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I'm moving from just north of the Hyde Park area to near Parmer and Amherst (just west of MoPac and south of Parmer). I've been regularly commuting to work by bike and it's been great. I work near the capital so it's been about a 3.5 to 4 mile ride each way mostly through neighborhoods.
I'm hoping to continuing commuting at least a few days a week. It'll be around 13-15 miles each way depending on the route. Anyone in the forum commute from that general area and have suggestions for decent routes or those to avoid? Any thoughts on what the ride from that general area to downtown is like?
Thanks.
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Do not expect the commute to be anything like what you had before. This should have been part of the thought process in moving, but usually isn't, sadly.
The trick up there is to decide whether you want to use the Jollyville corridor or the Metric corridor. Metric's more directly accessible from Parmer, but that part of Parmer is god-awful; and Metric rather hilly up there (also has a difficult crossing of 183). Getting to Jollyville on Duval might take you a bit farther out of your way but would be flatter and probably somewhat more civilized - only trick there is the 183/360 crossing which is a price I'd willingly pay to avoid Parmer/Mopac, so I'll assume you go that way.
Take Jollyville to where it ends at the Arboretum. Ride through the Arb to the last possible exit from there on to the 183 frontage. Take the frontage through the light at 360 and then take the first right which takes you up to Old Jollyville. Take Old Jollyville to Mesa, then Mesa all the way down to whichever crossing of Mopac floats your boat (inbound I prefered Spicewood Springs/Anderson; outbound I preferred Steck; but arguments could be made for Far West and Hancock as well). Use Shoal Creek from there if you don't mind parked cars in what most neighbors still think is a 'bike lane' or work your way over to Woodrow or Guadalupe. Assuming you're familiar with the more close-in stuff from there.
On the way back, if you still want to do the Jollyville corridor, you have to choose to be a pedestrian at 360/183, or ride vehicularly down and up a couple of big hills (big for me anyways) - turn off Mesa to Mountain Ride, follow down to 360, quickly left on the Arb entrance down there which takes you up to where Jollyville starts up.
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I live right on Cassady, I would suggest the Metric route. Regarding Parmer, I would avoid riding east on Parmer at all costs. Instead use Adelphi going east. Adelphi will T onto Waters Park road, take a right and Waters Park will lead you under Mo-Pac where it becomes Park Bend Rd. This will then T into Cedar Bend Dr from which you take a right and hit Metric. I stick with City of Austin Bike Route 47 from that point on. This neighborhood is actually nicely situated for when the North Burnet redevelopment finally gets going. We recently got bike lanes on Amherst and they dropped the 4 lanes down to 2 so it is slowly getting better. I have also heard that a bike trail will be established starting from Balcones Park going east, there is already an un-official trail present that will just about take you all the way to Walnut Creek park without ever crossing a road. Once the Red Line start running (2015) you'll be pretty close to the Kramer station. If you want to get together for neighborhood rundown send me an email via the forum member list.
Dennis Abbott
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Thanks for the feedback. We took commuting by bike into account in house hunting and thought I'd be able to find a suitable route from there. Thanks for your suggestions. I'll map it out and go for a civilized test ride on a sat or sun just to get a feel for it without all the traffic. I was looking at maybe crossing Mopac on Duval (FM 1325) which runs into Burnet. I'll check out Metric as well.
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