Sorry, I rambled on a bit in my original post, let me be a little more specific... What road other than Broadway would you recommend for getting through downtown from west to east keeping in mind that I'd like to head north somewhere around 25th? My issue with Broadway is that the lights are horribly timed and there is a lot of bus traffic. Maybe all of the other options are that way too?

I had not really considered that heavy, slow traffic might be better than sparse, fast traffic. You do have a point.

And yes, I know that I have to cross I-5 and go uphill at some point. I just try to avoid anything too steep.