Bicycle Travel > General Discussion

Traffic conditions around the ACA routes?

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dsupica:
Hey all, sorry if this is a repost! I've done a bit of searching and couldn't find anything on this - although I may have not gotten the correct keywords.

I'll be doing a cross country trip this summer staying mostly on the TransAm path laid out in the ACA maps. I was wondering - what types of roads does the path follow? That is - is car traffic very heavy? If so, how possible is it to follow the general path of the ACA map but stick to less busy roads?

Thanks!

Dan

staehpj1:

--- Quote from: dsupica on February 23, 2013, 02:07:54 pm ---I'll be doing a cross country trip this summer staying mostly on the TransAm path laid out in the ACA maps. I was wondering - what types of roads does the path follow? That is - is car traffic very heavy? If so, how possible is it to follow the general path of the ACA map but stick to less busy roads?

--- End quote ---
In part the answer will vary with how traffic tolerant the person answering is.  So keep that in mind.

I found that for the most part they picked pretty nice roads, but there were sections with heavy traffic usually, but not always with a shoulder.  There was never anywhere that I would change the route to avoid traffic, but I am pretty traffic tolerant.  Google Street View is a good way to preview some of the roads.

The Trans America is a great route, but we did use alternate rods from time to time.  For us the reason was to go where it was a bit flatter more than to avoid traffic.  Sometimes it seemed like they went out of their way to do a big climb.

On the Southern Tier I used alternate routes a good bit, but again not so much to avoid traffic.  In that case it was usually to take a more direct route.

jamawani:
Nearly all states have traffic data available - most have it in convenient map form rather than tables.
Google "State name, DOT, traffic count" and you should get a good link.
The state-produced bicycle maps vary considerably - for good to poor.
Most offer three shades of roads for suitability with little specific data.  (Arizona's is one such)
Many states also offer data for county roads, too.

For example -
Kansas - http://www.ksdot.org/burtransplan/maps/CountMaps/Districts/countmap2011.PDF
Southeast Kansas - http://www.ksdot.org/burtransplan/maps/CountMaps/Districts/d4rs10.PDF

Generally speaking, only busier roads will have paved shoulders.
One has to choose between a fairly busy road with shoulders or a quiet one without.
(Obviously, you want to avoid a busy highway without shoulders, eh?)

Another way to get magical empty roads is to finid routes with short unpaved stretches.
For example - between Archville and Beantown the main highway is 30 miles all paved -
But there is a back road that's 34 miles with 5 miles unpaved.  It will usually have almost zero traffic.

ACA tends to route only on paved roads, also avoids rough bituminous surfaces as well.
But with the bumps comes the magic - even abandoned stretches of highway with cracks and grass growing.
I rode along the Mississippi bluffs one fall on an abandoned highway - perfect!

dsupica:
Splendid! Thanks for the responses!


--- Quote from: jamawani on February 23, 2013, 03:39:55 pm ---
Another way to get magical empty roads is to finid routes with short unpaved stretches.
For example - between Archville and Beantown the main highway is 30 miles all paved -
But there is a back road that's 34 miles with 5 miles unpaved.  It will usually have almost zero traffic.


--- End quote ---

Is there any best way to find these magical empty roads? I'm guessing a mixture of cross referencing the ACA maps with the DOT maps from various states then using google streetview and checking. Any personal experience with finding the right types of roads?

John Nelson:
The full ACA route criteria can be found here:

http://www.adventurecycling.org/routes/nbrn/resourcespage/ACA_Route_Criteria.pdf

In my experience, the ACA gives highest preference to paved roads, but they will occasionally use short segments (a few miles or less) of unpaved roads to avoid heavy traffic on the paved road.

When considering among paved roads, the ACA will almost always pick the lowest traffic roads, even if it considerably increases the hills and distance (up to 50% longer) and sacrifices the shoulder. Most people who deviate from the ACA routes do so to decrease the hills and distance, but almost always at the cost of more traffic.

If your goal is to avoid traffic, and you're willing to use shoulderless roads to do so, then my advice is to stay on the ACA route exactly. Almost any deviation will increase traffic.

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