For those of you who commute to work/school on a semi-regular basis, how many have adjusted your route for the sake of safety, and what has it added in terms of distance/time compared to the most efficient route?

I'm in the current predicament of mapping out my upcoming route from afar.

I'm moving to Lexington, KY in July to attend UK Law School in the Fall. For those familiar with the area, my apartment is between Harrodsburg Rd and Man'o'war out past New Circle (Beaumont Center). For those not familiar, this translates into an efficient distance of five miles. That assumes I hit the main arteries and put myself in the midst of downtown traffic.

I've been playing around with MapMyRide.com and came up with a route that seems relatively safe based on my general traffic experience in Lex. It adds just over half a mile to the efficient route, but there are several more turns, so I'm sure I'll add several minutes. Not a big deal, in my opinion.

Who else has had to do this? I'm disregarding those who do it just for scenery--I'm sure I'll do that occasionally myself. But this is more of a practical discussion.

Quite a few of us do this very thing.
I could shave a good 15-30 min off of my 2 hr ride if I took a shorter route. However, I find it significantly more stressful. Plus, the increase in risk is not for me.

i added 2.5, then another .5 to my originally 10.5 mile route to work to avoid some neighborhoods and traffic, and i enjoy my ride immensely more (though i do have to get up a few minutes earlier).

Sure. When I drive to work on Guadalupe in heavy morning traffic, I see cyclists curb hugging and getting buzzed. Others take the sidewalk, often in the wrong direction -- the sidewalk is in horrible condition and there is a huge light pole dead in the middle every 500 feet.

There is absolutely no reason to take Guad. When I ride my bike, I take Avenue A, exactly one block east. It is a traffic-less neighborhood street through the lovely Hyde Park neighborhood. Sometimes I see friends. When Ave A runs out, I go 4 more blocks out of my way east to catch Speedway, where there is a bike lane (useless, full of glass and parked cars) and little enough traffic that my taking the lane is comfortable to me and to the cars.

I see people on bikes route-picking like cars and it makes me sad b/c they could be having so much more fun. But than again, maybe I'm just an arrogant a***ole, b/c I used to really love riding right in the thick of traffic. So to each his own... but I feel way safer on my easy route on a bike than I do driving in my car on Guadalupe through downtown.

I've found that using a map and picking the straightest route usually isn't the quickest way. Stop lights, stop signs, traffic, hills and bike short cuts can effect commute times significantly. My advice, explore lots of routes with a stop watch, not an odometer. For me, it seem that some routes may be longer in miles, but quicker in time. Some times I'll adjust for safety, but mostly to shave off some time.

I found a much safer route this year, not much longer (a few tenths over about 14 miles). Only down side is it is several more stop signs and lights. Upside is it is such a nice ride. The old way I was more tried from dodging cars than the riding. I think now I will try to find a way to add a couple of more miles each way.

I cut out a small stretch of road that is full of potholes and it's a tight road.

It might actually be shorter! It's certainly safer and I saw a fox the other day. haha.

Anyway, your commute is only as good as your route planning.

Time lost in a safety route: 10 to 50% of your total ride time. Worth of avoiding a major injury / time off from work or school: Priceless.

Mapmyroute.com would be better if it gave routing suggestions for bicycle routes away from congestion and major arteries. It could be modified for day of week and time of day. This would require some input from local grassroots cyclists etc.

Of course, it varies. I usually pick the best route I can by the map. And then, as I ride it I see ways that it can be optimized. Sometimes its even shorter than the mapped route because I can take advantages of say a small patch of grass lying inbetween two streets or a pedestrian bridge over a freeway.

I added 1.2 miles to my commute to avoid a 4 land - no shoulder - 45MPH - big rig packed stretch of road.

Ironhorse - Thankfully, I was able to round up a PDF of bicyclist-rated roads in Lexington. The ratings ranged from "Excellent" to "Acceptable" to "Marginal or Not Suitable". I combined that with Mapmyride.com to get a good idea of distance.

There are a few places where I'm pretty much stuck dealing with heavily traveled roads, but I tried to minimize my time spent on them. I'll be able to adjust for that in the morning (just leave early), and I'm going to look for an alternate afternoon/evening route that may be longer but should allow for some relaxation.

I'm in the middle of a bit of chaos at work, but once that ends I plan on changing my route for scenery and extra miles. I have a feeling it's going to make my ride almost 1/2 hour longer because it's got a fairly steep hill to go up, then a steeper, winding road that I would be taking going down. But that route only puts me with cars for about 4 miles of what would be 10 miles I think (haven't actually calculated it yet). Nice trail ride for the other 6 miles.

Recently, after using a safe route for years I found that using the wide bike lane sized shoulder of a semi-rural state highway could cut my distance by a mile, give a much smoother ride and safe 10-15 minutes. Am not going back.

I agree with this.

I could easily take 10-15 mins off my ride, but not only would it be not safer I would miss the close up ride next to the beach, (sublime sunsets some days), and going past the boat marina which I enjoy.

Also pick a none work day with if possible low traffic so you don't get too stressed, get on the bike and actually try out some of the potential routes to work. Its a much more reliable way of picking which is best rather than relying on an Internet map site.

Another trick is to follow other bike commuters. This got me through a painful area where I had to get off the bike and walk across a couple of busy lanes. Then I saw this bloke on a bike pass me and I thought "hmmm I wonder where he's going?" I followed him and discovered a little short cut.

I'd shave so much time off my commute if I only got on the busy 4 lane 65MPH road with a shoulder crossed by freeway-style on and off ramps. but I'm more interested in staying alive and keeping my blood pressure down, so slow scenic route it is!

I tried the most direct route one Sunday morning and saved 10 minutes compared to my usual weekday route. However, my normal convoluted route through older residential neighborhoods is much safer and more scenic. Fortunately, we live only 7.5 miles from my city center destination and there are too many potential alternate routes to count. That's not true for many suburban commuters who often cannot avoid some of the main traffic arteries.

My usual route is about 3-4 miles farther (and 15' longer) than my oh $hit, I need to get there route which is about 3 miles farther than my in a car route. My usual route is 37 mi round trip and the modified route is only on the way home. I ride a loop as my to-work route is much more heavily traveled going home than going to work.

I also try to avoid as many traffic lights as possible and find a smaller street that intersections it at a stop sign. I find this pays off in the end especially with keeping the route time consistent between rides.

I do ride some portions of roads that I would have never thought I could ride from looking at a map. I found that by waiting for the right time at a light (or in a parking lot next to the intersection), I can make it about a mile without having hardly any cars around on an otherwise extremely busy road.

A few months ago I switched my route to take advantage of the MUP that is about 0.2 miles from my house. It's going a little out of the way, but I just did the best estimation I have yet on Google maps (which doesn't let me map routes on the MUP) and was surprised to find that the difference is only about 0.3 mi. I thought it was more about 1 mile.

I didn't think I'd like the new route more because it was longer and also involves more riding on a highway, but being on the MUP and not having to stress about cars has trumped everything else and then some.

The shortest route for me is 3.0 miles, my usual route is 3.5 and a bit more hilly.

If I'm on the road before 6:30, I'll use the 3.0 mile route (down Keller Springs in Dallas). Its not the road that's bad, its a single intersection (under the DNT) that I try to avoid with the longer route.

This thread is right up my alley.
Between a recent dog bite, tons of broken glass, and no shoulder, my 2.9-mile commute has become an 8.2-mile commute, including an extra 3 miles uphill (beyond what would be necessary to get home, if there were a path).

Needing a ride in an ambulance only gets you to work quicker if you work in a hospital.

Another sweet ride on a much safer route this AM. It takes longer, I stop so many times it takes about ten minutes longer, but might be couple tenths of a mile shorter. I paid attention this AM becasue of this thread. Think starting and stopping is good for your legs? Anyway being safer is more important than being faster.

I don't usually pick routes based on safety. But a lot of that is because we picked our *location* based on safety. We're just off one of the bike paths, and most of the local streets are low traffic or have decent bike lanes. The safety differences between various routes are fairly small. I don't have much choice about stop signs or stop lights... I'm going to hit around 6 per mile no matter what since it's a dense urban area.

The biggest thing that affects my route choice is whether I have to make a left turn. I'm not very fast, so doing a vehicular left on a 4 lane 45mph road is not easy for me (there, I'll often choose to walk my bike). Making a left turn on a 2 lane road is easy, since I only need to control one lane.

Some of the features that might seem annoying on a bike (like the stop signs) are a godsend when I'm walking. I hate being buzzed by bikes when I walk, so when I'm on my bike I try hard to follow the law.

My route in to work is different than my route home.

Riding in, I go down Route 5 from South Windsor to East Hartford, to then head over the river into Hartford. At the early times I'm riding in there traffic is very light so I'm not worried about being on a busy state route.

Riding home I have a route that's a mile longer, but it keeps me on less busy roads. That route is different both through Hartford and on through East Hartford/South Windsor.

I agree with the various comments about safety being a prime concern. In Connecticut, where folks just aren't used to seeing cyclo-commuters, safety is certainly important to me.

I changed my home route too.

It's funny how one side of a road will be pothole/rut city and the other side is fine. The main road I use going back into the city is destroyed, so I go around it and take a better path on the way home.