So I've dabbled in commuting for the last year or so. The area I live in is pretty hilly, which makes the 7 mile commute pretty 'fun'. The other day I was playing around and trying to find a suitable route from my boyfriend's house to my work, so I can commute when I stay over at his place too.

The problem is that there are two routes. Route A is fairly safe, riding on gravel community trail and back roads. The problem is that there is a gigantic hill on it that I just can't for the life of me make it up. I'm talking I very nearly had a coronary at the top of it on Saturday (I really did almost puke and pass out from such high heart rate). Then there are even more hills to get to my place of work! Unfortunately I can't use my road bike with it's gloriously nice shifting and triple chain ring because the trail I ride in on in the beginning is rough gravel...bummer. So instead I'm stuck on my heavy, POS commuter bike.

Then there's Route B, which starts the same as Route A, on wooded community trails but then I'd have to get onto a 2 lane road. I would be making a left onto this road, which isn't a problem because there's a light that will make it simple to turn from. The shoulder on this major road is pretty big, and the road surface is nice. But there's a few lights I have to go through, two of which pass entryways to a highway. Then I have to make a left across the two lanes of traffic (not terribly busy, but busy enough) to get into my complex. I can make a U turn and go straight across the intersection when the light is green, though which will save some stress. This way, while a bit more harrowing with the cars, is muuuuuuch less hilly.

The question is, which way would you pick? Also, what do you think of breaking traffic laws? It would make it a bit easier if I could just turn left onto the shoulder riding against traffic and then I wouldn't have to worry about making another left to get into my work complex, but I don't really like the idea of riding against traffic.

K.