I was wondering if you had any suggestions on the safest route from William Cannon and Westgate to the Barton Creek mall. I am trying to start riding to work but it all looks a bit dangerous. Thanks I appreciate any suggestions.

I am definitely no expert on S. Austin routes, but looking at a map, it looks like there's lots of connectivity in some of those neighborhoods. For example, it looks to me like one could get across Slaughter either via Gail -> Briar Ridge, or via Curfew. Then, I might consider crossing W. Cannon via West Gate (although I don't know what traffic's like on West Gate -- or any of these streets, for that matter). Finally, I'd probably cross Ben White via Banister, then take Banister around to take a left on Garden Villa, then jump over to S. 5th street. From there, it's pretty much straight north to Barton Springs (5th becomes Dawson). I usually hang a left on Barton Springs and then take a right just before Lamar. Cross via the Pfluger bike/ped bridge, ride the hike/bike trail to maybe 100 yards to the trail heading north, up Shoal Creek. Then, I hop onto West and head north. From there, there are several surface street routes, or you can jump onto the SCB trail/sidewalk and head up parallel to Lamar all the way to the hospitals.

>From Dawson north, I can attest that the routes aren't that bad, for the most part. Pretty nice, especially if the weather's nice.

The two times I went on long rides out of town to the south, I used
Manchaca for a good chunk of the southern part of Austin. There's a long
stretch with very wide striped shoulders - and north of that, you have the
option to hop over to Emerald Forest (route 31) which was really nice.
Stassney was a good connector, but I think that some of Manchaca south of
Stassney reverts to 4 narrow lanes with no shoulder.

http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/bicycle/d2s.htm

Lane's comments about Route 31 between Ben White and the river are spot-on
as usual. A very nice ride overall.