I wouldnt call the public chunks 'small' per se, the one chunk is the Bud Love Area at around 6700 acres but it only has one access on the East side but if you like to hike you could put on about 20 miles in there. The state piece to the north of that is 10k acres but only has one access on the South. Again if you like to hike, its about 5 miles up to the north end of it so you certainly could get away from folks I'm guessing.
Not to offend, but I consider antelope hunting to be the 'lazy mans' hunt , in that so many guys will not go more then a couple hundred yards from their truck. That works just fine by the sounds of it in the harder to draw western units that also have more public roads touching private, but if you are looking to hunt in any low draw unit you are probably going to have to do some walking. Its crazy to even have to say that when I come from a background of turkey, whitetail(public) and elk where seems like all I do is walk! Even if you could get one by road hunting , that just isnt the type of hunt I would want to do.