Originally Posted by
GhostRider62
We had one guy double flat going into gravel this year. I double flatted and crashed a couple years ago when thrown into horrible gravel. No thanks. Never again for me. This is a very dangerous direction RUSA is taking. Roads are too complicated to make a simple comparison. Interstates with 10-12 foot shoulders and 2 foot rumble strips are not dangerous, they are just really boring. Putting a randonneur onto gravel with branches and other debris to contend with in the dark isn't smart.
Yeah, I think the fact that *roads* vary a huge amount and cannot be compared around the US is a general truth. You can't ride on the kind of highways around here that have rumble strips and shoulders -- those are limited access. The numbered/state roads you can ride on are, at the largest, having a decent-width shoulder (though often covered in branches, broken glass, and other debris) and often lots of turning/merging vehicles. And more commonly, are either two- or one-lane each way, ZERO shoulder, curvy enough to make passing hard (for cars), and wheel-eating potholes down the right hand side of the lane while traffic goes 70mph (speed limit 55, generally, but that doesn't actually mean people obey it). Some of those are still OK rando roads, especially at quiet times or for short distances, but they compare differently with well-manicured, town-maintained, no-traffic-no-potholes dirt roads, which we have a lot of around New England.