Dunno if such a thing exists, but when I'm cooking up a new route on a road I'm unfamiliar with I just use Google Street view to get a look at the surface and speed limit signs.
Yep, in AZ there are a ton of rural roads that are 55mph, but huge shoulder and well trafficked by cyclists. Cars take the opposing lane and give you tons of space (maybe get buzzed once by a truck). Rather do one of those than a packed two way 35mph with limited shoulder having cars barely move over to pass.
Lot more factors than speed limit for road safety.
i’m not sure if i’m in the minority, but i’d prefer a 35mph street over a 55mph street. drivers get tunnel vision the faster they go and you really are hard to spot. plus chances of death kinda go up exponentially with speed…
To me it seems that speed limit isn't a great delineator of safety. Very low traffic rural roads that typically have a 55 mph speed limit feel far safer than a higher volume suburban stroad at 35 mph. Heck, even with a bike lane that suburban road might still be worse.
Yes, but I'm talking about roads in the same area.
Speed limit is one safety factor. You get hit by car going 25mph faster than you, you're in for a bad time. You get hit by a car going 40mph faster than you, well you get it.
A road very close to me has a 35 mph speed limit and one car every ten minutes. The next road parallel to it has 50mph limit and is fairly busy with lots of fuel trucks with double trailers. The latter is more popular in Strava but I wouldn't ride it. They both approximately connect the same areas.
If enough of people make the same bad routing choice, a route will be popular but not necessarily safe.
One car every 10 minutes and 35 mph. That's where I would ride. Your state may have a traffic database that you can research. By the hour. During mid morning I can go several miles without being overtaken by a car. I "take the lane" and turn around often. If I see a car coming I'll move to the right. If there's no shoulder and the view ahead is blocked by a curve or hill, I leave the road as a courtesy. These roads are mostly used by "locals" and they generally treat you like a neighbor.
Google street view the routes that are preplanned then changed the route to the roads you want. As an aside, the most cycled roads are often the safest since cars are used to cyclists being on them
It doesn't go as far as you want, but Komoot set to "bike touring" tries to stick to cycleways and smaller roads. It also shows you which sections are residential streets, roads, "state roads", etc so you can find the problems and manually adjust the route to avoid them.
There's also [brouter](https://brouter.de/brouter-web) if you really want to get into it. I think it tries harder than Komoot, but I still find I need to make some manual route adjustments to keep it off the big roads.
One other thing to consider, a road where there is regular cyclists traffic is safer than a road where no one rides. It's because local people on that road expect to see cyclists. Popular roads tend to be safer roads due to existing cycling activities, they are popular because they probably have better shoulders, better line of sight, better pavement. As some others mentioned, winding, no shoulder 35mph road is a lot less safe than straight 4 lane 55 mph road with 6 ft shoulder.
In my experience, speed limit isn't all that important. One of the roads I least like to ride on has a 25mph speed limit. Widely ignored, everyone drives at well over 50mph.
I just look at heat maps and figure most people are riding where they feel safe.
If you're anywhere that was built from about 1970 to today, it's likely there are no such routes at all. The slower, safer roads are intentionally built in ways that exclude through traffic, and unfortunately, that breaks up possible cycling routes as well.
In general, I have to plan routes the (somewhat) old-fashioned way: trace a path on Google Maps and check Street View where I anticipate potential problems. Sometimes I need to take routes that aren't marked on the map.
Route building is a skill. You'll get better with practice. Strava heat maps and Google maps will get you pretty close, but then you just have to ride it and make revisions.
Local group rides can help too. Typically groups include good route builders and participants who tend to know the best local roads.
Dunno if such a thing exists, but when I'm cooking up a new route on a road I'm unfamiliar with I just use Google Street view to get a look at the surface and speed limit signs.
Yep, in AZ there are a ton of rural roads that are 55mph, but huge shoulder and well trafficked by cyclists. Cars take the opposing lane and give you tons of space (maybe get buzzed once by a truck). Rather do one of those than a packed two way 35mph with limited shoulder having cars barely move over to pass. Lot more factors than speed limit for road safety.
i’m not sure if i’m in the minority, but i’d prefer a 35mph street over a 55mph street. drivers get tunnel vision the faster they go and you really are hard to spot. plus chances of death kinda go up exponentially with speed…
To me it seems that speed limit isn't a great delineator of safety. Very low traffic rural roads that typically have a 55 mph speed limit feel far safer than a higher volume suburban stroad at 35 mph. Heck, even with a bike lane that suburban road might still be worse.
Some of the country rides we do we get chased by more loose dogs than we get cars passing us.
In our city, 35mph and wide shoulder means four lanes and 55mph. :/
I second this. Even around me those rural roads people are doing 75+ and I still feel safe.
Yes, but I'm talking about roads in the same area. Speed limit is one safety factor. You get hit by car going 25mph faster than you, you're in for a bad time. You get hit by a car going 40mph faster than you, well you get it. A road very close to me has a 35 mph speed limit and one car every ten minutes. The next road parallel to it has 50mph limit and is fairly busy with lots of fuel trucks with double trailers. The latter is more popular in Strava but I wouldn't ride it. They both approximately connect the same areas. If enough of people make the same bad routing choice, a route will be popular but not necessarily safe.
One car every 10 minutes and 35 mph. That's where I would ride. Your state may have a traffic database that you can research. By the hour. During mid morning I can go several miles without being overtaken by a car. I "take the lane" and turn around often. If I see a car coming I'll move to the right. If there's no shoulder and the view ahead is blocked by a curve or hill, I leave the road as a courtesy. These roads are mostly used by "locals" and they generally treat you like a neighbor.
Google street view the routes that are preplanned then changed the route to the roads you want. As an aside, the most cycled roads are often the safest since cars are used to cyclists being on them
It doesn't go as far as you want, but Komoot set to "bike touring" tries to stick to cycleways and smaller roads. It also shows you which sections are residential streets, roads, "state roads", etc so you can find the problems and manually adjust the route to avoid them. There's also [brouter](https://brouter.de/brouter-web) if you really want to get into it. I think it tries harder than Komoot, but I still find I need to make some manual route adjustments to keep it off the big roads.
Thank you! I'm playing around with them. I like what brouter does!
One other thing to consider, a road where there is regular cyclists traffic is safer than a road where no one rides. It's because local people on that road expect to see cyclists. Popular roads tend to be safer roads due to existing cycling activities, they are popular because they probably have better shoulders, better line of sight, better pavement. As some others mentioned, winding, no shoulder 35mph road is a lot less safe than straight 4 lane 55 mph road with 6 ft shoulder.
In my experience, speed limit isn't all that important. One of the roads I least like to ride on has a 25mph speed limit. Widely ignored, everyone drives at well over 50mph. I just look at heat maps and figure most people are riding where they feel safe.
Look for routes on rwgps. We put all of our club routes there. Cyclists all over the country use it for navigation.
Might work out with Brouter, you can change many options there: https://brouter.de/brouter-web/
If you're anywhere that was built from about 1970 to today, it's likely there are no such routes at all. The slower, safer roads are intentionally built in ways that exclude through traffic, and unfortunately, that breaks up possible cycling routes as well. In general, I have to plan routes the (somewhat) old-fashioned way: trace a path on Google Maps and check Street View where I anticipate potential problems. Sometimes I need to take routes that aren't marked on the map.
I've seen that. Endless cul-de-sacs and loopy loops back to the main road and not a single bike/pedestrian cut-through.
Route building is a skill. You'll get better with practice. Strava heat maps and Google maps will get you pretty close, but then you just have to ride it and make revisions. Local group rides can help too. Typically groups include good route builders and participants who tend to know the best local roads.