough after you pass Santa Monica. Take Van Ness to (I think) 3rd, turn right and then go left immediately and turn right on 4th. 4th is marked with sharrows and has hardly any cars. I think that might be a good route to get you a bit south and a good ways east.
So: Fountain, Van Ness, 4th
7-ish miles eh? That sounds like a decent ride. You should give it a try! A weekend test ride should give you an idea of what it'd be like.
The problem with 4th is it's nearly unrideable due to cracks and potholes. I've taken it a few times and you're right that there are hardly any cars, which would make it awesome if it weren't for the quality of the road, but it's just too much for my bike and body to handle, especially after dark when it's harder to see the cracks. Then it's just too dangerous.
Check this out, imagine a whole width of the street like this for miles. Images near the bottom.
http://www.bicyclefixation.com/4thst.html
I actually found a decent route that i've taken yesterday afternoon and this morning. I take my normal route through Hollywood, to LaBrea. Ride down to Willoughby then down Pointsettia. This takes me as far as 2nd, where I shoot over to Cochran, then down to venice to the bike path. Still fine tuning it. I'm going to try a different way to get from Venice blvd to Poinsettia that I scoped out on google maps on my ride home in a bit, but so far this way isn't too shabby.
this is roughly my ride this morning.. i left out the first part from my apt. to the starting point on the map, but you get the idea from there
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&sour...=UTF8&t=h&z=15