wphamilton

I take the MUP right outside my apartment for about 6 miles non-stop, then about a mile and a half to the office. I come across more deer than people

ItsJustMe

I'd use a path if there were one. In 2016 we're moving and I was scoping out Google Maps yesterday, there is a 2 mile hunk of greenway, though on a 25 mile one way commute that's a minor amount and honestly it may not be worth it on the way to work since I have to cross a major road to get to the left side to enter it. I may just opt to ride on the road alongside it for those 2 miles anyway.

KenshiBiker

Of my (just under) 14.5 mile commute, a little over 10 miles of it is on a MUP. I'd have to map out the city streets to see if it would be any shorter, but I'd stick with the MUP to stay off the major roads anyway. Besides, the scenery is nicer on the MUP (well, except for this time of year when the scenery is just - dark).

no motor?

Both road and path for me, plus some parking lots, sidewalk and some grass on my old route.

hyhuu

Mostly MUP with some road near the house and the office. It's the only direct and the quickest way to go. With a long commute, any other routes wouldn't be feasible.

noglider 

I use the most heavily used bike path in the US, the Hudson River Greenway. I love it. The views are spectacular. This is my GPS's tracking data from today's ride.

Home to Manhattan College -- Volpe by noglider at Garmin Connect - Details

bmthom.gis

All roads. I wouldn't mind having part of my ride on a MUP - and in a few years the part closest to my office might very well be. There are plans in the works for the ever expanding behemoth that is the University of South Carolina to expand towards the river (and the area of the city my office is in) and it sounds like they are going to develop a park with a mixed use road letting me off 2 blocks from my office. I look forward to it, as it can be a dangerous part of the commute when riding around the school and have seen one college kid taken out on part of my route.

bmthom.gis

Nice! I don't know if you are familiar with the BikeSnobNYC blog, but the author did a ride down the greenway a few days ago and had some nice pictures. Pretty area.

Jiggle

I start on a street, then go to a sidewalk, then a MUP, then a singletrack trail, then a fire road, then some singletrack, then a sidewalk, a field, a parking lot, a road, a tunnel, a handicap ramp up the side of a hill, and end in a building. Yay, diversity.

CenturionIM

MUP. No cars, no lights. Barely any pedestrian during commute hours.

winston63 

Most of my commute is on a MUP but a portion of the ride is on the street.

noglider 

I know and love the blog, though I don't read it every week. I even met the writer at a talk at Bike Expo in 2013. I'll take a look.

I just took four pictures this morning and posted them here.

bmthom.gis

That ice in the river....brrrr

noglider 

It's a cold day and getting colder by the hour, but what you can't see is the wind. I had headwinds today like nothing I've had in a long time. It made the trip very hard. I really really hope the wind direction remains the same so it will be a strong tailwind on my way home tonight.

Bike paths are being built everywhere. I didn't see the point of them, since I'm confident in lots of difficult conditions. But now that I get to use them a lot, I love them. They're not perfect, but I usually prefer them.

Hypno Toad

I will ride almost any of the above choices. I have a variety of routes that depend on the conditions, my condition, the bike and how much time I have. The quickest route is 8.5, all roads, some roads require biking in the traffic lanes. Last Thursday, with 2 to 3 inches fresh snow, I took the 13.5 mile route that has about 1 mile of roads; all the roads are slow residential streets.

The one thing I always avoid is the sidewalk - I'll ride some sidepaths, but really don't like to. I've too many near-misses using the sidepaths.

pdlamb

No more than 3/4 mile (out of 9 miles) of MUP. It's poorly maintained, between tree limbs and roots, so I've come to prefer an 11 mile alternative that eliminates the MUP.

LokiWolflord

In the morning I've got about 7.5 miles of road and 7.5 miles of what is technically considered MUP. The MUP is a rail trail that is paved all the way, parallels some major thoroughfares most of the distance, and has basically zero greenways. On the way home, I avoid the rail trail until the last 3 miles. There is just too much pedestrian traffic to dodge. Instead, I'm on the road for most of my ride home. I'd like to find some dirt paths that would get me off of the 45 - 55 mph roads. I can't complain about the cage speeds too much, though. The drivers around here are pretty bike conscious. The bike lanes are mostly well-designed are are virtually contiguous. On my way home I'm without a good bike lane for maybe 2 miles. I could take a different route that has a bike lane without any problem, but I can't find a good reason to.

This area is friendly for bicycle commuters. I need to do some more exploring to find some green and dirt between work and home.

downwinded

For most of the year I use a combination of streets and MUP. The streets are the most direct route, but I like the scenery and wildlife on the MUP.

SlowJoeCrow

My route is mixed in both surface and mode. I ride from my house to the train station on mostly paved MUP in a park, then take the train and ride surface streets to work.

Lug

Probably 3/4 of my route is usually Campbell Creek Trail (MUP) unless the snow is slushy and then it is the bike route/sidewalk along Dowling and Elmore roads here in Anchorage. The rest is on residential and secondary streets.
Justin

Artkansas 

It depends on the commute. Some of my routes have just been gritty city streets with heavy traffic, but one had a 5 mile portion of 7 mile trip that went through the center of a nature preserve. Not even a MUP, just a path in the dirt. Woohah!

TxSpeedster

My 10 mile commute into work at 4:00am covers a patchwork of MUPs, residential streets and downtown Dallas thoroughfares. All things considered, it can be a rather pleasant ride at that hour. Without the constraint of a time-clock, the afternoon return ride can feature a leisurely rounding of White Rock Lake, almost entirely on MUPs. The distance varies, but according to which trails are taken as many as 15 miles can be added to the 'commute'

There is a more direct route that shaves 1.5 miles, consisting of almost 100% riding the freeway service roads. However that involves unpredictable crisscrossing traffic trying to enter and exit the expressway and various shopping malls, business centers, restaurants, etc, along with navigating through copious amounts of ever present road debris. No thanks.

irwin7638

I use both MUPs and streets depending on the situation. In the early morning, I ride right down one of the busiest 7 lane thoroughfares through the mall development, because the traffic is going the other way and I have the street and all the business parking lots to myself. In the afternoon, the traffic is impossible so I go a few blocks out of my way and take the MUP.

Marc

Jim from Boston

So true about being a reverse, early morning commuter. If I leave before about 6:00 AM, I can comfortably ride the outbound side one of Boston’s scariest, but well-tended surface roads (The Jamaicaway) with a curb and no shoulder, right next to a MUP. Meanwhile, the inbound side is already jamming up.

I previously posted to the Living Car Free Forum thread ”Places densely packed with bike trails and most transportation done on bicycles”

tarwheel 

Your poll suffers from the same problem that afflicts most polls on these forums. That is, you assume that the options are mutually exclusive. I would imagine that quite a few commuters use a mix of your options, rather than exclusively road or MUTs. I checked roads on your poll, but my commute route actually includes a 1.5 mile stretch (out of 15 miles total) with a bike lane.