I have a new route (since January) which takes me past the local mall, to my office just on the other side of it. The main road past the mall is 4 narrow lanes (two each way), no shoulder (less with current snowpiles), bad pavement, and usually standing water due to recent snowmelt. Even with riding in the right tire track of the right lane (the closest to the side I want to be), I'm effectively taking the lane, especially since cars in back of me have trouble finding a gap in traffic to pull into the left lane. (Their problem!) I'm fine with this, and haven't even had any problems with annoyed motorists so far, but still, it's an annoying to me to have to use that road at all! So yesterday, I tried something different.

What I did was to turn into the mall, and ride the road that goes around the outside of the building, inside the parking areas. This takes me right back to another road that leads to my office, and it's not much farther distance, if any.

The morning was fine, because the stores weren't open yet, so there wasn't much traffic of any kind. I expected that the afternoon might be more of a hassle, what with cars entering and exiting parking lanes, and pedestrians all over the place, but it really wasn't too bad. Granted, you have to keep alert, and it's not December, but I'm thinking that it might actually work pretty well. The cars are only going about the same speed as you are, so you can take the lane the whole way without holding them up, increasing your visibility and buffer space. And working with pedestrians isn't any worse of a problem from a bike than from a car, maybe less of one. I'm thinking that if I just keep alert and drive conservatively and vehicularly, this might actually be a better option than competing with through traffic on the outside road.

Reactions?