A very odd sort of question...
 

Is there a place in the US or other countries where it's bicycle tolerant (or just safe enough to ride) but with little to no cyclists? I envision long open roads in the middle of plains or lonely mountain passes, hopefully with decent shoulders. I just feel a need to get away from people but be someplace safe enough to not be runned over (purposely, I know I can be runned over anywhere due to various reasons) or harassed and maced like that guy in TN.

I have found Wyoming to have the best shoulders of any state I've been in. Perfect for cycling (if you can handle the wind).

The condition of the roads were excellent. I suspect they get a lot of oil and gas revenue for highway maintenance.

Any county road on any of the U.S. plains states are emtpy, also.

Don't worry about getting run over purposely. There are bigger concerns.

The Nebraska Sandhills are good. Highway 2 is a great route to take. #20 isn't bad either.

More concerns******************************

Lots of places in the western half of the US are like that. Even heavily populated California, if you get away from the coast, has many little-used secondary roads in the coast ranges and Sierra. Even riding Hwy 89 through a National Park (Lassen) really doesn't have much traffic.

+1

Highway 20 in NW Nebraska. Nebraska is a great place to ride.

http://i783.photobucket.com/albums/y...8de8b18a3a.jpg

It isn't an odd question at all. My wife and I often plan our routes for that exact reason. We only encountered 6 other touring cyclists on our cross country trip which was mostly on Highway 20. The other reason we chose Hwy. 20 is that it is the only contiguous highway across the US. It spans the country from Newport, OR to Boston, MA.

There's even wonderful pockets along the CA coast. The Lost Coast has many awesome roads, paved and otherwise, that have little to no traffic and the few motorists I have encountered there have always treated me well. Parts of Hwy 36 and a few other east/west roads to the coast have similar conditions, if a bit more traffic and less steep hills.

If you want to avoid issues, just roll the forest service roads in OR and CA. I can ride many hundreds of miles on mostly paved roads with small gravel connections in the coast hills near my house with less than a car every quarter hour going by. When traffic is that light, many motorists stop to make conversation and ask directions, since they assume (usually correctly) that I know where we are and how to get to whatever site they were looking for.

Ranch dogs are a bigger concern.

Without a doubt here in Australia ... its the called outback :) I don't recall seeing a cyclist on the road pretty much the whole of my tour out to Mt Augusta and differently no one from Carnarvon till I got home (well back to the big smoke) which was about 1,600 kilometres. Riding this sort of country does not seem to attract to many cyclists (or motorists for that matter :))

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Andrew

Canadian Rockies ... Hwy 11 ...

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3259/2...7300ea39_z.jpg


Along side the Canadian Rockies ... The Cowboy Trail, Hwy 22 ...

http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4009/4...d571ac69_z.jpg


Running through central Alberta ... Hwy 13 ...

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3165/2...41e835c6_z.jpg

Well, actually, just about anywhere in Alberta. :)

And most of Manitoba, although shoulders aren't as prevalent there.


And a good portion of Australia ...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/machka-...7602419256784/


There's also Scotland ... and the west coast of France ...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/machka-...7630125688286/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/machka-...7631877281412/

Ditto the note above about Wyoming. Oregon is really good, too, in general, for road and shoulder quality. As far as large cities go, I've found Portland OR, Denver CO, and Tucson AZ to be very fine riding.

Laos is a poor country with a low population density. Many of the roads have been improved in recent years, however. The result makes for a great place to tour. Pretty scenery, little traffic, interesting culture, and extremely low prices.http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=360477

The Great Divide Mountain Bike Route.

Minnesota and Wisconsin (at least the SE MN and SW WI areas I frequent) fit your bill.

Ride the Adventure Cycling Southern Tier Route, Western Section right now. You'll have plenty of alone time.

http://www.adventurecycling.org/rout...southern-tier/

Great name for a ride journal: Runned over and Maced in TN.

Cuba is another place which sounds like it has near-deserted roads in the countryside. The embargo makes it problematic for Americans to visit, however.

The other obvious solution is long distance rail-trails, such as the GAP (Pennsylvania/Maryland), KATY (Missouri), or P'tit Train du Nord (Quebec). I believe the latter is now paved (it wasn't when I rode it, but had a good crushed stone surface).

I can't imagine too many cyclists being a problem on tour in any but a VERY few times and places. On the most used AC routes you might bump into a few cyclists per day at most. The one exception I have seen was the Pacific Coast and that mostly only because there was an organized charity ride that was on approximately the same schedule as me.

Off of established touring routes if you run into a handful of touring cyclists in a week it is a lot.

The dangers you list seem pretty far fetched to me. I wouldn't give them much thought. Relax and go touring just about anywhere that seems appealing to you.

The Four Corners area in the USA (check out the forest roads used by the San Juan Huts), Northern Laos south to Van Vieng (avoid it around Chinese New Year though), Baja, along the Appenines in Northern Italy -- there are TONS of places.

thats some great info! ive been looking for the same thing, a solo cyclists utopia! i find that cycling in my area is more of a social thing, there are some that commute solo or whatever but most gravitate towards group rides. also where i live is far too congested and the drivers are less then bike tolerant or aware that there are laws supporting cycling. what i desire is long solo rides where traffic isnt much of a concern either because i am out of it (side roads, wide shoulders, bike paths) or because they are tolerant of cyclists but out of a big city (i hate people lol). i think ill have to plan a few trips and from there look into a place to move to fit that dream.

NW Ohio along the former US30, err Lincoln Highway. Very few cyclists in that part of the country and when I was on it last summer I was typically going 10 minutes in between seeing another vehicle or any kind. Watch out for some nice artwork painted on buildings as well. Quite a few communities have had a guy come in and paint murals on the side of buildings in their towns. Amazing the difference in traffic since the four lane went in. I was shocked at the lack of automobile traffic. I wasn't prepared for it. I am wandering about US30...I thought it went all the way across the country just like US20 and it was the first of the cross country highways.

You are absolutely correct!
We did some checking and Highways 20, 30 and 6 all cross the country. Highway 30 starts in Astoria, OR, and terminates in Atlantic City, NJ. I was wrong in my statement. I should have said Highway 20 is the longest contiguous road from coast to coast in the United States. However, it is not even the longest contiguous road. I just found out that Highway 20 is split by Yellowstone National Park, so technically it is not contiguous. It is just the longest. Highway 6 gets the honor of being the longest continuous road, but it starts in Bishop, California, not on the coast. It terminates in Provincetown, MA., so it does not go coast to coast.

Thanks for the information. Highway 20 was still a great ride regardless of what I thought:)

I can speak for Europe, if you are considering to ride in wild places where cyclists are welcome, Scandinavian and in general northern countries are what you are lookin for: Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Island (if you don't mind some deep river crossing inland) all are extremely bike friendly, with low people density and breathtaking places.

Actually think back to 2012, DUH!, I would have to agree with US20 in most of NY. I planned to pick it up from the state capitol building but somewhere missed it and ended up picking it up about 5 miles west of Albany and took it all the way into NE Ohio and took it on through Cleveland last year. Through NY is incredible. 4 lane highway with wide shoulders(8-10 feet wide) and very little traffic. You have I-90 and I-88 that diverts all the traffic away and the road, at least in 2012 was in spectacular shape. The one campsite I had on night two of the 2012 trip I still wish I knew who owned that property. Very strange layout and appearance of the property, not sure if the state owned it or if it was privately owned**********?? Spent a couple nights later at the indian reservation truck stop. Last year spent one of the night at a high school right beside the highway. Quite a few nice stealth campsites right beside the highway.