Like OfftheGrid, I'm thinking of taking the plunge... OK, that and the rising gas prices.
I've mapped the 7.5 mile (12 km) route, and only a short part of it is on the levee bike path. Part is on a neighborhood street that's a minor thoroughfair (but technically low speed limit), and the ugly part is 1.5 miles (2.4 km) on a very busy major thoroughfair. In the mornings, if I left the house around 6:15, the 1.5 miles is very queit, but the afternoons I'd be risking life and limb. It does have a sidewalk, which is sometimes obstructed by folk's garbage or vehicles.

My question(s) - do you plot longer alternative routes? Ride on the sidewalks? Not all sidewalks have ramps where they meet the street, but rather have square edges - a hard bounce down and getting off and lifting up the bike to up the next side.

I had bought a Breezer 3-speed, tricked out with paniers with the notion to bike-commute a couple of days a week, and did so after the hurricane. But as folks returned and the 1.5 miles returned to the very busy status, I chickened out. Now I'm thinking about it again.