The alternate route has NO shoulders or bike lanes for about 7 miles, and still has lots of fast moving traffic. So I prefer this one. If everyone drove sanely, this one actually looks like a perfectly good route! The road that the small white car turned in front of me on has nice wide bike lanes for most of the route. The country road where the trucker swerved to "avoid" me is one of the favorite bike-riding roads around town, because you can go such a long distance with such nice wide shoulders. The part that the trucker passed me on has a narrower shoulder, but still he had plenty of room to stay in his lane.