Seattle Forrest

How much do you vary your route on a day-to-day basis? Do you feel stagnant when you take the same roads every day, or do you feel you know them like the back of your hand? Is it better to see how the same neighborhoods change with the seasons, or what's going on in different places?

Kamala

Morning route is almost always the same, partly because it's my daily time-trial, partly because I need to get to work. Smelling the Hostess bakery on Dexter every morning is a little rough though :-)

Ride home will vary alot depending on how far I want to ride, how much time I have, how bad the headwinds are coming off the water, and how I feel generally. My house (near Husky Stadium) and work (central Downtown) locations are great because I can change easily without feeling like I'm backtracking.

Steely Dan

i pretty much take the same route everyday, though the ride to and from work is a tiny bit different due to some one way streets and a big-ass cemetery i navigate around on different streets depending on direction.

sometimes i will change up the route if i need to hit a specific store (usually the bike store ) to run an errand or if i'm heading out to meet up with people directly after work. and if it's a really nice (fall or spring) evening, i'll sometimes overshoot my home and ride out to northerly island and take in a sunset as our star shrinks behind the city skyline.

EKW in DC

Unless I need to run an errand or have enough time for some extra miles, I take almost exactly the same route to and from every day. I normally don't mind. Once in a blue moon, I'll feel a little bored w/ the route, but that's pretty rare. I am riding my bike after all, so at it's worst, it's almost always still really fun.

dynodonn 

I also travel the same route on the morning commute, since it's the fastest way to work. After work, I also vary my routes on the way home, usually depending on which errand I have planned for that evening.

cooleric1234

I vary it a lot. I get tired of the monotony.

groovestew

I don't change my commute route much. I'm pretty destination oriented and don't spend a lot of time enjoying my surroundings. For recreational riding, I like to mix it up, though I do have a few familiar favourites.

I recently had to change my route thanks to some construction. Once the construction is completed sometime this fall, I'll probably go back to my old route.

bhop

I've been changing it up some lately. I don't get too bored in general, traffic keeps me on my toes, but it's nice to check out other neighborhoods. The thing about L.A. is I can go a few blocks over and get a different feel, but still keep within the same commute give or take 30 minutes or less.

sggoodri

Morning is always the same fastest route; evening varies. I like to look for streets I haven't tried before.

genec

Well when I was employed, my route was pretty much the only road to get there... unless I chose interstate freeways. But even so, there are some longer round about ways I did also take... and on longer summer days, I would vary my route to go these other ways... they are far from direct, more like going to other destinations, and then heading home... one of these destinations was the beach... sometimes my family would meet me there and we would do an evening picnic.

The other route went all around a military air base... so the nicest aspect is that there are few intersections, and traffic simply cannot encroach from the right. This is a long flat route, but it is also made of of 55 and 65MPH roads... not the safest around. But the joy of going flat out on the flats almost outweighed the traffic and speed issues. Again this was way out of the way... sort of like getting to Denver via Chicago from Atlanta. But indeed these routes did relieve some of the drudgery of "the same old route... "

Seattle Forrest

It seems we have the same choice in common. I live a hair south of you, and work near Northgate. The most straightforward route is basically to take Roosevelt, although it's never the one I take. But one of my most common detours is to do a loop around (most of) Lake Union. I might take Stone south from Green Lake, catch the Burke until the Fremont Bridge, and then hug the shore until I get home. It's a nice little bit of scenery, and might add somewhere in the ballpark of 15 minutes, so a pretty "cheap" "thrill."

CACycling

Only varies if needed to run an errand.

JPprivate

Only in winter, when the MUP is not plowed. Or for some errands now and again. I found a pleasant, safe route and stick with it usually.

tjspiel

In the winter I'll vary it based on road conditions. In the summer I might take a longer way home for an extra workout. Otherwise it's pretty much the same every day though it has evolved over time.

I'm fairly involved with my own thoughts on my way to and from work. Those vary from day to day so I don't get bored.

CliftonGK1

All depends on what I feel like doing. I've got a flat route for interval sprints. A short hill route for hill sprints. A long hill route for climbing endurance work. A steep hill route for raw strength training. A bunch of "long routes" with average rollers for some distance training. A super-short route in case I just want to get home...

exile

I usually didn't vary my route, but I always knew more than one way to and from my destination.

colleen c

I like to keep my route the same. Usually the safe route is the one I keep. However my route has changed twice this years and not really by choice. I got tired of riding the sidewalk for getting over one of the most dangerous freeway overpass here in town. So I found a dedicated pedestrian overpass cross walk which added several extra miles but more enjoyable. As they say, all good things comes to an end, and so it did. They closed up the walkway for construction of a new walkway. This means I had to change my route. So back to the map and I found another route that is shorter but more car traffic but still much safer than the original route. Hopefully they do not change that for me since the third time is a charm. If anything, these route changes sure keeps the commute interesting as I am finding how each different routes and street have their own unique personality.

Seattle Forrest

A lot of people don't change their route much at all, and it seems like most of the rest don't do it very often, or usually while running errands, etc. This doesn't surprise me, but I'm maybe a little surprised at why. It seems like it's mostly to do with having other things we all need to spend our time on. Not so much on my commute, but on other rides I take, there are a lot of gardens; I like seeing the different plants flower, and how that all changes. That's more important to me in the bleak early spring, when there isn't much growing, and I chance upon a splash of color in an otherwise gray world. But I enjoy watching the longer-term changes over the course of the year, in spots I keep going by. I'm surprised nobody else has mentioned that, as a reason for keeping the same route.

I don't change mine as often as I'd like to, and I'm not really sure why. I think if a better idea doesn't come to me, it's easy enough to "fall back on" my default route. But I do like to explore, especially when I can go down a street I haven't been on before. I like the stimulation of seeing something new, and the exercise for my brain of constantly navigating the city, updating my map, etc.

Jim from Boston

I do a reverse commute from Kenmore Square in Downtown Boston to a suburban destination. I have four distinct routes on my usual commute, each about 14 miles long. I describe them as "gritty urban (but interesting and safe), "pleasant urban, "pleasant suburban, and "ritzy suburban." When I'm in training during the nice months I can expand my routes to include idyllic cycling regions (Dover-Sherborn or the Blue Hills of Canton for example).

BTW, I take my bike home to Boston on a Commuter Rail, with the station about two miles from home. Even on that short hop, I have four different routes.

Absenth

I have been looking for ways to extend my route. Mostly because I think to hit my goal I'm going to need to do nearly a hundred miles a week, and my standard commute, assuming I ride all five days of the week, only provides 75 miles.

I added a mile to my ride home yesterday changing the route. I actually think there's more climbing, but it's a lot less rolling hills, which makes it a lot more enjoyable, and faster. Then again it could have just been the heat and my desire to get out of it as quickly as possible.

gerv 

I have two basic routes, but each of them have several variations, based on traffic, need to be somewhere at a specific time, desire for fresher air. etc. One route is 7 miles and on a MUP. The other is mainly on a sparsely-traffic'ed (well... sometimes...) 4-lane.

Right now I am mainly doing the 4-lane route, with a 2-mile side detour through several mall parking lots, an alley and a "corporate drive".

b_young

I have two main routes and if I want to run by the store 3 routes. It really depends on traffic and wind. I can stay out of the wind but then I have hills. The hill route is 1 mile shorter but if its not windy I can do about the same time wise on the flat route. The flat route has more traffic, but is also well lit. So that plays into it as well. Most of the time it mainly is just what mood I'm in at the time I get to the turnoff.

rhm

I have a standard route, from which I can deviate in any number of ways. I usually stick to the standard route, at least on my way to the station; on the way home, I feel more freedom to vary it.

It's a good idea to vary the route as much as possible, to know the options and to know the condition of various roads. If a road is closed for one reason or another, it can feel like a major inconvenience if you're not familiar with all the other roads.

NoSho

There are about 4 good ways I can go to work, ranging from 5 to 9.5 miles. I'll take the longest route whenever I have time. Likewise, there are maybe 3 or 4 good ways to get home from work. These are slightly different from the ways I come in, largely because of traffic and hills. I mix it up quite a lot and sometimes will do a 20 mile or so loop around my city before I head home.

benda18

the route to my house doesn't offer much opportunity for deviation, and plus i'm transit-dependent for a portion of the trip so therefore it never changes. However, when i ride to my girlfirend's place it chances almost daily. morning especially vary as i like to take my time getting into work. afternoons are shortest path; i just want to get home.