Paul Barnard

I am considering joining a friend for a few hundred miles of his cross country tour. He's not dead set on a route, so we have some flexibility as to where we can go. Let's arbitrarily say I wanted to ride from Chattanooga TN to Meridian MS. How should I go about selecting a route? Interstates are obviously out of the question. It's very difficult to look at a map and know what the road will be like. For example HWY 67 and HWY 49 in south MS would both show up as divided 4 lane highways and appear essentially similar on a map. Most of 49 would be a two wheeled version of Russian Roulette, whereas 67 has bike lanes and shoulders for most of its duration. It's a wonderful riding road. How the heck do you manage to avoid death trap roads when you are going through an area that is completely unfamiliar? Beyond that, how do you select roads that afford nice scenery and relatively low traffic? If I toured coastal MS, I could do it exclusively on low traffic lower speed county roads that I know too be safe. I'd do this based on my knowledge. Without having that intimate knowledge of a different area, how should I go about route selection? If this is like almost every other topic on the board and has been discussed ad nauseum, I apologize, my search fu may be off a little.

nancy sv

We try to get a general idea from looking at maps, but then we talk with the local people to get their perspective. I think you'll find people are more than happy to help you figure out a route!

Since we are out for an extended period of time, we don't sweat the small stuff - anything less than 300 miles isn't that big of a deal for us. If we find ourselves on an ucky, boring road for a few hundred miles, we just tune it out and pedal. If you are only riding for a couple hundred miles, you wouldn't want the whole time to be in ucky scenery, so will have to pick your route more carefully.

pasopia

I usually have a final destination, and a rough idea of how I want to get there. Then I just try to find the smallest roads on the map that don't seem like they will be impossible to navigate. This usually works out, but I have definitely changed my route mid day before if I end up on a busier road than I want to.

You can also google the area you are going through and try and see if you can find someone else that has posted a route online.

enfilade

i use Google Earth to plan my routes. haven't done any touring yet but i can't imagine it being much more difficult to find the right roads. you can see almost everything on there. road width, it even has a little ruler to measure the distance between towns, and many people upload photos to a website called Panoramio, which lets it's users pin their pictures to the spot where they were taken in Google Earth

so you get a general idea of what landscape you'll be riding through. it's helped me discover some really good roads near my hometown.

oh yeah you can see hills on it too

i overlooked that once, went out on the ride and found myself at the bottom of a HUGE hill

jamawani 

You may not like what I have to offer since it does take some time. But the resources are far better than when I started touring 25 years ago. Since I don't have an odometer, I can only guess how many miles I have on my touring bike - more than 100,000 - most of which is from actual tours. And the majority of these were my own routes.

There are two factors that are of greatest importance in choosing a route - traffic volume and shoulder width. I think traffic volume is more important of the two. If you have a road with almost no traffic, it hardly matters if it doesn't have shoulders - the ideal riding environment. If you have a road with a lot of traffic, shoulders are absolutely essential for safety - but the riding with be filled with traffic noise. Other factors to consider are parks, camping, river crossings.

In the old days you could order "Traffic Volume" maps from state DOTs. Nowadays, they are generally available on line. Some states have online bike maps as well. Iowa's is excellent because it gives traffic volume in numbers that are important to cyclists. Arizona's is only so-so because it is too general and the shoulder info is mixed. Getting accurate info on shoulders is tough. Of course, if there are Google Maps "Street Views" you can always verify.

Mississippi, apparently, does not have a statewide Traffic Volume Map - only county maps.
https://www.gomdot.com/Divisions/Inte...olumeMaps.aspx
For example - LaFayette County / Oxford
https://www.gomdot.com/Divisions/Inte...ayette_adt.pdf
Notice that Hwy 334 has far less traffic than Hwy 6.
In fact, until you get close to Oxford, it is ideal.

Speaking of numbers - here's a breakdown.
Less than 500 vehicles per day - Heavenly
500 to 999 - Quite nice, no need for shoulder
1000 to 1999 - O.K. but you have to use a little caution
2000 to 3999 - Doable. A shoulder really helps.
4000 to 7999 - Unpleasant, even dangerous without shoulder.
8000 Plus - Nasty, noisy, and stinky. Insane without shoulder.

Here's Georgia's statewide Traffic Volume Map -
https://www.gomdot.com/Divisions/Inte...ayette_adt.pdf
The nice thing about it is you can spot the low traffic highways by color.

As for highways - outside of the West and High Plains, US Highways tend to have fairly high traffic, high speeds, and a lot of trucks. Rural US Highways that parallel Interstates are a 50/50 shot. Sometimes they are alright. Other times they have a lot of development - thus traffic. Same goes for state Primary Highways. If they go directly between two cities - they will have a lot of traffic. As a cyclist, you have to be willing to take the long and winding road - if you want to get away from the traffic.

Similarly, most state DOT websites have county highway maps which show paved county roads. These usually have low traffic volumes and low speeds - like 45 mph. It takes a little work, but if you combine county roads with low-traffic stretches of state highways, you can put together an excellent tour - anywhere.

J

PS - ALWAYS!!! Check out bridges across major rivers. Some ban bicycles. Others are extremely narrow and are death traps. Others are new, with shoulders and fine views. I prefer to cross the big rivers on ferries - but there are very few left. St. Francisville is disappearing this year.

Machka 

I look at a basic paper map ... and start riding on a likely looking road. If it is really bad, I try to get across to another better-looking road. In all the touring I've done and all the riding in general that I've done, I've only been on a small handful of roads that I'd consider "bad" and only for a very brief period of time.

Cyclebum

I use Google maps and/or Bikely.com to plan my route. For long tours, I generally stick to US highways which usually have a shoulder and grades no steeper than 6%. As long as there is a shoulder, I'm not too concerned about traffic count. For shorter tours, state highways play a bigger role as I am usually making a circle of sorts. Always carry a state map.

I sometimes use Google Earth to check potential trouble spots.

Cyclebum

Short of going to the trouble of getting traffic counts, I just try to avoid major population centers.

Just for fun, I ran a route from Chattanooga to Meridian on Bikely.com. Link here. 365 miles of rollers and pine forest, mostly state highways, but no major cities. Looks like US highways do parallel most or all of the interstate route to Meridian, but that takes you thru Birmingham and Tuscaloosa. OTOH, it's 50 miles shorter and not as hilly.

valygrl

I ask jamawani, and he tells me where the good roads are.

Seriously. I think his advice is great.

On an early tour, I dd some seat-of-the-pants routing, and found that visitor information centers / chambers of commerce often had county-level maps with back roads on them, and that a little asking around about traffic and shoulder helped *somewhat.* It's pretty rare that non-cyclists can tell what a good biking road *is* but sometimes they can tell what it *isn't* - like they can tell you not to go on a certain road at a certain time of day because that's rush-hour for the mill workers, etc.

For my two overseas trips, I used a combo of Lonely Planet cycling guides and local cycling guides. I've also used a cycle touring guide of Colorado.

Lastly, I generally choose my routes specifically for roads and terrain that I want to ride, rather than particular end points. So my focus starts with interesting, beautiful and safe roads, and the route springs from those, rather than a destination. Sure, sometimes there are some icky transit sections that just must be dealt with, but when you start with a focus on the riding, rather than the start and end, you can end up with a better overall experience.

Dahon.Steve

I use a GPS to create routes through cities, small towns, country roads and subdivisions while avoiding the highway at all cost! The Garmin software has highways marked in red that you have to avoid.

Yan 

I use Google maps to figure out the general direction of travel, and then buy maps from gas stations as I go along. Gas station attendants are a good resource as well.

Machka 

As are Tourist Information places. You can often pick up free tourist maps in Tourist Information places. These maps will often show the "scenic" routes to different places, and will point out things you might want to see and do as well as providing accommodation and restaurant information.

The "scenic" routes often have slower traffic, but depending on the day of the week or the season may have more traffic ... just something to be aware of.

Most of my tours involve several stops at Tourist Information places.

zoltani

I agree with jamawani, take a look at the annual average daily traffic (AADT) tables and maps. Once you find the AADT of the highways in the states you will pass through take a map and a highlighter and outline your route. It is nice to have a pretty detailed map so if the road conditions are not as you expected you can easily go off of your planned route. Locals are a good resource, but if they don't cycle themselves then you might get some bogus info, so bike shops are a good place to ask.

Yeah, and the google map street view is a very nice planning tool, but it depends on coverage.

staehpj1

One thing that helps where the road you want is not covered is to use street view on a road that crosses the one you are interested in. In that case, you can look down the road you want from one that is covered.

I guess I am more traffic tolerant than some. I have not found the traffic count maps all that useful. The ones I have seen list all of the counts for the smaller back roads but I spend more time on larger roads where they don't list the volume. Sometimes I use the smaller back roads if I get somewhere and the road I am on is unpleasant or the mood just strikes me to explore, but then I usually just kind of improvise the route.

Paul Barnard

WOW! Outstanding information. I have piddled with Google some and it does help. It's labor intensive, but I have time to kill. I hadn't thought to look at state DOT websites for traffic count info. I hadn't thought about bridges either, but now that you mention that, it is a VERY real concern. I'll have to play with Bikely some.

For the kind of touring I'd like to do, I don't care to stealth camp. I'd prefer to campground hop. A warm shower and clean facilities are worth the 15 or so bucks. What I have been doing is finding campgrounds/state parks etc. 50-60 miles apart in the general direction I want to travel and connecting the dots with Google maps.

cyclezealot

I don't think just looking at map tells you information such as.. Does the road have a wide bike lane.. ?. Instead of crafting my own route, I am dependent upon the experts to find such. I use Adventure Cyclings' bike maps to search for the best possible routing.

lighthorse

Paul,
Jamawani has some really good points. When I planned my last cross country I first figured out where I was going to cross the Mississippi. Not many places a bicycle can cross that river. That done I then began studying my AAA maps and made sure to avoid all of the big cities.

Choosing between available highways that then fit into my general plan was an art as much as it was a science. My preferences are a bit different than Jammawani's. My first preference is that the road have shoulders to ride on never mind the traffic count. If I can't ensure that there are shoulders on the road then I want a very low traffic count.

And finally, after making your choices be sure to have optional routes in your head every day on the trip. Many was the day that my route changed due to road/traffic conditions. Just be flexible and patient. If the traffic and road conditions on your planned route are not safe when you actually see them, then don't hesitate to change your plan.

Good luck on your ride

Machka 

Yeah, but ... who cares? I don't need a bike lane in order to ride my bicycle. I just ride my bicycle on whatever road is available. I'd rather not depend too much on anyone to tell me where I should ride ... in general I prefer to find out myself.

cyclezealot

Machka.. Say there is not bike lane. Would you not prefer a road with a lesser volume of traffic.. I recall roads I'd use to avoid high traffic volumes . But, should a problem occur such a gridlock, favorite roads I'd normally frequent would become a nightmare.

jamawani 

And yet by definition, a road with shoulders will be a busier road - thus, the justification for the shoulders in the first place. Rural roads with shoulders will be more recently constructed or reconstructed routes. Not only will the road have moderate or heavy traffic in most instances, but speeds will be fairly high since the road is usually a through route and has long sight lines and low grades.

Yes, it is a matter of preference. A road with shoulders is quite safe for cycling although it will not have the magic that many cyclists seek. On roads without shoulders, the most dangerous time is what I call a "scissors" - when two cars in opposite directions meet right where I am cycling. With each doubling in traffic - potential scissors do not double, they quadruple. 2 cars (A & 1) yield A1. 4 cars (A, B, 1 & 2) yield A1, A2, B1 & B2. So, you are right, roads without shoulders get pretty tricky as traffic increases.

Impaired driving is another factor that is extremely difficult to determine. There are two main types - drunk driving and cell phone driving. For drunk driving I have used caution on weekends, especially holiday weekends, and around reservoirs. For cell phone use, there is not much one can do. It is worse in town than on the highway, but I have done a couple of unscientific counts and have found up to half of all drivers talking on the phone. Shoulders aren't much good with cell phone users - thus, traffic count becomes more important. In fact, a winding, back road may discourage cell phone use.

In addition, people are in much more of a hurry nowadays so speeds on all roads have increased - regardless of the posted limits. I'm an old geezer, so remember a time when the mandatory speed limit was 55 mph and going over 60 was risky - Ha-ha. Now 70 mph on two-lane roads is pretty common. Also, with exurban residential development, far more people have long commutes into metro areas. In the olden days, people rarely went over 35 or 40 on farm roads. Now, people are driving 50 on them.

Oh, yes. One more thing about shoulders. There is something that I call "snooze bars". These are the grooves that are cut into the pavement on the edge of highways to alert drivers that they are veering off the road. Depending on the width of the shoulder and the placement of the snooze bars, they can be a real danger for cyclists. If the shoulder is narrow and the snooze bars are right in the middle, you are almost forced to ride in traffic. Yet, drivers assume you should be over on the shoulder. So, it makes it MORE dangerous than if there were no shoulders at all. Anyone with a good deal of experience will confirm this nasty hassle. Even if the snooze bars are on the lane line and there is enough shoulder room, often the shoulder disappears at places like bridges and culverts - forcing you to cross the snooze bars repeatedly into the traffic lane. Also, there are two types of snooze bars - the thin type (1/2 inch deep) which is easy to cycle over and the deep type (2 inches deep) which is impossible to bike over safely without throwing your bike. Of course, with snooze bars, you can hear the person veering off the road behind you as he/she is talking on the phone - so it is a two-edged sword.

Just a few additional thoughts.

Neil_B

Visit the state's Department of Transportation website and see if they have state bicycle maps. They often show the best routes.

xyzzy834

My very first choice is to use routes and maps from Adventure Cycling Association. Their routes are selected by experienced bike tourists who are often local to the areas being mapped. Their maps will include a list of bike touring friendly services along the way.

Next up, is google maps with street view. I pick a likely looking route and switch to street view mode to look at sample sections. From the street view I can see the nature of the road, how much shoulder area (if any), and get a very rough idea of the traffic by observing how many other cars are generally in the picture.

staehpj1

I tend to agree, but... Worse than no shoulder is one with a really lousy surface. It is miserable to ride on and drivers get mad if there is one and you don't.

On another topic, not related to your post... I generally prefer to avoid most "bike paths". There are some nice ones like the ones near Breckenridge and Frisco Colorado, and maybe some in Oregon, but in general I would rather ride on the road.

fotooutdoors

Bear in mind that I have only done 1 (600 mile) tour. For low population areas, I find my route by looking for the smallest (usually gray) roads on standard motorists' maps. This tends to keep me off dirt/gravel, but off of high-speed & volume roads.

For my segment through Chicago, I got more specialized (bike route) maps, and asked some questions on the regional forums. There was only 1 15-mile segment that I felt truly uncomfortable on, though there were sever 2-5 mile segments on 60mph divided highway (with wide berms). The segments I was uncomfortable on were not because there was not enough room for traffic to pass me (there was a very wide lane), but had more to do with the mindset of the traffic (I got buzzed, flipped off, threatened and sworn at for no reason by several drivers).

In general, I prefer a route that is scenic and low traffic. I don't need berms if there is limited traffic. However, for riding where cars will often meet each other at high speeds (45 and above), I wish to have a berm. City riding is a whole different subject...

Wogster

Any time you use a map that is not official, you need to be careful that it's fairly recent, one route near here is still highly recommended by many cyclists, but there has been a lot of building in the area in the last 4-5 years, and traffic is now worse then on some of the roads that are supposed to be really bad.