^Yes my area is dense and about to get denser as I will be moving close to the heart of LA.

Why not just go somewhere less crowded/open/hilly? Well remember from my first post that I do a lot of intermittent biking during work breaks to improve my focus and productivity. so my biking paths make up the dense, stoplight-riddled area around my home

To be honest the focus/productivity reason is more important than the cardio aspect of the exercise these days. But it's only effective if I strain myself, and I have only a boardwalk S1 to work with (Hopefully I can upgrade to a Downtube Nova soon)