Winter Road Selection

Recently, I got into a small debate with a co-worker about picking what route to take. I started to lay out my logic for requesting a certain route and was met with unbridled confusion. I figured I'd take a stab at writing it out, for my own purposes, to see if I make even a shred of sense. So I will begin with winter. In winter, the roads are generally in bad condition so I prefer to choose the main thoroughfares. The logic being that they are more travelled and perhaps will receive attention first, before side streets or secondary highways. However, because there are more vehicles, they are inherently "slower" than smaller roads. I disagree with this concept. The other factor for me selecting a larger road is the ease of mind. But if there are more vehicles, a fact I can't dispute, then it would make sense that there would be a higher level of stress. But, these roads are maintained first so the element of safety and the peace of mind that goes along with that is a big piece of the puzzle than the stress caused by more cars. But to contradict myself, in summer, I choose the road that allows for the most continuous travel rather than the larger road with a higher speed limit. I would take a road that adds a quarter hour to my travel time if I don't have to spend any of that time in stop and go traffic. The logic being, that where no road condition danger exists, the slower, continuous route is lower stress than the heavily trafficked route. For those that know me, they would recall that I nearly always take the back way to avoid going near the Smoke when travelling to and from my homelands. This is why. I think the overriding point I'm stumbling towards is that I prefer my route to be as low stress and risk-free as possible. In winter I deem secondary routes or unknown, GPS guided routes to carry more risk due to poorer conditions. In summer I deem primary routes with more vehicles to be the riskier option and will often find myself trekking around major centres to avoid the congestion. I'm happy with my logic here and will go with it.