Most roads and maps are built for automobiles.

When driving, you usually want the most direct route, or at least the route with the least amount of traffic, the highest speed limit, and the fewest stoplights and stop signs. In other words, the fastest route or the one that gets you to your destination with the least amount of stress from traffic.

But on a bicycle, your priorities are different.

For one, bicycles are allowed on bike paths and to take shortcuts that are prohibited, frowned upon, or impossible to take in an automobile. It is often acceptable to cut through the woods on a bike or through a parking lot. This opens alternative routes. But more fundamentally, what bicyclists want to avoid — namely busy streets with motor vehicle traffic, especially those without shoulders and complicated intersections with traffic lights. Bicyclists often want to avoid steep hills, and will choose a longer route to avoid hills. The quiet suburban subdivision might be the preferred route for the bicyclist, even if some of the side streets are a less direct way to get from Point A to Point B.

Rediscovering my neighborhood and finding optimal bicycle routes is bringing me great joy compared to using a car.