Thanks... that's the bottom line judgement I needed help with.

I guess most roads are 1 lane for each way? If you time your ride out of rush hour, is trafic light enough on these roads for cars to give you space? I'm guessing if you are passed 5 times/minute or less then traffic is light enough to share the road comfortably. If most roads were like that, then stumbling on a busier road, and staying on the shoulder till the next turnoff if its too hectic could be ok if it happens just 2-4 times during the trip.

I can see though how cars going 100kph+ are not going to share the road with the same patience as cars going 50-70kph in the city.

Does the strategy of going through very small towns (waterdown, milton), and off the routes that would connect the larger towns, a trusty way to avoid traffic? Seems like hamilton-bradford-paris-cambridge would be a substantial detour. -- we like our exercise as lazy as possible