The only real alternative I am aware of would be the Rose Canyon Bike Path. You would need to take Balboa west all the way down to about the 5 before heading north on Sante Fe. That ride down Balboa is not the most comfortable for avoiding high speed traffic.

I live not too far from you. For my previous job I would commute to from my place to Eastgate Mall and 805. Doing that I would take the Genesee canyons going in. I never really felt unsafe as the bike lanes were pretty wide, but I understand they are intimidating. The one spot to make sure to watch for would be the 52 off-ramps. When heading north, the west bound 52 to northbound Genesee has no stop and cars come off it pretty fast. Short crossing though and you have plenty of visibility to see them coming. Also, of the many many times I did that commute, I made that light at the bottom of this hill like maybe 5 times. That light hated me and never wanted to let me carry my momentum up the hill. Only other thing I would mention (and this may have changed) but I felt the drivers in the UTC area there in the mornings were some of the worst, most oblivious drivers anywhere in the city.

It's not a bad commute at all and I think you would get used to it pretty quick. I might suggest giving the ride a shot with a friend on a weekend when there is a little less traffic and get a feel for it.

I also live near Genesee and Balboa.

Freeway ramps can be a little tricky, especially if you're not a vehicular cyclist. Going south, both of the 52 ramps are down hill and I always take the full traffic lane well before I reach the first ramp. It completely eliminates the crossing conflict and it's relatively easy because I'm usually going 35mph or more. I've actually hit the speed limit of 45mph there a few times. I stay out in the lane until after I pass the second ramp, making sure that the drivers coming off the ramp see me before moving over. Having a bright headlight on my helmet helps as I point it right at them and shake my head to oscillate the light that they see. North is different because the first ramp is a not a high speed ramp. It's a corner with a light but you're still going down hill fast. I still tend to take the lane on that one to avoid a right hook or pull out but a lot of times I miss the light and it's like any other intersection (on a high speed down hill). The next ramp is on the uphill side though so you'll tend to be going slow and you'll just have to watch and possibly wait for cars to go by before crossing. Don't trust them to stop or even notice you.

Most of the rest of it is not too bad. There are a few other places I take the lane but they aren't as critical as the freeway ramps. High speed ramp access to/from surface roads should be banned.

You could also work your way over to the Santa Fe/Rose Canyon bike path and go up Gilman through UCSD. Coming back that way is a bit tricky though since you have to deal with high speed ramp access from Balboa to/from Morena which is relatively easy going west/north down hill and a bit more tricky going south/east up hill. Again, I find that taking the lane makes this easier but it helps to have vehicular cycling skills.

When I go through UCSD, I generally take Gilman to Mandeville Ln to a little path west of Library Walk, to the walkway near the main library, to Hopkins Dr, working my way back to North Torrey Pines, avoiding the I-5 ramps on Genesee altogether. If you want to stay on roads and avoid shared paths, you can take Gilman all the way over to Voigt and still avoid Genesee. It's a little longer but no pedestrians to deal with except at intersections/crosswalks and the occasional jaywalker. Going south, I'll hit Voigt and from there go to Campus Point Dr., and then Genesee, still avoiding the I-5 ramps.

I'm prone to taking the Rose Canyon bike path when going north and Genesee when going south. The high speed ramp situations tend to be more down hill in those directions, which tends to make them easier to deal with.

I agree with billd's general concept of taking the full lane well before the 52 ramps on Genesee and carrying bright lights. I know these lights are expensive, but in this case the $80-$200 you spend on bright headlights and tail lights will be well worth the cost. If you want to take it further, a dash cam (or handlebar cam) would be good too.

tampig:Thanks, everyone, for your input! I had no idea there were so many alternatives to just going straight along Genesee. I've been reading these forums and "Bicycling Street Smarts", but the ride still is intimidating for me. If I'm going north (and uphill) on Genesee, approaching the 52 off-ramp, am I right in thinking that I'm not supposed to take the lane there because I would be moving so slowly compared to traffic?

It's not quite that simple.

It is true that it's usually more comfortable to take the lane when you're going faster but I take the lane in lots of slow places too.

In general, the issue with a freeway off-ramp is the speed of people coming off the freeway and having your path and their path crossing. If you take the lane, you will probably be OK but the probability of extreme motorist anger is very high. Most people will be riding at around 5-6mph at that point. Drivers are looking for cars there but there's a long merging space so they aren't looking that hard. A bike will tend to get ignored. There's a bike lane there and the right lane is wide enough that you don't really have to worry about close passes from your left when you're in the bike lane. At that slow speed and riding in the bike lane, you just need to worry about the people coming off the ramp. I generally try to time an opening and move over as quickly as possible across the ramp. It's a very messed up spot.

Going west on Balboa to Santa Fe is not so bad. You're going fast down hill again and taking the lane is pretty easy and I usually don't get grief there due to speed. The only real trick is timing a slot between the cars coming from south bound Morena onto Balboa. I do this one a lot and the more you do it, the easier it gets.

It's more tricky to go east on Balboa. You're going up hill and you need to deal with a weird cross over interchange. I take the lane there even though it's slow because riding on the line there puts me right in the cross-over space where people are merging both right and left, which is deadly. I almost always catch abuse when doing this because as we all know the left lane is made of cooties.

Oh yes, I second Shady John. It's perfectly fine to walk across any of these dangerous intersections like a pedestrian. I'm also all for riding some of the dangerous stretches on the sidewalk if you need to. Don't put yourself in danger just for the sake of riding on the street in a "proper" fashion.

I don't remember if you mentioned what kind of bike you'll be riding, but if it's a mountain bike, have you considered riding through the Marian Bear Natural Memorial Park? I personally have not gone through this park before, but it does connect Genesee to Governor Dr and bypasses some of the CA52 mess. Zoom your google map to the intersection of Lodi Place and Lodi Street and you'll see the nature trail in that area. It might be worthwhile to go through it and explore your options on a weekend. Since Genesee isn't perfectly straight north-south in that area, this detour may not be too far out of your way.

You can definitely go through Marian Bear to connect to Rose Canyon bike path:

http://www.strava.com/activities/118774744

Some caveats:

1) There are a couple of trails through. For you on a hybrid, you'll want to take the wider paths; i.e. you'll probably want to avoid the narrow single track trail that runs through the oaks along the south end of the park (in the Strava track link above, I mostly rode the south single track as much as possible, but you can see the wider paths through the open parts of the park).

2) There's a lot of poison oak, especially around the single track trail. I am pretty sensitive to poison oak and I am very careful not to brush against it (leaves and branches--note that it's a deciduous plant, and in the winter you'll see a lot of bare sticks that aren't very distinctive, but which still carry the urushiol oil irritant). I am able to ride through Marian Bear without getting any poison oak on me, or just minimal spots on my lower legs, but there are places where at least half of the challenge of mountain bike riding is taking a line to avoid the PO, as much as to fit the terrain. If you stick to the wider paths you're probably fine, just be aware of the issue.

3) There's no official RR track crossing. You follow the path to the tracks in a location where you have good line of sight along the tracks in both directions, then you pick your bike up and cross over. There are frequent Coaster trains during commute hours. They travel at a pretty good speed--probably 50ish mph, but definitely not 70 or 80 mph. I spent my youth crossing railroad tracks so I'm comfortable doing this, but never complacent. If you have a good view in both directions and start your crossing when all is clear, then even if a train appears around the bend while you're crossing, you have time to make it over.

4) Going into Marian Bear from northbound Genessee doesn't completely take out the freeway crossing issues.

5) There's some water to deal with in the winter months, depending on where you go.

6) Some people are afraid to go through the park, believing that there are child molesters and rapists lying in wait on the trails and in the bathrooms. There have been some incidents in the past (then again, there have been incidents in most parks in a city the size of San Diego). I haven't had any issues. If I were female I would likely be less willing to go through there alone at times when the park is not very populated (i.e. weekday early mornings)

Bike train? :-P Not sure there are many takers or if a group would help...

Looks like Genesee would actually be a shorter if hillier route for me, may give it a shot tomorrow morning to see what the 52 ramps looked like. It's been a while since I've been that way. The I-5 ramps are probably easier to avoid with some UCSD detours; I go down the I-5 to get to Sorrento Valley so no comment there.