Any tips on route planning?
 

After putting way too many miles on my car recently, I'm finally moving to within biking distance of my office in Greenville, SC. Are there any tips or resources for planning a cycling friendly route to work? I suppose the best thing to do may be to take my bike out and explore the area, but I was wondering if those of you with more experience have any wisdom to share with the commuting neophyte.

Google maps is a good starting point, but nothing beats going out there and exploring your route, maybe on a nice quiet weekend morning. Don't be afraid to use your bike like a bike. When I ride to the library I avoid a busy four lane road by taking a much quieter route even though it means I have to do a little off road riding.

Start out by familiarizing yourself with the area and possible routes via maps, both paper and online (Google, Yahoo, Mapquest, etc). Then pick out some routes and drive them, map in hand to explore alternatives. I usually try to drive them during my normal or would-be commuting times, to get a better idea of the traffic volumes and patterns. From there, you should have 1 or more routes picked out that you can ride on a weekend to give you a bicycle perspective.

It's a good idea to know the area like the back of your hand so you can easily adjust your route on the fly to compensate for construction, accidents, weather, etc.

The two suggestions I have:

- ride the whole route on the weekend before trying it to get to work unless you're very familiar with most of the route already

- don't be afraid to add miles to the route in the name of safety

Plan for safety and an enjoyable ride over directness.

Avoiding stoplights and major intersections will save you serious time and frustration.

Have several "plan b" routes so you can react to traffic snarls or just have a change of pace when you want it.

Avoid streets where conditions could force you too close to parked cars (into the "door zone"), or where taking the lane to get out of the "door zone" will make drivers hostile.

Depending on your speed multi-use paths are not always the safest way to go.

I would drive the route first, then I too endorse with the weekend test ride. Big help. You'll be surprised how much elevation change there really is on your ride.
Also, when you are driving the route, think about how much room there is for your car and a cyclist, where are the tight spots? where might visibility be low? where might you, the cyclist, have to avoid the door zone? Where might you need to take the lane? How will you handle left turns and large intersections?
Try some alternates when you have plenty of time. I'm favoring wide roads over slow ones in my route.

This is more for when you have started commuting.
When bored or when I have extra time, I start varying my route (AKA exploring). This helps provide you with more plan b routes or different routes to alleviate boredom. Plus, you can find all kinds of interesting shops, eateries, parks, etc that way.

+1. Now the rain has stopped I'm having a great time trying as many routes as I can, just like being a kid and riding for fun of it. I've spent a lot idle time studying the street directory for possible routes.

Wow. All this, "take a test run on the weekend" talk is rather surprising. That would be nice, but I've usually got stuff to do on the weekends, (I don't know what that stuff is until my wife tells me, Friday evening).:p
Being a career freelancer, my assignments take me to different parts of town on a fairly regular basis.
I check the route at www.gmap-pedometer.com and just go. I also check to see how far it is from train stations, (some days it's nice not to fight the headwinds). If I have a long-term gig, I will alter my route from time to time.

This may not be the best way to go about it for everyone. It works for me, since during my first two years of college, I was a delivery driver here in the Dallas area. It taught me a lot about how the city is laid out.

Ride your proposed route on a week-end to try it out. Try to parallel busy arterials if you need to.

I agree: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/

So do most folks.

But if you are investigating a regular route (which I see doesn't apply in your situation), it's a small amount of research to dedicate towards a long-term commuting commitment. Don't write it off so lightly.

I wasn't trying to write it off. I even said this may not be best for everyone. However, I do think it is a luxury that many can't invest time in.:)

I have been at my current assignment for over a year now, (with a few short term jobs thrown in here and there). I started with a basic route and over time have found several other ways to get to work. Some are all road, some put me onto MUPs and others even have me riding the train for a few miles.

My point was that it would be nice to ride it on a weekend, but if that's not possible, you can alter the route at a later time. For a multitude of new commuters, the hardest part is getting that first ride or two under your belt.:)

I think the biggest mistake newbies make, and the one that keeps most people from riding a bicycle to work, is to look at routes with "car eyes". We have been trained to take the most direct route to work in our cars. Usually this is via a high speed (or moderate speed) route. For experienced cyclists these routes might be okay but for most people starting out, they are frightening! Train yourself to look at routes the way you would look at them for a pleasant ride, even when you are driving your car. Look for short cuts through parks, along greenways, through quiet neighborhoods. Often times these can be even faster than by car. Also look for parallel routes.

For example, Denver is set up on a grid system. Most of our streets (with the exception of Downtown), are east/west or north/south. The suburbs get goofy but we won't worry about them:). If I am driving around and I want to go west from my house, I can get on 38th Ave. 38th is a 4 lane road with a center turn lane. Fairly high traffic count without much shoulder. It's not a lot of fun to drive or ride. It also has stoplights about every 3 blocks.

But, if I go 6 blocks further south to 32nd Ave, the road is 2 lanes, low traffic count, wide parking lane that is seldom used (because it's not wide enough and you lose mirrors if you park there ;) ) and, in the same 4 or 5 mile distance that 38th has 15 to 20 stoplights, 32nd has 4.

But go explore on the weekends if you can.

Most definitely!

Heck, I've found routes that would have been annoying in a car (ed: excessive stop signs) work great on a bike. That and most major arterials tend to have a road that runs parallel to it through residential areas. These are perfect for my commute.
Colorado housing developments usually put in trails and these can help out for a mile or two. I keep discovering new ones in my area. While I tend to enjoy street riding, certain locations almost require a MUP (suburbs). Plus, I stick to the MUPs on the weekend when I have my kid in his trailer behind me. I can not convince myself to ride in the street with such precious cargo.

+1

Trying to find the best bike route and not the best car route is hard to learn at first. Lots of connecting lanes, and short paths that have barriers to stop cars but allow bikes thru, using them allows routes that are impossible by car and take 'exploring' to find.

These days, most people commute suburb-to-suburb. As a result, many people can actually make a commute completely though residential neighborhoods. All those stops signs won't even slow you down a bit (since you'll carefully run them all), and there's virtually no traffic to worry about. Separate sub-developments often have streets which join together to enter an arterial road, but you can often find a "trick" to ride from one sub-development to the next via a sidewalk, park, power-line tract, drainage feature, etc. Only very rarely does a cyclist really need to use a high-volume, dangerous road.

- Warren

Take your map and work backwards from your destination to find multiple routes. I like the Google hybrid map. That put me on to a bike path that I did not know existed. Those that have more advanced map reading skills than I sometimes cross-reference possible routes with topographical maps to avoid killer hills. Also, remember that your "To Route" may not be the optimum "From Route."

Some ways I have not seen mentioned. Ask at a lbs. Ask at a local bike club meeting or event. Many cities and counties have have maps suggesting safe cycling routes. If nothing else as you drive around look for bike route signs and bike lanes. Many state Departments of Transportations have maps showing both traffic density and shoulder widths.