Long distance bicycle touring safety on the road and rail trails

[dsilkroad]

Hi I am new to the forum and reasonably new to bicycle touring. I live in central Queensland near Rockhampton.
I am finding it very difficult to go for longer rides above 40km and stay on (safe) roads. I mean; I am finding back roads with reasonably low volume traffic and wide enough emergency lanes to ride, but these roads are not long enough to take me to my destination. Every destination I go to I end up having to ride for long stretches on bending, narrow, busy highways with dips and crests and no room between the road and the grass on the side. Sometimes I have only 30 cm between the white line at the edge of the road and the grass; and I will be riding with cars flying at 100km/h just one metre away from me.
When I look extensively on google maps I cannot find alternatives therefore I am forced to using the major roads (major roads up here do not have emergency lanes or shoulder except from the one major highway (Bruce Highway)appart from that you are riding 1 metre away from cars or constantly riding into the grass next to the road to increase the distance from cars).
Sometimes I use the trails / tracks along railway tracks. These tracks are used by railway companies like Aurizon for their 4x4 utes and company cars to service their railway lines.
These can be pretty good if you happen to be travelling along a route that has a railway alongside it; however I was told that those tracks near railways, are property of the railway company and I might be told to not use them. In fact I was told already once but I abbused it a bit because I had an alternative to ride on a safe road but instead I kept riding on the track adjacent to the railroad into a busy railway yard where they change drivers and stuff.

My newbie questions are: What are experienced bike tourers doing when they need to travel and there does not seem to be quiet roads on their route? Is having cars flying past you just 1 or maybe 2 meters away acceptable by most seasoned tourers? (I sure dont feel comfortable with that hence I always end up giving way to cars into the grass).
I am contemplating travel at night; when there is very little to NO traffic at all on these roads and if I hear/ see a car I just get completly off the road and into the grass way before the car approaches me (even if I have very good lights on the bike). Any one doing this while touring?
Also what are your thoughts / experiences on using tracks adjacent to railways ? Any one using them often ? Are they public tracks or private property?
Any info from Australia wide experience is greatly appreciated especially info from people who travelled between Brisbane and Cairns and Longreach.
Thank you for reading

[RonK]

If there is no alternative route sometimes you just have to take main roads. It's not particularly pleasant having traffic whizzing past at 100kph but you get used to it.

Personally I would not tour on the Bruce Hwy, but living in Rocky you're not going to have many options.

Perhaps an option would be to take alternative transport further inland and start your tour from there.

[dsilkroad]

Hi Ronk thank you for the input.
How do you feel about riding at night trough the unpleasant legs and then of course ride during the day in the beautiful legs of the journey?
Would you consider it or do you know someone who does it?
Do you know anyone that uses those tracks that run along parallel to the railway?
On the side of the Bruce highway there is a railway track most of the time.
I used it a few times between Gladstone and Rocky; but don't know exactly where I stand on rights to use it.

[RonK]

Hi Ronk thank you for the input.
How do you feel about riding at night trough the unpleasant legs and then of course ride during the day in the beautiful legs of the journey?
Would you consider it or do you know someone who does it?
Do you know anyone that uses those tracks that run along parallel to the railway?
On the side of the Bruce highway there is a railway track most of the time.
I used it a few times between Gladstone and Rocky; but don't know exactly where I stand on rights to use it.

I've never bothered to ride at night, and would only consider doing it in extremely hot weather or to avoid wind, e.g. crossing the Nullabor. I'd consider it more dangerous than riding in daylight unless there was absolutely minimal traffic, however that may not be likely where you're forced into a main road anyway.

I've done a lot of touring in both OZ and NZ - traffic really doesn't bother me much, I have a high threshold of tolerance, but I understand that not everyone is the same.

Looking back through my journals it's pretty rare that I even mention traffic, and just the odd occasion I can remember thinking a pass was a bit close. If you would like to have a read, they are here: in descending chronological order:

https://www.cycleblaze.com/profile/arefkay/

The railway service roads could be a useful alternative, if you could be certain that they don't dead-end at a stream or gully and force you into a lengthy back-track. Legally I suspect they are part of the railway reserve and access is not permitted.

[dsilkroad]

I've been doing some reading on some of your journals Ronk.
Nice trips thanks for sharing.
I guess I'll just be careful around cars where I have no alternative routes; or just ride in the middle of the night when there is no cars on the roads

[brumby33]

I can't see how riding at night would be super dangerous except for some morons likely to think that if they knock over a cyclist, who in the hell would see them.
But the darker it is, the better reflective gear works but ensure you have more than unusal because it's entirely different riding around town at night than out on a highway where it's super dark.

Ortleib panniers have awesome reflectors front and rear of each bag, a high reflective vest (I think the orange ones are better than yellow for some reason) you might want to invest in at least 2 or 3 blinking red tail lights.

If you have schwalbe marathon tyres, you'd be amazed on how well the white strip around the tyre aluminates from car lights.

I can see good reasons for traveling at night up there due to the humidity but just give yourself the best possible chance of being seen.

I know that when i commute to work early in the morning (granted it's in the Sydney burbs) if they can't see me, they should be classified as legally blind...they are beyond spec savers

brumby33