i recently changed my commute from 5 to 7.5 miles, since my office was moved to another place in the brussels area.

the short route is quite different from the new one. the first was through rural quiet areas (schaarbeek->zaventem) with long straight lines and a bit of countryside. the latter is straight through the serveral cities in the brussels federal state (schaarbeek->linkebeek). apart from the extra traffic, i experience more accidented terrain and more side road alternatives and because of that i am getting lost frequently in my persuit of more optimal routes. this will probably inprove in a few weeks, but still, taking the route to work is not always the best the other way round. i keep trying and exploring all the time.

planning trips with a plastified map of the city and a overhead water solluble projector pen is the best for optimizing.