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Fortunately, I do not do a lot of roadside riding anymore, but do have
to cross a fairly busy road to get to the trails where I  ride. 
Before riding on the road, make sure you take your horse in hand a lot
on the road and make sure they are fairly reliable first. You could
start by just standing near the road with them, not even going down
the side and get them accustomed to all the different vehicles that go
by without putting yourself at too much risk.  Once your horse is
accustomed to this, you can gradually increase the distance you travel
down the road until you can eventually reach the trails you want to go
to.  Make sure your horse does an instantaneous one-rein stop, if they
do spook and start to bolt you can stop them right away.  I rode a
horse once that bolted with me down the side of the road and I was
unable to stop her because she had 4 shoes and I knew she would slip
and go down if I tried to do a one-rein stop, so I had to ride it out
and wait until I could steer her to a safe area to stop her.  I wasn't
hurt, but it was petrifying as this was on a busy road and no one
slowed down for me.  I keep my horses 30 min. north of NYC so have to
deal with plenty of people that are not horse savvy and drive around
like maniacs with no regard for equestrians.  I have almost been hit
by cars twice recently, one person ran a stop sign and screeched to a
halt just inches from hitting me dead on.  The other time someone was
backing out of their driveway and again came inches from backing into
me.  Fortunately my horses are very road safe and were not phased by
either of these incidents.  My best advice is to take your time with
your horse and desensitize them to anything you might encounter along
the road before you start riding along it.   If there is any possible
way you can turn your horse out next to a busy road, do it.  That way
they will be accustomed to all types of scary vehicles.  Even though
my mare was unhandled until the age of 5, she lived in a field by the
highway and even though we've had countless other training issues, she
has always been completely unphased by any type of vehicle traffic. 
All you can do is train your horse as best as possible, so when you do
encounter idiots (which invariably happens) you can be as safe as
possible.
Good Luck and enjoy those trails!!!!!

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