Sometimes you just get trapped, or surprised. I avoid the main roads whenever possible. But when I go out for a ride, I generally go exploring -- looping around the city, exploring the parks, or looking for pleasant streets and attractive neighborhoods. Or I'll be heading out to a destination. In other words, I don't just ride a regular loop to get my miles in.
So it happens with some frequency that I'm peddling along, and suddenly ... a BARRIER. It's an arterial road. Suddenly there's no sidewalk. The nearest crossing is a three mile uphill backtrack. There's just no good way to get from A to B, so I suck it up and dodge cars, and never go that way again.
Two of the worst times I've been caught in this way were when I took my car in to be serviced, and threw my bike on back to ride home (the dealerships not being metro accessible). Two different cars, two different dealership, several years apart. Anyhow, homeward I go, and suddenly there's no good way forward. Sheesh ... this is in the near suburbs, heavily urbanized areas, and there's no way to get across the street. Stupid design. Neighborhoods that get these kinds of arterial roads shoved through them are blighted for years, perhaps permanently, because neighborhood traffic and pedestrians are also inconvenienced.
Suburbanites tend to be oblivious to this because they generally won't move more than 50 feet without getting into a car, and because they rarely explore the neighborhoods across which they drive. They don't realize the costs they impose on other people.
In many newer suburban areas, each little subdivision is its own little world, one from which you cannot get to any other.
So you can’t travel any distance except on the main roads.
This could easily be solved simply by mandating each subdivision connect to the adjacent ones with a sidewalk, not a street. Cars are still restricted from taking shortcuts through the neighborhood, but pedestrians and cyclists can get around without riding the highway.