comparing riding areas by scale

I took two screen shots from google maps with the scale set to 20 miles, of my area around Phoenix Arizona and western New Mexico, and the Lyon/Genoble/Milan (hidden under the US 60 label), merged them (layered them) so that riders can compare the two areas.

You'll see that the Europeans have a lot more roads to choose from than we do. You can also see three different countries in the European shot but only two western states in the Phoenix map. sigh...
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Is your bike broken?   

I loved being in Europe when I was a kid and I would DEARLY love to go back and just ride all over the place but...
I have a lot of great roads in California.

DM

I've checked out the roads available on pashnit.com in California; you guys are in Nirvana there. I'm awe of the great roads, both in the quality of surface, lack of traffic (if chosen carefully) and twisty bits.

I've got a Guzzi buddy in England and some of the rides he does, say from shore to shore, would barely get me out of state. Montana just recently passed the million residents benchmark has an area of just over 147,000 square miles. Germany is just under 138,000 square miles.

There is a LOT of "empty" space in Montana and when you consider it is surrounded by Canada, North & South Dakota, Wyoming and Idaho, all rather low density areas the mind set of travel is completely different.

Back to my map, the Datil New Mexico rally is about the same distance, very roughly for me as riding from Lyon to Milan. I consider that a fairly short ride. The recent Not-A-Rally was a bit less than Lyon to Grenoble.

Toss in Australia, looks huge on the globe but is smaller than the US, west coast to Cleveland Ohio about the same distance as west coast to east in Australia.

I find it a fun exercise to find an equivalent ride in the US when folks describe their great rides.

Yep your synopsis is correct. Given the basic criteria there are more roads in to ride in the European version. The point is moot.
I think your next post should be about comparing road and ride quality and maybe a matrix of specific roads.....(insert teeth gnashing emoticon here)
You need to get out and ride now. I am heading to Flagstaff in 30 minutes for lunch, you should do the same. This may be the last cool morning we get for a long while.......

I'll be in Flag tomorrow for the weekend. But this is a holiday for the wife and I, no bike.   

Going to play among the trees at Flagstaff Extreme then off to Bearizona outside Williams to commune with nature.

Road quality is a good point. Another; if you shunt your bike off into the ditch (which in Arizona means a several hundred foot drop where you might not be seen for years) help may never be on the way. We also seem to run out of good roads to ride in very short order before we start repeating. Enjoy the cool country!

Growing up in the South of France, all I worried about is which new destination I was gonna aim for.
To the East, Italy was my neighbor.
To the West, Spain through Andorra.
North was a treat to the Alps and so on.
Each could be done in one day.

The road quality in California is usually pretty good.