Originally Posted by
gugie
Another thing that makes wider tires safer is that you don't need too be as cautious riding on the gravelly shoulder of country roads - a plus when a car goes whizzing by. You have the confidence to move away from it into the gravel if you need to.
From someone who has ridden and toured on 28's to 50's, this is actually an appreciated factor, but your tire width choice does depend on various factors, load weight, road surfaces. I have found 37mm to be that reasonable tradeoff of still good speed, but handles rough and sketchy surfaces much much better than 28 or 32---but on good roads, a lighter tire and lighter load and bike is fine too.
And then of course, different tire models differ greatly, but a lighter wider tire will always be nicer on any rough stuff.