Originally Posted by
spinconn
I don't do touring so this is just a matter of curiosity for me, but how do you pick a route to tour that is safe with respect to traffic? Do you have some source other than paper or on line maps that gives you some advance idea on traffic density, road surface quality and shoulder width, or do you just pick where you want to go and just grit your way through it, whatever comes along?
As others have said, in the age of the Interwebz, I start with Google maps or with Ride With GPS (RWG)...with caveats. RWG has a cycling button on the route planner which will route you to roads with less traffic. It works quite well. But I only use RWG as a planning tool to get a general idea of a route.
Once on the ground, however, I may through out the plan entirely. For on the ground, I'll use Google maps on my smart phone for day to day riding. I'll pick where I want to spend the night...usually from the Alstays Camp and Tent app...and route to that location. But here's a big caveat: I don't follow Google maps slavishly. Often, in an effort to get you onto the lowest volume roads, Google maps will route you to places where you might not want to ride a bike. One particular example was on the Delaware River from Milford, PA to Stroudsburg, Pa. The phone app gave me a route that was 44 miles long and climbed into steep hills. Right in front of me was the Federal Road (US209) that ran right along the river for 33 miles. There was essentially zero traffic on the Federal Road just outside of Milfort and wide shoulder so I took the river road and saved about 10 miles and a whole lot of climbing.
There are other examples. The key is to be flexible. If your route says take a 10 mile detour but the shorter route looks good, endure what the short route may (or may not) throw at you.