Safe Cycling

I've gotten a couple of questions about safety I'd like to address. We'll call it Zen and the art of riding in traffic. First off, if you allow yourself to feel intimidated by the concept, then you won't enjoy the experience, and that's a guarantee! The following are a few guidelines I use. I was a truck driver for many years and a safety instructor for the last 10 years of my career in the trucking industry and used a variation of these guidelines such as situational awareness for a 23 year accident free driving career as well as cycling. Safety is your responsibility as well as the other road users, so use these in good health! Cycling has fantastic health benefits. Don't offset them by injury. As I've said before, I would lose weight without it due to my surgery, but nowhere near as much and I wouldn't have the strength and endurance I now have.

Situational Awareness

The first concept I'd like to introduce you to is situational awareness. Be aware of the traffic patterns around you as much as the individual vehicles and keep an eye open to available escape routes. Ride to the right and follow the traffic laws. Don't run stop signs or lights. If you hit one of those traffic lights triggered by a sensor, and you and your bike won't trigger it, take a look and see if there is a pedestrian button at the crosswalk. If there is, feel free to use it and if necessary, walk the bike across the intersection. I know this is more easily said than done if you are wearing cleated road shoes, but if you are a Roadie, and riding with clipless pedals and cleated shoes, then this article isn't really aimed at you anyway. It's aimed at the beginner rider just introducing themselves to traffic riding and haven't developed the skill set required for safe traffic riding.

Be Predictable and Wear a Helmet

Ride WITH the traffic and be predictable. If the other drivers can't reasonably predict your actions, then YOU are at risk. A 3000 pound steel cage (read car!) can stand up to impact far better than your unprotected body can.

Wear a helmet and bright colors. The helmet won't make you bulletproof, but it will help protect your one and only head from injury when you crash. Don't kid yourself, statistically a crash is inevitable. They happen! I've seen what one of my helmets looked like after hitting the road and my friends, I was glad it was my helmet and not my unprotected skull! If your helmet has been used for it's purpose, replace it! A bike helmet is really only good for one crash. The bright colors make you more visible, by the way, and the more visible you are, the less likely you are to be hit.

Don't pass a line of cars at the light on the right at a light. This makes you have a much greater likelihood of being “right hooked”. This is where a motorist is making a right turn, right over you! This happens because you are in a blind spot for them. This situation can be avoided. Be aware of upcoming entrances to parking lots as well, as this is another favorite location for being “right hooked”. The motorist loses sight of you and assumes you are clear and turns and BANG! You hit the side of their car! They didn't intend to “right hook” you, but it happened. Be aware and you can avoid this as well as the driver who misjudges your speed and pulls out in front of you. ( Hint to drivers, if the rider is on a road bike and wearing a Jersey and Spandex shorts, he's probably riding faster than you think he is, maybe in excess of 25 mph! This is an example of the Greyhounds of the cycling world, a Roadie!)

Keep to a line, don't wobble. As I said before, being predictable is one of the keys to safety. Lights: Use lights to increase your visibility. A Blinking LED light on the back, headlight and perhaps an LED Head strap light will do wonders and with LED lights, the batteries can last 100 hrs or so. There are also strap on blinkies you can get for your legs and reflective straps for the arms. These are all cheap insurance. One point, a blinking light can be seen from farther away than a steady light!

Approaching a Cyclist From Behind

When you approach the cyclist from behind, try to remember he or she is on an unprotected vehicle balancing on 2 wheels and what to you doesn't seem to be that close of a pass, to the cyclist is a scary experience! The turbulence your car or van or UPS truck generates can cause the cyclist to lose control and crash. Try to allow a minimum of 4 feet for safety and remember, a bike is a vehicle under federal law with equal access to roads except for limited access highways (except when there is no alternative route in some cases in states like California and others in the Western half of the country). Cyclists, if we want to keep this status, we need to respect the laws of the road as well. Motorized and human powered traffic can share the roads safely, but we need to respect each other!

What's NOT Funny

One final note. It isn't humorous to blare the horn or scream out the car window at a cyclist as you pass in your car, nor is it funny to throw things at us. I don't understand the apparent resentment from a certain portion of the driving population toward us, perhaps they are just angry and we make a convenient target? I guess certain people are just jealous of the perceived freedom as they are crawling along, stressed out by the other drivers around them! Ride safely and have fun! Keep pedaling.