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Howdy, 'yall.
I've been commuting to work (Dell) mostly using the 35 frontage road for the last few weeks, taking Lamar to Parmer, and then 35 to Greenlawn on my way north, and starting out on Grand Avenue Parkway for the first stretch of my trip home, then taking 35 frontage road and returning to Lamar when it becomes available.
I'm actually pretty much enjoying the ride, but from a safety perspective it seems like I'd be considerably better off finding something with bike lanes and/or less traffic. Any suggestions?
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Howdy Charles,
I'm not sure where you're starting from in the morning. If you're starting west of Lamar, and pretty far south of Parmer, you may want to try taking Metric Blvd from Research up to Parmer. If you start south of Research, you could also take the #41 bike route, which goes from North Loop and Woodrow to just northeast of Research. From there you can follow a route starting at Parkfield, up to Metric. Those routes travel pretty closely parallel to Lamar and should have either a bike lane or light neighborhood traffic.
Once you get to Parmer, the Austin bike route map kind of ends. If you want a longer, more relaxing route, I would suggest trying to get east to Cameron, then take Weiss further north. That detour would add a lot of distance to your commute, but it will be through flat farmland.
Here's a route I marked up that goes from North Loop to Round Rock through Cameron. I haven't ridden some of these roads before, so take it with a grain of salt. You might want to check it out on a weekend first before relying on it to get you to work.
http://tinyurl.com/austintoroundrock
If you don't want such a long detour, you could also take Metric north past Parmer, then take Wells Port up to Grand Ave. I've never taken Metric north past Wells Parkway, but I would hope that Wells Port is better than the I-35 service road.
http://tinyurl.com/austintoroundrockalternate
Maybe somebody who lives around that area could give you some more detailed directions once you get way up north.
Hope this helps
Sam
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My apologies for being unclear -- my starting position is within the box defined by Braker to the north, Rundberg to the south, Lamar to the east and 35 to the west -- Lamar and Masterson is a good approximation. I've made some minor adaptations to your alternate route to eliminate the frontage road traversal, but haven't tried it yet -- I'll report back on how it goes tomorrow: http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8& … 15622&z=13
I might try the longer route after the weather cools down a bit (or I finish my transformation into an early-morning person, a work still in progress). Thanks!
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Sam,
Your alternate route (with the previously discussed revisions) works well for me -- thanks! It took a few days to get it right, but there are great bike lanes on many of the roads, they're generally pretty slow and friendly, and there's not much there that makes me feel nervous (the chief exception being merging over to make the left turn to start going south from 45 eastbound when first leaving the office, but without going west on 45 to start going south via Grand Avenue, that's hard to avoid).
Thanks again!
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Excellent, I'm glad that worked out well for you Charles. Maybe more people will ride to Dell now that you've vetted this route. Thanks for reporting back.
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Maybe more people will ride to Dell now that you've vetted this route.
For anyone thinking of it (and reading this post in the archives), Dell is pretty bike-friendly.
There are racks outside all the entrances, but bicycles are also allowed inside at immediate management's discretion -- and the showers in the company gyms are open for use by folks who bike to work even without paying the (very low) membership fee.
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Sam,
Your alternate route (with the previously discussed revisions) works well for me -- thanks! It took a few days to get it right, but there are great bike lanes on many of the roads, they're generally pretty slow and friendly, and there's not much there that makes me feel nervous (the chief exception being merging over to make the left turn to start going south from 45 eastbound when first leaving the office, but without going west on 45 to start going south via Grand Avenue, that's hard to avoid).
Thanks again!
I've been riding this route for a while now, and updated the map to include some notes on hazards and intersections where the detector loops don't work reliably: http://lnk.nu/maps.google.com/10co
If anyone wants to add a note or change something, drop me an email and I'll give you edit permission.
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