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Atlantic Ave should definitely be given a road diet with bollard separated bike paths and just 3 lanes of traffic max, possibly 2. Between Wake Forest, Atlantic, and Capital there are currently 14-16 car lanes of north-south travel in this tiny area…
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That probably makes sense as Wake Forest connects to 440 but Atlantic does not. I’d back some protected bike lanes over that bridge. 
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A route that I take friends and family to get to that area with limited car interactions would be as follows:
Ride through oakwood/mordecai/lions park area from downtown, ultimately getting on the crabtree creek greenway at Raleigh Blvd/Crabtree Blvd. Get off the greenway at the Atlantic Avenue Crossing, staying on the sidewalk as you get off and taking a left onto Hodges. Turn right onto Laurelbrook and then follow to the backside of Iron Works. This will keep you off of Atlantic, will eliminate a crossing with Capital and will have you riding through only bicycle friendly neighborhoods and greenways. Mapping it from Brewery Bhavana, it is around a 5 mile ride.
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Yeah in order for this area to be safe for anyone outside a car, there needs to be either a protected bike track and wider sidewalks or shared use paths on each side with crosswalks at every intersection.
This area is still relatively industrial so medium to heavy duty trucks still frequently use this road, which makes it unsafe for all road users outside a car.
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I was at Ponysaurus for the Canes game Saturday and the whole development was packed. Lines out the door for beer and ice cream, full restaurants, couldn’t have been a better vibe.
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Ahhh, parking, no weed smell, no bums, clean. Business thrives.
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No weed smell on 4/20? Lame
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Yeah every time I’ve been downtown it’s been so hard to breathe with the smell of marijuana but the clean car smoke definitely helps 
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Long time lurker, first time commenter. Felt the need to chime in because this is on my ebike commute route to work. All of the routes already mentioned definitely work. The entrance from the dead-end road over the railroad tracks and Pedan Steel St. are the only two that might not be passable in the future. Both seem to be absent from the future maps of the area. I’d be more than happy if they stay open since they are the most direct routes.
What I have found is that with an ebike you can safely get from Crabtree Blvd. to Hodges St. using the side roads that connect to Capital and then a few hundred feet on Capital to turn onto Hodges.
The green light for the Crabtree traffic and the left turn light for Capital traffic onto Crabtree gives you about a minute to make your way down Capital with little to no traffic. This seems to be the most direct route for now. From there I think Laurelbrook will provide the most direct/least traveled route to the Iron Works. I’ve thought about this a lot since I’m a climber, live super close, and will be frequenting the new climbing gym several times a week. I’ll be able to halve my driving mileage once the gym opens!
Love the DTRaleigh forum btw.
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Thanks for the first-hand report. This does seem like an intriguing route for sure as those service roads offer a nice refuge off Capital where you can kind of “time” the traffic.
If anyone else has any experience, please share. I’m secretly hoping that other lurkers, maybe people in planning, can see that people are trying to make these connections and a more direct bike path would be very much used. 
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I live near the corner of Wake Forest and Whitaker Mill and routinely ride downtown from my house. Usually on an ebike, sometimes on a regular bike.
I definitely feel safer on the ebike on the more questionable parts of my rides. Being able to get up to speed quickly and maintain some speed uphill really makes me feel a lot more comfortable in traffic. I can move through intersections like Whitaker Mill and Atlantic quickly, and the less time spent in an intersection like that the better. I can crank up the assist and cruise at 20+ mph uphill to get over the bridge on Atlantic and back into a comfortable bike lane much faster. I can pretty much keep up with traffic downtown, which makes riding there feel safer when theres a lot of traffic.
I generally will just bite the bullet and ride over the Atlantic Ave bridge and take Wake Forest/Blount into downtown. This route feels fine to me with the exception of the bridge itself and the Capital Blvd intersection. Once you get to Brookside, the traffic really calms down and the bike lane feels like an actual bike lane. I think in the future, as pedestrian and bike traffic increases in the Iron Works/East End Market area, a road diet and traffic calming measures on Atlantic from Hodges/greenway to Brookside would make a lot of sense. It would be a great primary bike route connection from the greenway into downtown. Like evan.j.bost. said above.
Another route I use is I’ll head west to Five Points on Whitaker Mill, then just take Glenwood to downtown. I find myself using this route more often on the return leg of the trip for whatever reason. Maybe it feels a little safer in the dark when Im coming back home, idk. The stretch of Glenwood between Peace and Five Points is probably equally as sketchy as the Atlantic bridge, and longer. Sometimes I’ll cut through Five Points and go St Marys into downtown instead.
There’s a third route that my fiance and I recently scoped out and it looks pretty promising. If youre starting from Whitaker Mill and Wake Forest, head west through the neighborhood streets of your choice towards Roanoke Park and/or Ajja. Head south on Fairview over the railroad tracks and onto the access road along Capital. Use the little greenway thing to go under the Wade/Capital intersection, then take West St into downtown. Havent ridden this one yet but gonna try it out this week. This may be the new go-to route for me.
Sorry for the wall of text. I can post an image of the third route later if the description is unclear. And will report back with how it goes once I ride it.
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Thanks for the perspective. I have done the West Street to Fairview route and that is actually very easy. I used to go to Five Points from downtown and I’ll do that any day over riding Glenwood. The ebike makes it easy as Fairview is quite the incline toward Five Points.
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I have done the West/Fairview route several times, on foot and on a bike. It has improved since they repaved the service road between Wade and Fairview. You can also use sidewalk along Wade to get from the end of the small greenway to the Wade/Scales intersection, instead of using Fairview.
When heading up Fairview to Five Points, you will encounter Fairview’s one way portion at the Fairview/Scales intersection, so if you don’t want to ride the wrong way, you’ll need to take a different route.
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Maybe a dumb question but what’s wrong with Wake Forest to atlantic? I did it today and it seemed fine. The bridge has a pretty nice bike lane.
are you on an ebike and/or an experienced cyclist?
i ride this stretch a lot, and if you’re slow going over that bridge, it can be tough and scary. lots of large vehicles, and drivers looooove to tear this road up. look at the burnout tracks right in front of iron works
Same. I drive that stretch without issue. It only even takes me like 20 seconds with how fast I’m going…
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It just comes down to experience and comfort. Not everyone wants to ride over that bridge and at least in my circles, some have small children in tow. They don’t even consider it.
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Yeah I’ve been riding around Brooklyn and Queens since before they built up much bike infrastructure so I’m probably just cavalier and stupid. Definitely appreciate the need for better connectivity. Be safe everyone!
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this is where the e-bike can really help smooth out hills and stop signs and turns. a number of the brands have some easy ‘hacks’ to increase your top speed assistance if terrain allows. and with short trips, unless you really want to work, max power can easily provide enough juice on most models.