I've found a "longcut". The city is working on part of 15th Ave where I commute home. Sure I could take the lane but it is just a little busy for my comfort. Looking at google maps and just working my way thru the neighborhood added another tenth of a mile to my commute. And several minutes; turn left, turn right, etc.

I can't say I have found shortcuts, but one or two alternatives that are way safer in certain areas. The biggest one is once I cross the bridge into the city, the bike lane ends at the first traffic light.

When I started commuting, I would cut through 2 traffic lanes to turn left at the light, then the first right. It was horrible.

Learned from a friend that I can turn right after the bridge and go past the USC baseball stadium, and wind my way through the sorority housing area. It was better, it added some time, but it still wasn't great. There are trains that sometimes stop and block one of those roads for a very long time. Plus, it did put you on a busy road for a short stretch.

Once you cross the bridge and reach the light, if you go straight you go up an overpass that goes over some RR tracks (it's very steep, and there is usually a lot of traffic and no shoulder). However, it took me awhile to find this, and I think it is only possible because of some new student housing, but I can go straight at the light and go under the overpass and that brings me to some new luxury student housing and I can go from there.

Attached photo: original route in red, 2nd in blue, winner winner chicken dinner in yellow

I don't look for short cuts...been riding my route for 26 years...I look for long cuts. Many people have asked me how many routes I have to home and I tell them that I have 599 different routes and that I've ridden most of them.

When on a Bike tour in Belgium I cut a lot of the miles the racers take on the Ghent Wevelgem race take, to the sea shore and back..

by following a navigational canal for most of the distance between them ... Wevelgem is very close to Kortrijk..

After 11 years of my eight-mile commute, I'm still finding them!

Coming up on four years commuting to my current office. My route is pretty much set at this point. I take the safest/lowest hassle route possible.

This morning I had a bitter mom speeding to drop her child at the head start academy. She was going WAY too fast on a double parked road and on my half of it. Sorry folks, just because your vehicle is too big, doesn't mean you get to encroach on my lane. I let her know I didn't appreciate it.

She didn't seem to like that very much. Jumped out of her car screaming at me. I told her to save her breath and think about the example she was setting for her child.

Aggressive motorists never cease to amaze me. Oh, riiiiiight. I should totally let you break the law and threaten my life, because you're in a rush. Gotcha ya.

Could you leave the kayak somewhere at either end? I was talking with someone from Seattle who told me it was pretty common for people there to have 2 cars - one on either side of the ferry they took as part of their commute to work.

Nope! The south end has a place to moor (Sac State aquatic center) but it would add half a mile to the paddle and make the idea even sillier. But some boats have hand carts and some are light enough. I mean, see this thing? https://www.nrs.com/product/29321/nr...r-kayak-sherpa

That doesn't look like the answer to your problem. How about an inflatable boat?

what I really need is an electric parafoil

This is a good example of a time when it makes sense to take the long cut. I would add a mile to my commute to avoid driving past a school or daycare. I would rather ride through the bar district at 2am than past a school at 8am.

^^^word. Folsom is the worst with a big high school on an artery and a big middle school at the intersection of arteries

I've found only one real shortcut on my commute, since 2010, by accident. A driver had gone off the deep end with honking and pointing, making faces, and then turned into the Verizon complex. Since there was literally no reason for it, I figured she meant I should cut through their parking lot. So I did, kind of sarcastically, and sure enough there was a gate to a side road. Not really shorter but cutting out a big intersection and traffic. Later I realized that there was a private road circumventing the entire lot. I sometimes wonder if she was really just trying to clue me in after all, or pointlessly raging like I thought at the time.

i ride a lot and i always find shortcuts! just dont do it late at night:thumb:

Yes! Not an ideal time to explore!

My commute is hampered by New Circle Rd, a large bypass road that pretty much divides Lexington into hub and rim sections. I'm a mile to two miles outside the hub now and that narrows my initial options to a handful of routes. The more direct ones are shorter but I go out of the way to take advantage of a bike trail. Once you're inside New Circle there's generally more options but I work essentially downtown so at that point the choices end up being variations of the same rush hour traffic.

I'd love to live somewhere I could actually find lots of short cuts, though.

When I'm in shape to do full commutes, and time isn't a premium, I ride a bit to get to the bike path and take it almost all the way. Not much road time. I prefer this and find the ride to be much more enjoyable.

True, I could avoid that stretch. I actually use it as a cut through to get off a busy main road faster, but some morning there are angry, aggressive mothers at the wheel trying to get to school.

I can't complain though, as most of my work commute is on a MUP. My city is just going through an insane population/building jump so the roads have gotten much, much busier in like 6-8 months. It's really mind blowing.

A couple weeks ago I said in this thread that I don't find shortcuts anymore because I'd explored them all...

Found one over the weekend by accident. Technically it's not a short cut as much as slightly longer route that helps me avoid the heavily trafficed no-shoulder road of death I'd otherwise have to take for a half mile.

But still...a better route is a better route.

In my opinion, the shortest route in an urban environment is along busy streets. Although I'm perfectly able to ride in mixed traffic, unless there are bike lanes, I prefer to look for side streets and trails. The lower the number of moving cars encountered, the lower the risk of fatality. Doing that adds distance as you'll be meandering all over the place.

I typically don't use shortcuts, my commute is a workout (Z2 endurance ride) so I need the mileage.


Regarding commuting by kayak. When I was stationed in Portland we had a MSgt who kayak'd down the Willamette from near his house to work. Found a dead body one time on his kayak commute.

Had a shortcut through a farm and along some train tracks but was told last year to stay off the farm. It wasn't a route I took often because it meant dealing with trains and or gates. It was scenic and quite unless a train happened by. My shortest and flattest route is along a 4 lane highway which I dislike. I enjoy the back roads once I get out of town but it can take me close to 2 hours to cover the 15-18 mile distance. I usually compromise with some highway and secondary roads. I wish my commute was shorter. I can't always afford a 1.5 - 2 hour commute.

My safest route is 9.5 miles. The shortest is 6 miles. Right past a high school with ~2500 students. 1/3 of the cars are late parents dropping off kids and 1/3 of the cars are kids that have been driving around a year. The rest are kids with another year or so of driving experience. They crash into each other in the parking lot all the time.


I'm waiting for a new development to go in around the school. Hopefully they'll tie the trail system into the backside of that and I'll be able to avoid the school. That could cut 2 miles off if I wanted.

This is a good example where collisions (or fatalities) per mile of road is not a constant but the important factor is the number of cars encountered choosing the route.

When my employer moved me to a different site a few months back I spent a couple of Sundays before the move riding routes to the new site, and planning a route based on what traffic at peak hours would be like.

The resultant route I normally ride is about 15 miles, takes me along a mixture of gravel paths, main roads, and country lanes, and takes about 50 minutes to an hour.

A straight route on main roads is 12 miles, taking about 40 minutes - I've ridden this route occasionally when the lanes have been icy, and there's no pleasure in it at all. I'm much happier doing the extra miles on quieter roads with the scenery that goes with them.

I do have my shortest (safe) route, and then others. If I have time I'll use the one I enjoy the most. Maybe it's because I have done that route in a while, or another reason. My absolute shortest and quickest route isn't safe in my opinion so I don't use it.

I think that while my route is ideal most days, I ought to start finding routes I can take that avoid the headwinds. This morning's ride was brutal. It's on the river's edge, and the island has cliffs or buildings that the wind hits. I'm pretty sure that it's not as bad inland.

How Often Do You Find Shortcuts?

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Originally Posted by cyccommute (Post 20196401)

I don't look for short cuts...been riding my route for 26 years...I look for long cuts. Many people have asked me how many routes I have to home and I tell them that I have 599 different routes and that I've ridden most of them.

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Originally Posted by aplcr0331 (Post 20223369)

I typically don't use shortcuts, my commute is a workout (Z2 endurance ride) so I need the mileage.

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I have four basic one-way routes each 14 miles, with minor variations. In the nice weather I lengthen the routes for varying distances up to about 30 miles.

One minor variation, I consider a shortcut for my benefit, was only about two hundred yards long. The Jamaica Pond Bikepath follows a major well-lit, well-traveled highway, except for about 200 yards where it is out of sight of the highway through a dark, forested segment. I never ride isolated darkened paths.

A few years ago, I found a peaceful, lit side street that eliminates the forested segment, with easy access to the remaining approximately two miles of Path. The main dangers on the Path otherwise in the pre-dawn early AM are from oncoming brightly lit cyclists, or ninjas, especially on an uphill segment for me.