That looks like a nice stretch of road as long as you don't have to share it with cars and trucks. With high visibility clothes and flashing lights you can probably ride it safely 99% of the time, but 99% is not good enough. If traffic is fast and heavy and there's no room for error, errors are inevitable; and likely fatal to the cyclist. So I cannot recommend riding that road.

Bicycling is not dangerous: it's the cars that are dangerous. Cars are the problem, so it's ridiculous to suggest that the solution is adding another car to the mix.
I deeply resent the notion that to have good job you need car. Getting a cycle path added to that road is probably not a realistic option, but even so, you should probably speak to the planning commission or whoever's in charge of that sort of thing.

And then ride your bike on the longer route, hills be damned.