Originally Posted by
Kedosto
I suspect you’re witnessing the same thing that happens when people decide to try commuting by bicycle; they head out on the shortest, most direct route to their destination. Not surprisingly, it’s often a terrible choice. Scouting out better routes takes forethought and effort, and sometimes the willingness to take longer or steeper routes.
It seems in our auto-centric society, people want to ride on the routes they know. Are they unaware, unwilling, or unmotivated to make better riding choices? I dunno. And only you can answer, but are your choices really better? If you could poll all those other riders, would they agree?
TBH, I like to mix things up, so sometimes direct, efficient and uninteresting is the best way to go if I'm trying to hit a goal or a destination, but some of the more interesting rides I've had have involved looking at a map to plot out a different route to the same destination. That gives me the known escape hatch if the thing that looks like an interesting ride on the map craps out for whatever reason. I also have a variety of routes I pick--sometimes I'm in the mood for the big hills, others I just want to point my bike at a good lunch 50 miles from my house and ride back afterwards.
For this thread to actually be interesting (when speculating and crabbing about the routing habits of the unenlightened is not), maybe it would be better if people discussed how they actually find "the road less taken." Obviously, following the crowd on Strava or going to large organized group events won't get you there, but let's hear from people who are successfully "exploring." For me, a lot of it is actually just improv--in the middle of a routine ride, I can just decide "that road looks nice" and take the right instead of going straight. If my goal that day is just a number of miles and I have plenty of daylight, it really doesn't matter to me if it takes a little more effort or more time.
So, assuming you don't know an area well, how do you "sniff out" a good route?
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