What would you do?

moltar

I'm moving to the outskirts of town in a few months, nice quiet place with great neighbors and not too far out, but unfortunately just far enough to be a pain to start a ride from! I'm really not inclined towards driving my bike somewhere to ride it, (bleah!) and I'd have to drive a while anyways as parking the car on the side of the road outside of town would just fetch a beer bottle through the back window sooner or later.
Anyways... Option #1: The two lane road. 45 mph speed limit (50-60), occasional 70+ oncoming passing traffic. The ditches are so deep that you can walk across on a car door when a car falls in. No shoulder, just a fog line. It's at most half a mile of slight downhill to a friendlier road, the visibility is good, maybe I could eyeball a big opening in traffic and open the ride with an Adrenaline Death Sprint. (you know, this didn't sound like such a stupid idea before I wrote it down...)
Option#2: The other direction on the same road, would involve hopping from driveway to driveway for a half mile inbetween traffic to a four-lane road that would take me to saner riding conditions, after navigating a few miles of shoulder-to-shoulder business driveways, past the county dump, (whew!) two propane shops, (whew!) and the lawn clipping disposal/compost center. (WHEW!! Nasty!) The 4-lane road isn't that bad, it just requires close attention, but that lawn waste center is just gut-wrenching on some days!
Option #3: Hike the bike down the railroad tracks. The only use they ever see is a Dodge maintenance pickup with drop-down rail wheels, the tracks are rusty from lack of use. It's a short walk, to a much less formidable road, but it's county property and I'd probably get arrested (and bike impounded! ) if I got caught!
I'll have to come to my own conclusion when I get there, sure... But I'm curious what other cyclists would do in the same situation!

brightgarden

I take it that road is not pedestrian-friendly either.

Personally (and I am a wimp), I would drive to a starting point, which I did for a year and a half when I lived a really long ways away.

I'd look into having the county post a sign on the road for you ("bikers" or something like that)--I've actually seen this sign around, I keep thinking it's somewhere in Fairfax County, but can't recall just now except it was on a two-lane road I would probably NEVER dream of biking on during rush hour, with very deep ditches on the sides, etc. Depending on where you live, they may be willing to post such things--I'm sure you've seen the "deaf child" signs occasionally. The other possibility is to offer to post a sign if you can get permission to do so from the county, as well as the specs (size, visibility, placement, etc).

Good luck! Sounds like you are in for a daily adventure!