I`ll admit that it` s quite unrealistic to bump into wild animals on the road. Most animals even predators will stay away from the road, knowing people will be regualrly using them and that people are dangerous, although, that said, in an ancient, quasi-medieval world, the odd man eater would probably check the road out to see if any lone peasants or even children were careless enough to wander by.

The annoying bit is the places where the road passes close to, or in some cases, through, a bandit/necromancer etc occupied fort. In at least one case the road is so narrow at that point that being attacked is inevitable - there is no way around.

This
A standard road trip in Oblivion seemed to involve a minotaur lord every 100 yards
Ok, an exaggeration, but the abundance of filler level-scaled random encounters in Oblivion subtracted from the game IMO

Roads in skyrim are far more interisting. They don't stop the constant and so annoying dragon spawning though.

No it wasn't, I went really deep into the forest and encountered nothing, but when I went on the roads, bandits and wolves.

Tell that to all the dead dear, racoons, squirels, skunks, etc... I see while driving.

Don't know if some of the spawns are random so you could just be unlucky, OP. And considering that, like someone else has said, most of these stretches roads are out in the wilderness, and not a lot of towns/cities nearby, it seems pretty natural that animals would just roam wherever they please. Not like they actually know it is a road as there isn't much traffic on them anyway. Probably not much even without a war going on.

Well, it is Skyrim. I mean no where is really safe.

Come one, now! How can you have a game about Vikings vs. Bears if the bears hide in the forest

The sabre cat is supposed to ambush the travelers unexpectedly in Skyrim - even on the safest roads - so yes,it's normal (even if "4 in a row" seems a little exaggerated to me,i must admit)

Slightly OT, but I can believe the 4 saber cats in a row for a couple of different reasons. I always seem to key into the 'paired saber cats' random encounter around levels 8-10. Not sure if this is the 'old orc' encounter where he got his death. But, literally, if I want some saber cat skins, I only need to go towards Helgen around those levels.

2nd reason I can believe it has to do with the system. I'm PS3, but this might also apply to the OP. I was fishing for a Solitude job from Delvin so I could finish up that part of the Thieves Guild and, rather than getting some failed quests by turning them down after I found out where they were (discovered this went onto the stat sheet when I saw I had -14 quests completed for the TG), I kept reloading if it wasn't the job I wanted. Needless to say, it took a while. Headed out of Riften, ran past the Guard Tower for the little dirt road around that bandit keep and I found my level 22 character facing 4 cave bears chasing a single deer. Think I saw a similar thing with another character on the 1st College quest. After fishing for a spell I would actually use (my paladin had no use for a flame atronach spell) in the initiation, I headed over to Saarthal and found myself against 3 frost trolls and a pair of spriggins. Anyway, that might be a possibility for why you saw some many in a row.

Best advice from my thief/ranger is to sneak even along the road. Sneak was my first skill to hit 100 and, not so coincidentally, smithing was the second (from making use of all those wolf, bear and saber cat pelts found on journeys).

Ok, let's put this way: i've never encountered 4 sabre cats in a row;on xbox 360 and even on pc from 11/11 and 280 hrs played. If you've been so lucky.. well, then I congratulate and I have complete faith in you.

have not been playing Skyrim for 2 months but when i was running on the roads it was most wolfs-witches-Bandits-Assassins-Theifs-Vampires-Forsworn

Oblivion's roads are more dense with enemies than Skyrim's, but I think they are safer, except perhaps for characters who are weak against mountain lions. You can easily evade anything else in Oblivion that has enough power to seriously harm you. Some big enemies, such as ogres, are too slow to catch you. Others, such as minotaurs, stop moving before attempting to strike you, so as long as you keep moving, you won't be there when they strike. Some, such as bandits and bears, can attack while moving, but you have the advantage of better path-finding, if not better speed.

In Skyrim, I have had to be more creative and daring in my getaways.

wild animals are the most horrible and dragons (after deadly dragons mod) it usually means instant death if ur low level.

I believe the sabre cat story because that kind of thing happens to me every time I walk between Ivarstead and Riften. The last time I did it I fought 10 wolves, 3 bears, 2 frost spiders and a troll. They were practically lined up along the road, waiting their turn at me. I once walked with Mjoll from Markarth to Riften, by way of Falkreath, just to see how long it would take (slightly under 2 hours real time). There was nothing at all besides one dragon until we got down into the Rift. Then it was wolves and spiders and bears, oh my, all the way in. The Rift is beautiful, but I kind of hate it.