In your routes 2/3/4, Hwy 35 can be pretty exciting around Daly City. That combined with the additional length of these routes makes #1 sound a lot easier to me. Yes, Hwy 92 is worse than Devils Slide. As the previous comment points out, Hwy 35 is closed through San Mateo for the next couple of years and the detour involves some amount of additional climbing. If you live in the city, you should have pretty good traffic skills, right?