Has anyone who replied ever taken a land navigation course? Try this excercise- find a destination five miles distant from you that you are familiar with and traverse the terrain on foot NOT using a paved road. You will most probably find that you get turned around once or twice negotiating this distance before you reach it.
Next, go to a location you are mildly familiar with in the country- find a destination ten miles distant and traverse the terrain, again on foot and not using a paved road as a guide. Now imagine that you need to get to this destination in a hurry to warn your family of an impending disaster that only you have knowledge of.
If you are only mildly familar with said area, and have primarily have only used a roadway to get to it, you'll find yourself lost in short order, especially without a map and compass.
Andrea needed the fastest and most direct route to get to the prison- the roadway- especially, in her mindset at the the time, walkers were the main threat and would be easily spotted on a open roadway and thus to avoid. Taking the 'stealthy' approach takes time, and unseen dangers are around every stand of bushes or trees, causing you to futrher deviate from your course to avoid the threat.
I was thinking that she could have ran parallel to the road but in the woods (hidden), then, after TG had passed her she could have moved to the road