BIKE: Route advice

[Lane S. Wimberley]

Dearest fellow commuters and BicycleAustin denizens,

It is with at least slight trepidation that I begin my new commute to
the south-east corner of I-30 and Ben White, just off of Freidrich Ln
to be more precise.  In reviewing my thoroughly creased and torn old
bike route map, I see two route options that present themselves, and I
wondered if any of you might have experience in this area enough to
weigh in with helpful advice on which of the two is superior.

The first, and the one that I've test-ridden once a few weeks back, is
down East Side, across the St. Edwards campus to Woodward, where I
turn east to cross both I-35 and Ben White (the intersections with
which are nasty, strewn as they are with nails and broken glass, and
lacking as they do dedicated bike facilities, which forces one up onto
the sidewalks for stretches).

The other option that I just noticed is to continue east on
Annie/Woodland across I-35, where it appears there's a controlled
crossing of I-35 as opposed to the non-controlled crossing at
Woodward), to turn south on Parker Ln.  Parker then heads all the way
down to Woodward, where I'm still faced with crossing Ben White, but
the time spent on (the nasty section of) Woodward would be roughly
halved.

For maps, each showing these two routes, see

    http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/bicycle/c2s.htm
    http://www.austinchronicle.com/issues/vol17/issue07/pols.bikemap.7.html

Any advice would, as always, be much appreciated.  Whatever I learn,
from others or by experience, I'll try to remember to pass along to
the list and, more important, to Michael Bluejay to include on
BicycleAustin.

-Lane

PS I know about the bus route options, but I'd like to try to cycle
the whole way, as I'm a glutton for punishment (ie, I love to ride)

_______________________________________________________________________
Lane Wimberley             8303 N. MoPac, Suite A-300  Austin, TX 78759
Wayport, Inc.                512.519.6195 (voice)    512.519.6200 (fax)