I'm lucky. Our neighborhood hooks in with several other neighborhoods, and most of the roads are very decent for cycling. Some have bike lanes, there's a bike path, and even the roads without bike lanes tend to be wide and fairly quiet, though they are busiest right in the 5-6pm timeframe, naturally. I can ride miles and miles without ever having to get onto a very busy road. This time of year, weather permitting, I ride both weekend days and at least 2x during the week after work right out of our apartment, don't have to drive to ride. I also work at home on Mondays so can often get out for a lunchtime errand or recreational ride.

I used to live much further from work so basically was limited to weekend rides or driving to a park after work to ride one other day a week, since I didn't get home in time to head out for a ride after work. I like this much better! Unfortunately even though I'm only 11 miles from work now (used to be 29 one way), when I tried to map out a commute route, to avoid super busy roads with no shoulders during the commute would almost double the mileage. That's just too long a day for me.