I mostly ride around town here, which is a pretty urban suburb just north of Newark, NJ. Most of the roads have 25 mph speed limits; a couple have 35. I mostly do utility runs nowadays, mostly within a 5 mile radius of home. The traffic stinks, and drivers are openly hostile to anyone on a bicycle. It's pretty much damned if you do and damned if you don't when it comes to taking the lane. I've missed being doored by inches a number of times, but come just as close to being sideswiped by cars going into the opposing traffic lane to pass me, honking and cursing the whole time. I try to find less traveled streets, which means a lot of meandering. What I've found recently is that the really main streets are better than the medium traffic streets as far as safety is concerned - nobody's moving very fast in the center of town, but they're trying to do 35 mph on some of the more through streets.

I also do some longer, recreational/exercise rides, but not as much right now, since my active bike (an early-90s Specialized HardRock, converted to a city/utility bike with fenders, rack, folding baskets, stem extender and trekking bars...) is heavy as a tank right now. I plan to add a lighter bike to the stable when Spring comes.

I used to ride road bikes, but haven't in about 10 years. I'd mostly ride in Western NJ when I did a lot of road riding. I plan to take one of the road bikes out of mothballs after the winter as well, and revisit some of my old rides.