Hey I used to live in Somerset way back in grade school. Is Pine Grove elementary still there? I'd second the notion to research the route a little more. Is there a bike path along the river there or a maintenance road along the RR tracks? Might get you around some of the cruxes. LBS, regional forum or maybe a local commuting website mass transit, park and ride kind of thing might have more up to date info than mapping programs. At least near me there are a lot of unmapped bike paths that aren't terribly obvious w/o local beta.
Other than that, some times you just have to be a little aggresive in taking a lane to keep people from passing you. Overpasses and construciton zones scare me. Maybe do your fartlicks in the construction zone if you can keep up w/ traffic that long. This is tough on the overpasses because cars are going pretty quick and looking over their own shoulders trying to merge not watching for cyclists, especially in Jersey
. I wouldn't take a lane to make a left turn on a 2 lane road w/o a light or a suicide lane personally if it is even moderately busy. Doing this in my car is why I am now carfree
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When making left turns w/ a light I usually take up a lane (in the rt turn lane if there are 2 lanes) and then get back on the shoulder when I'm thru the intersection. The tough part is usually getting myself into the turn lane. Easiest if the straight traffic is slowing down for the light when you move across it. Hope this helps.