Who has time to dodge the dog leashes, dog deposits and children on the so-called Class I bike path on the north side of the panhandle? Especially when you can cut across the aforementioned oncoming lanes of traffic, merge through three lanes of westbound traffic onto Oak, where the synchronized lights work for bikes too.

One idiot in a Dodge Charger took umbrage that I was bicycling at speed last week and merged into the far right lane of, what is it there, the end of Kezar right before the Stanyan light which was red at the time. He pointed his car at me and hit the gas because I stopped him from stopping for a moment.

I shot him the finger and he was not able to catch me, center striping at Masonic and Divisadero as I did, which lets me move faster than cars with which it is easy to keep up anyway, swinging down Steiner before the Oak hill gets too intense, careening into the Lower Haight and back to the sanity of my beloved Mission.

Further N/NE, there’s that crazy stretch of Alemany (headed toward the Farmer’s/Flea Market) that really used to feel like riding on a freeway. I’m mildly excited to report that they’ve cut out one lane of traffic entirely to provide some space between the bike lane and the traffic.

My favorite lane though has to be the stretch from Woodside to Laguna Honda to 7th Avenue into GG Park. Woodside kind of sucks (just sharrows, threat of dooring) but if you take the lane you can keep up with traffic usually. Then you can take a right on Laguna and cruise the slight downhill on the fresh pavement past the reservoir. If you don’t go too fast you can catch the green light at Lawton and from there you should be able to make it all the way to Lincoln without stopping.