Most dangerous roads

[BikeFreak]

Based on my 40000 mi of bike touring I want to share the 2 most dangerous roads I have ridden on:

1 Sierra Cascades: East of McCloud on HWY 89. This road is marked in the map description as truly dangerous. I can attest this stretch is extremely dangerous due to logging traffic and no shoulder. I cannot remember if I rode the stretch on a weekday or during the weekend. There is a small detour S of HWY 89, but it barely covers this dangerous section. I cannot fully remember where the logging trucks turn off, but at the McArthur Burney Memorial Park they are more or less gone.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/rwtqfaNqpj6ETZEG8

2 Sierra Cascades detour: I had to make a big detour (going S on HWY 395 from Bishop) and started mapping myself only using google maps. It was a VERY big mistake and I had to switch back onto the official ACA route again due to safety. The problem road was the stretch is between Adelanto, CA and Lucerne Valley, CA. The biggest part was on HWY18. For the first time in my life I feared for my life on this stretch. No shoulder, cracked up, broken road surface and dangerous motorists. I got so scared in Lucerne Valley that I had to climb some 6000 ft up to Big Bear Lake and rejoin the route.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/aHrnyZuKW3SbjDUt7

What are your most dangerous roads?

Lucas

[John Nettles]

My biggest memory is not necessary dangerous all the time but only certain times.  I was on a "Gold Coast" tour from Key West to Galveston.  We were leaving Tyndall Air Force Base (southeast of Panama City, FL) right around 4:30pm on a Friday as everyone was getting off duty at the AFB. 

As we crossed the bridge into the Panama City area, tons of cars driven by young 20s year olds looking for a good time on Friday Night were flying bumper to bumper across the bridge.  No shoulder, everyone speeding while trying to pass each other.  I was actually planning in my head what I would do if I got knock off the bridge and survived.  I have 75k+ miles of touring over 45 years and it is easily in the top 3 scariest moments. 

However, I have feeling that if we had crossed at say 1pm it would have been perfectly fine.

Another time (around 1987) I was riding into Boston southbound on US1 due to a traffic construction detour, again at rush hour.  Absolute chaos but since I was only 23, I didn't really care and/or know the danger.  In hindsight, I realize how lucky I was and I sure the drivers thought I was nuts. 

So in summary, the first example was not necessarily a dangerous road per se but a dangerous time.  The second example was stupidity on my part so I can't really say it was a dangerous road in that I probably should not have even been on it.

Interesting thread.  Tailwinds, John

[Westinghouse]

On one cross-country bicycling tour there were many, dangerous, close-calls. That had nothing to do with the roads in particular. It was deliberate, planned, timed, coordinated obviously.

[davidbonn]

My own personal scariest experiences were all on logging road in British Columbia.  It seems that the guys hauling logs on those roads are paid by the mile and not by the hour.  The roads are dusty, steep, rough, and often are narrow and have poor sight lines.

Sharing a road with something that weighs well north of 40 tons isn't fun at all.

Pro tip:  many of those roads are radio controlled and if you want to cycle there I'd invest in a hand-held radio programmed for the appropriate frequency.  You can find out what radio frequencies you'll need online:

https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/industry/natural-resource-use/resource-roads/radio-communications/channel-maps

[Westinghouse]

My own personal scariest experiences were all on logging road in British Columbia.  It seems that the guys hauling logs on those roads are paid by the mile and not by the hour.  The roads are dusty, steep, rough, and often are narrow and have poor sight lines.

Sharing a road with something that weighs well north of 40 tons isn't fun at all.

Pro tip:  many of those roads are radio controlled and if you want to cycle there I'd invest in a hand-held radio programmed for the appropriate frequency.  You can find out what radio frequencies you'll need online:

https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/industry/natural-resource-use/resource-roads/radio-communications/channel-maps

Logging trucks can be unnerving on narrow roads. Motivating truckers with profits, they filled your world with loud irritating noise and pollution. Whatever it was, traffic in Ukraine in 1994 would make that seem like a gentle afternoon stroll in the park. The main problem with the loggers was the large pieces of bark on the road and pushed into the bike lane. The side lanes were covered with it. I had to keep focused on the road in front of the wheel to swerve and zig zag around the obstructions. Some were three feet across. I would not want to get hit by one of those flying 60 mph off a truck.

[davidbonn]

If you are talking internationally I'd mention most any road in India as just plain scary on a bike and give honorable mention to most any road in Southeast Asia, possibly excepting Malaysia.

[John Nettles]

David, why are they so bad?  Amount of traffic, aggressive drivers, poor road surface, all the above??
John

[davidbonn]

David, why are they so bad?  Amount of traffic, aggressive drivers, poor road surface, all the above??

All of the above.

Sometimes in India the roads between remote towns can be lightly traveled but as soon as you get near a town of most any size you are in chaotic traffic where everyone is going far too fast.  Road surfaces can vary between pretty decent and horrible.  Also many of the more remote roads can be very narrow.

[horses60]

In the US, out of Savannah, GA the US-17
In the rest of the world? My Italy, car drivers are not very bike-friendly :'(

[zzzz]

This just shows how timing can be everything.

Lucas (the OP) talked about 89, and before I left on the Sierra Cascades there was someone who posted about kissing the ground in thanks that he was alive when he finished w 89 so Lucas was not alone in his experience there

But just through dumb luck I started on 89 early Saturday morning south of Shasta Ca. And got to Quincy Ca.(where the lumber mill is) on Sunday evening. I didn’t deal w a single lumber truck. I’m not looking at my maps and it was 10+ years ago but I believe that’s about a 200 mile stretch

[jamawani]

Usually I feel I am able to cycle most roads.
Usually I can adjust my schedule to fit low traffic times.
"Usually" does not apply to the Gallatin Canyon Road - US 191.
Nobody in their right mind should EVER cycle this road.

The traffic is insane from before sunrise to after sunset.
The speed limit is 60 mph - which few drivers obey.
There are rarely any shoulders and the road edge is poor.
The Montana DOT has done little to nothing to improve safety.
(Other than flashing signs that say "Please Drive Safely".)

The number of crosses on the roadside was sobering - at every curve.
And the number of huge dents in the guardrails were the lucky ones.
There was little time to enjoy the canyon - I loved it back in 1987.
I pulled off into a few campgrounds to restore my nerves -
but my psychic energy was completely drained.

[Westinghouse]

Cycling very close to loud, fast-moving cars and trucks can stress and sneak into your psyche and get up under your skin after a while. Its progression can be so gradual as to be unnoticeable, but cumulatively, over a long period of cycling, the affects cannot be ignored. It can be a serious stressor.

[Westinghouse]

David, why are they so bad?  Amount of traffic, aggressive drivers, poor road surface, all the above??

All of the above.

Sometimes in India the roads between remote towns can be lightly traveled but as soon as you get near a town of most any size you are in chaotic traffic where everyone is going far too fast.  Road surfaces can vary between pretty decent and horrible.  Also many of the more remote roads can be very narrow.

That pattern of traffic, sparse in rural areas--increasing near cities, was one of my observations, also. It was the same when entering small towns from rural areas. It makes sense. It can vary. In many small towns there might not be any traffic on Sundays.

[BikeliciousBabe]

A lot of U.S. 93 between Eureka, MT and the turnoff for Whitefish Lake State Park was no picnic.

[Westinghouse]

Roads in Czech, Poland, Ukraine.in tunnels of gray and black poisonous fumes. No stop signs or traffic lights. Large trucks exploding across rough roads. A common sight was cars along the road beat all to hell by the road. There were very attractive women from Russia.