Originally Posted by neil

Lots of good discussion about coping mechanisms for the busy road, but my suggestion is to not be as afraid of the "shady part of town." I routinely ride through the worst part of town to get to school (evening classes, so often after dark), past several homeless shelters, and it's made me a much less fearful person. Turns out that those "other" people who aren't upper middle class folk like me are really not that scary. They're doing their own thing and have no motivation to interfere with me doing my own thing. And I can outpace them on my bike anyway.

Sometimes I stop at the chinese bakery that's smack dab in the middle of this area. And despite stopping, fiddling with a lock on a moderately expensive bike, and then leaving said bike unattended for 15 minutes at a time...still no problems. Plus I get the best coconut buns in town.