OK last night was a normal commute home, I counted 357, that's probably +/- 15.

I forgot to count on the first little section, that was maybe 5-10 cars, it's only like 100 yards.

Then turn left on the big artery (3 lanes each way) that leads to/past the interstate, I counted 160 in about half a mile til the freeway, and made it to about 300 while still on that road after the freeway. Turning onto the other major road, I got up to 356, and for the last mile and a half I take residential streets, only one more car passed me.

I have a 13.5 mile (each way) commuting route, and about nine miles are on a path. For some of that, it's bike only, and some of it is mixed use. I pass hundreds of people on bike and on foot. Or they pass me. I live in a densely populated place. My route is the most heavily used bike commuting route in the US.

That's where a Radbot or other pattern-blink taillight comes in handy; once you have their attention, most will take advantage of the otherwise empty road to give you all the room they can. It's just a matter of being able to say "I'm here and I'm relevant" in a way they catch from a good distance.

i counted again last evening and this morning for a total of 4 sets of data:

morning commute #1: 5 cars + 1 motorcycle
morning commute #2: 6 cars

evening commute #1: 3 cars
evening commute #2: 7 cars + 1 motorcycle


so ~6 passing motor vehicles is average for me over the course of 5 miles.

man i love mellow side-street bike commuting!

That's pretty awesome.

There's one very short stretch on my commute where I can move from Main Street to Meadow Lane (actual names), but most of the area between the suburb where I live and the suburb where I work is filled with an uninterrupted maze of cul-de-sacs. Picking a route through there would probably double the distance of my commute.

that's one of the most annoying failures of post-war suburban sprawl. the disconnectivity of it all can be maddening.

by comparison, this dense grid of interconnected main streets, secondary streets, and side streets pictured below represents the first couple miles of the neighborhoods i commute through on the far northside of chicago. there's usually a way to avoid the busy streets if you want to, without needing to go stupidly out of your way or doubling your distance.

Nice! My dad grew up in Chicago and had a job in HS delivering flowers. He's in his 70s and can still drive you to practically any address in the north or west side without consulting a map. That street grid is burned in his brain.

For kicks I mapped out a route from my house to the office that avoids high traffic roads as much as possible. It wasn't possible to avoid them completely because of a couple of creeks that are only bridged for high traffic roads and the lack of options around where I work, but it's mostly residential. I was surprised to find that it only adds a bit over two miles.

It kind of looks like the result of a fractal generator though. I might give it a try some day.

And winding/rolling terrain (i.e. many blind turns). We have that here, one of three routes between Eureka and Arcata; it's called Old Arcata Road, and is the second least safe route. I've ridden it a few times, but while it's a beautiful ride, the narrow shoulder and lots of fast traffic makes it a little too nerve-wracking for a regular commute.

You're assuming that 1. they're sober, and 2. they're paying some minimal attention to the road. You know what they say about "assume".

This is why I hate suburbs so much, and why I only have 2 viable route options for my commute, with one of them being noticeably less traffic and stressful than the other. We have arterial roads and neighborhood collector roads on roughly a 1x2 mile grid (1 mile between north/south streets, 2 miles between east/west streets), and then tons of one or two ways in/out developments inside those 2 square mile rectangles. Connections that are not major roads are nearly nonexistent.

I ride nearly 10 miles of rural roads on my commute, and have done it hundreds of times. I have not once had a problem with anyone not seeing me. But I still much prefer multilane arterial roads over 2-lane rural.

Most of my commute is on busy multi lane roads, no way I could count.

Good!

I prefer the safest route between Eureka and Arcata, which is Highway 101; flat, mostly straight with some gentle curves, an 8' colored shoulder, and rumble strips. The only issue is the 7 turn-offs, where I pay extra special attention, and make heavy use of my side mirror.

If either of those is untrue, then the only option is to pray death is quick and painless. The road type won't matter.

i counted again last evening and this morning for a total of 6 sets of data:

morning commute #1: 5 cars + 1 motorcycle
morning commute #2: 6 cars
morning commute #3: 4 cars

evening commute #1: 3 cars
evening commute #2: 7 cars + 1 motorcycle
evening commute #3: 1 car


so now with 3 full days of commuting data at hand, i feel confident enough to calculate a real average:

on average, i am passed by 4.67 motor vehicles per commute leg (5 miles).

let's just round that up to 5, and because my commute is 5 miles long, we can call that an average of ~1 passing motor vehicle per mile (1 pmvpm)

and i promise i'll stop doing this now