For an entertaining take on this, I’ll suggest watching 405 (2000), a short film.
I have a Piper Dakota (235hp, single engine). I live in Nevada and normally fly between 10,000’ and 12,000’. I’ve had it up to 13,500’. I do have oxygen on board.
Of course the ground out here is at 5,000’. My plane will glide at about 8:1.
As far as roads, in rural Nevada (like highway 6 between Tonopah and Ely), they may be a real option since there is no traffic, few signs etc. out in the middle of nowhere.
I never landed on a freeway, but as others have mentioned during an emergency things change but in general in rural areas it is not illegal to land on roads as long as you are safe about it.
No FAR that prohibits landing on roads. Local and State Highway laws may or may not allow for it and in general you can land on BLM land.
Here are the Wyoming regs as an example.
I haven’t flown in 20 years, but the low and slow club like people in cubs use this for pee stops in rural areas more than you would think. Not practical in something like a Piper Dakota of course and the Interstate is way too dangerous but a lonely county road way out of the way is pretty safe.
Since the first question is not factual, let’s move this to Great Debates.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
When I was getting my private license through Air Cadets eons ago we were practicing for an engine failure and my instructor had me go through the motions of picking out a suitable field, setting up for landing, and making “radio” calls. As we got lower and lower I realized I had picked a wheat field that was about 3 ft tall and green which would have been hell to l and in. We get lower and lower, and I’m waiting for the go ahead to pull up,…nothing. We’re down to about 150 ft and he finally says , OK, Go. "Thank God, " I’m thinking, so I firewall the throttle (this is a Cessna 152) and proceed to dump the flaps from full down to full up…and doown we went. I can still hear the wheat scarping the bottom of the plane as it struggled to gain altitude. I look over and my instructor is bracing for impact which didn’t give me confidence. But it slowwwly pulled up, and once we were back at cruising altitude he asked me what lessons I had learned. 1) Green wheat fields are crappy landing spots, 2) increment flaps, 3) make sure you have a little more speed than you need. 4) It is unbelievable how quiet a Cessna cabin can be when your instructor is staring at you…
Yes, some would.
But probably not with a new pilot.
After I got my PPL I would, periodically, go for either refresher training or to further my skills. A couple of my instructors would have me practice emergency landings all the way to the ground (engine at idle). I will note, however, they were particular about conditions. Also, by that time I had had a genuine forced landing in a field under my belt so a simulated emergency that ended on a paved or grass runway was pretty tame by comparison.
The techniques for short/soft landings are still taught, but I have met many pilots who have never landed on anything but pavement, much less a grass strip, much less a rough field. There is some gap between theory and reality. Particularly between any actual airstrip and a genuine rough field.
Well…* in theory* you could get a 7:1 glide ratio out of a single engine Cessna, which in theory would give you a potential 19.5 miles and some change… but I don’t know any pilots who would bet their life on that number. Including me, with most of my hours in that sort of Cessna. In reality, you’re not going to get perfect performance at 15,000 feet in a single-engine Cessna, and there will probably be at least a minute or two when your engine first quits when you’re moving from cruise configuration to best-glide, looking for a field, etc. I’d prefer to keep my target landing area within 10 miles or less because why cut your margin for error/problems any tighter than necessary? Probably I could squeeze 12-15 out of it, but that would be stretching things.
The Diamond Katana I flew, on the other hand, had something like an 11:1 glide ratio, which in theory gives you a potential glide distance of 31.25 miles… but, again, I wouldn’t stake my life on it. You seldom get perfect performance and since I had less time in the Katana my skills in it would not be perfect - I’d be looking for a landing spot within 20 miles, preferably closer.
That sort of illustrates why it’s very important to know the characteristics and performance traits of the airplane you are flying.
As perhaps the above example illustrates, there is no one “correct” answer. Different airplanes are different, so there’s no point to a map-maker even trying to guess what would make a suitable landing for anything. Yes, some of it is remembering suitable landing spots, or working them out prior to launching.
Then we get into other picky details - because a Cessna wing is on top of the airplane the wings have more ground clearance, which can be important during ground travel. Low wing airplanes are more likely to be damaged landing in a rough field because the wings are more likely to impact obstacles. A Stearman has a steel frame and is built much sturdier than a lot of newer airplanes - it’s the only sort of airplane I’ve ever known to have impacted a tree during landing and won (it knocked off the top third of a pine and kept on going), usually airplane vs. tree turns the airplane into confetti. There’s a lot more structure between me and the site of impact in a Cessna than in, say, a Max-Air Drifter where you sit waaaaay out front and arguably the pilot arrives at the point of impact before the airplane does.
All of the above can affect how you choose a landing field. In a high-wing I might be more inclined to pick a two lane rural road lined with mailboxes that is closer, rather than a field of tall grass, because the Cessna wing will clear the mailboxes. In a Piper Cherokee, though - a low wing - the wings will almost certainly hit those mailboxes and all sorts of chaos could ensue so I might opt for a slightly further field of hay, because tall hay, although not fun, will probably do less damage, is less likely to break open a wing/fuel tank, and so on, although there’s always a risk when landing off-field. But… if I had to, if there was no alternative, road-lined-with-mailboxes is probably survivable in either.
They will ask you to explain/justify yourself the next day.
Based on my experience with a forced landing in, essentially, someone’s backyard in Illinois back about 20 years now.
They weren’t “up my ass” but let’s just say I felt thoroughly examined afterwards.
After it was over the FAA guy complimented me on my landing skills and thanked me for not making him fill out the paperwork on a dead pilot.
Corn fields are worse. Hold an ear of corn in your hands. Imagine it hitting you in the face at 50-80 miles per hour. Now imagine a LOT of ears of corn hitting you in the face at that speed. Corn is evil.
He just slipped it on in on LSD, Friday night trouble bound? 
They never shoulda closed Meigs!
No one was hurt this time, but the last time a plane landed on the freeway around here, an 11 year old’s leg got chopped off, while the pilot and his son were safe and sound.
Came her to post that film. Saw it when it went viral but I still cannot believe it was made in 2000 on a PC.
Great backstory.
I saw the video of this on the news this morning. Damn good flying! Nice nobody panicked and made a mess of it.
I like how he pulled over to the side, like he was getting stopped by the cops.
No, they should not have.
Yes, I recall hearing about that.
And a good dozen years ago one of my pilot friends attempt a landing on a road not more than half a mile from my home and wrapped his airplane (and himself) around a lamp post at nearly 100 mph - he kept his leg, after they removed bits of airplane from it, but it was touch and go for awhile and he’ll always walk with a limp. Also had to remove bits of him from the wreck of the airplane.
Landings like that are not risk free, but they aren’t instant death, either.
Some planes do have horns but they are for alerting ground crew and not designed to be heard in flight.
In that area there really isn’t another place to try and set down and it is obvious that the pilot practiced way more than the typical private pilot does with his power back landings.
A couple of flares but a good job at trying to protect lives all around. With the wires he went under it could have been much much worse and I am not sure if flaring was in part an attempt at getting below those wires but much better than the typical minimal effort skill set that you often see.
Link to video without comentary
Looking at youtube videos I ran into this guys channel that shows just how crazy the STOL world has gotten. No way I could have considered this with 40HP at 7000’, heck we couldn’t fly the J3 on hot days.
I’ve twice landed my glider on an interstate highway (in both cases it was not yet open to traffic). Police were friendly and helpful.
YMMV.
As others mentioned, you are trained in basic private pilot training to learn how to pick a spot and glide to it if the engine conks out. If necessary, maneuver (S-turns) to line up with the best open space. Rural roads are no fun - too narrow, often lined with the only trees for hundreds of years, and often lined with power and phone lines. Rural expressways, better. Urban expressways, too many wires and poles.
Recall a flight near Atlanta back in the 70’s or 80’s where a 737 (or was it a 727?) flew through a hailstorm thunderhead (brilliant bit of piloting) and tried a dead landing on an interstate at night… the almost made it, actually touched down but clipped a light standard with a wingtip and shredded killing quite a few passengers.
MY instructor mentioned a fellow who ran out of gas short of the airport tried to put down across the two soccer fields of the local school; cracked up his plane and broke his ankle because there was a small but wheel-breaking ditch, a dip about a foot deep between the fields. Remember that a small aircraft - the 2 to 6 passenger Cessna/Piper types - land pretty slow. Their typical stall speed is below 60mph depending on load, and then like any braking vehicle, they can stop pretty fast once on the ground. Even if they hit something or flip, there risk is not terribly worse than flipping in a car at 40 to 60mph. In fact, one risk is that they may land safely in an area too constricted for a takeoff run. The real killer is stalling out far too high trying to “stretch” that glide, or total loss of control and straight into the ground.
He also mentioned that generally if you put down on a road and the aircraft survives, the police will give you one of two choices: if you are really lucky and you can, they will block the road and let you fly out. More likely, they will force you to get a aircraft moving company, take off the wings, and haul the plane to the nearest airport - more expensive than any fine they will give you, and reinforces the concept “don’t land on the road”. Then the Canadian Dept. of Transport (and presumably same goes for the feds in the USA) will investigate any safety incident involving an aircraft and give the appropriate penalties including (I assume) fines and pilot license suspension or loss, depending on why the problem. One of the most common causes of engine failure is fuel exhaustion, or assorted other mismanagement like failing to flip over to the other tank in time.
Southern Airways 242, a DC-9 in 1977.
All that and more, but (A) You’ll be alive, and (B) Your only problem is likely to be financial. Legally, you did what you had to in an emergency. In the US, don’t forget to file your NASA form - it isn’t exactly a Cloak of Protection, but it’s close.
My first thought on seeing the thread title was, “treadmill”?
You can’t land on a treadmill, you’ll never slow down enough to land… 
Carry the treadmill aboard with you. If you get in trouble, just reach out and hold it under the landing gear, and set it to whatever speed it takes to touch down softly.