jamawani 

Gauvins -

I have done traffic count work for a number of cycling organizations.
I love poring over spreadsheets filled with numbers.(Sad, but true)
I hate programs that give you only one or two at a time.

The Winnepeg chart you have is an urban model.
Two things have happened to urban patterns in the past 50 years.
The morning and afternoon peaks have declined as fewer people have 8 to 5 jobs.
Also, the hub-and-spoke direction has become less pronounced as people work more in the suburbs.

But you are not going to be in urban settings for much of your trip.
Rural patterns and seasonal vacation travel are quite different.
Increasingly, rural people commute long distances into regional cities.
So, there are morning and afternoon peaks - often pronounced.
They tend to be earlier in the a.m. and later in the p.m. than the graph above.

People tend to use the most direct route with the highest speed limits.
Thus, it pays to use a longer, indirect route if you are riding at these times.
Rural traffic is heavily impacted by the presence of a state prison or factory.
Unless you are aware of it - or have AADT data - it may be a surprise,
but it can generate heavy traffic at shift change times.

Summer traffic volumes in vacation areas can be twice annual averages.
The Montana Bicycle Map uses summer, rather than annual, averages.
And still, this map doesn't catch weekend and holiday surges.

In western Washington US 2 is a two-lane highway completely inadequate for traffic volumes.
In both summer and winter there is heavy traffic from the Seattle metro heading to the mountains.
On Friday afternoons the eastbound lane can be a parking lot while there is little traffic westbound.
Sunday afternoons the stuation is reversed, with traffic heading back to Seattle.

For regional attractions, especially lakes and reservoirs, caution is required for impaired drivers.
For that reason, I limite my Friday and Sunday afternoon riding if near boating areas.
(Water managers have really cracked down on boating and drinking, but it remains a problem.)

On roads in or near national park, remember that drivers are probably unfamiliar with the roads.
Also, that drivers may be looking more at the scenery than the road - with screaming kids, too.
Park area graphs look much more like ths Sat/Sun curves on the Winnepeg chart.
In Yellowstone, if you ride from 6a to 9a and then from 5p to 7p - you'll have little traffic.
I've ridden Going to the Sun maybe 20 times - and always start at 5:00 or 5:30 - no traffic.

Hope this helps.