Bend0matic

Hey Everyone, I’m relatively new to this forum and am looking to see if anyone here commutes by bicycle in Columbus, OH. I can work from home but can get some pretty good riding in if I were to commute to my office. My route is from just south of Delaware to just south of the Polaris area. I think I can string together a route by riding through some suburban neighborhoods and a couple of multi-use paths. Any advice is welcome!

IGH_Only

You might have better luck in the Regional "Great Lakes" forum:

https://www.bikeforums.net/great-lakes/

Bend0matic

IGH_Only , I did say Any Advice is Welcome!

noglider 

There is a Facebook group called 13mph which is based in Columbus.

Unca_Sam

Such Helps! Resources I didn't knew existed!

Welcome to the forums, Bend0matic! As I'm sure you've already figured out, MUPs around here are hit and miss. If you live near the beltway and you need to commute downtown, you're golden! If not...well...
Dublin has done a nice job of building a network of paths/sidewalks while it grew, but Delaware county into the recently rural sprawl has its infrastructure built on the skeleton of county and state roads, sometimes 4 lanes with a wide shoulder and 55 mph speed limit, sometimes 2 lanes and a 55 mph limit. Subdivisions are insular and meant to prevent through traffic.

The good news: Central Ohio drivers are consistently courteous, with exceptions. The bad news: You'll have to get comfortable riding with heavy traffic. There's simply no other roads. Is OH 750 your most direct route?

Bend0matic

Thanks, I agree that much of Delaware county where I live is currently disconnected suburbia. As far as riding on OH 750 I believe I only have to cross it. Having driven to and from work on that road I do not want to ride on it. I did take a look at a map and I think I can string together part of my route through neighborhoods to avoid busy thoroughfares. I’d like to do a weekend test ride at some point to help me gauge the route.

Unca_Sam

That's advisable, but try to use the same hours, and remember that weekend traffic is usually different from weekday traffic.

I think you'll find that a helmet or sunglasses-mounted rear-view mirror will be indispensable for commuting by road. My experience with bar mounted mirrors made clear that they both vibrate too much to provide a clear picture of what's happening behind you and force you to look at your handlebars rather than the road ahead. As I said earlier, my experience on the streets and roads in Columbus are that the drivers are more often that not considerate and well-behaved. Maybe they're appreciative that I look like I'm trying to go fast and spinning my cranks like crazy, or maybe ODOT's information campaigns about cyclists on the road has been beneficial.

I wanted to see for myself what such a commute would look like, so I plotted a course from Cherry Leaf Rd to County Line Rd near the I-71 and OH-750 interchange as a proxy. I was slightly surprised to find a N-S path that parallels the freight line from Lewis Center south. The starting point I used has the benefit of not being far off of Cheshire Rd, which crosses Alum Creek reservoir. You could use that bridge to catch the Ohio to Erie trail that travels parallel to OH-3 into Westerville, but I'm not sure I would. It's been a while since I've been to that part of the region in a car, and never by bike. I remember Cheshire road east from US 23 as a generic rural Ohio highway: 45-55 mph posted limit, two lanes with open drainage and a 3-5 ft shoulder. I've only used roads like that once during a tour where we didn't have much choice, and we used the shoulder. We were also riding mid-harvest, so there were a handful of trucks hauling grain off to the silo at 45 mph while we were on the highway shoulder. Uncomfortable. I have better results marking myself as traffic by occupying a spot in the right tire track and forcing overtaking traffic to slow and pass safely rather than ignore me and blow past at 40 mph faster than I'm going, 3 feet from my left elbow.
Google maps has decent bike routing; I use it frequently to fit a route and then use my experiences with the streets along the route to decide what deviations I want to make.

Unca_Sam

It's silly I didn't give you this first: www.centralohiogreenways.org

Look for the interactive map.