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Bicycle safety is something that is often ignored at best, and deliberately disobeyed at worst. Don’t be one of those cyclists that flits in between cars, blows through stop signs and rides in the dark without lights! There are a few things you can add to your bike, and a few things you can do, to improve your safety on the road.
First of all, and I can’t stress this enough, wear a helmet!! Helmets are inexpensive, and are the only thing that will protect your head in the case of a collision. Like seatbelts, helmets save lives. Be sure to always wear your helmet, and make sure that it is properly fitted for maximum protection.
Make yourself as visible as you can, to cars and pedestrians. You don’t have 2000 pounds of metal helping you stand out on the road, so you have to wear bright colours instead. Red, yellow and bright green are the best colours. At night, light yourself up like a Christmas tree, so that no-one can claim they didn’t see you. Visit the section on night time riding for more information on lights.
To further increase your visibility, you can add a flag to your bike. This is especially relevant for trikes and other low-riding bikes. A flag, available at any bike shop and usually any store that sells bikes, stands about 5 or 6 feet above ground. This places it directly in the line of driver’s eyes. Standard bicycle flags are usually a bright orange triangle, but you can use any flag that is bright and noticeable to drivers on the road. You can even place a blinking light at the top of the flagpole, to boost night time visibility.
Reflective clothing and lights won’t help you, if you don’t ride responsibly. If you expect cars to give you space and respect your position on the road, then you must respect the laws of the road.
Signaling your turns is an excellent way of staying safe, and showing your respect for the road. Signal all of your turns and lane changes so that cars know what you’re planning to do. It’s not hard, and it will go a long way towards improving your safety on the road.
It may be tempting to filter past stopped cars to reach the front of the line, but this is a very unsafe thing to do. There’s the danger of someone unexpectedly opening their door, but there’s also the chance that a car will unexpectedly change lanes or make a turn – right as you pass. Needless to say, neither of these scenarios has a pleasant ending.
It may also seem safe and harmless to ride though stop signs and stop lights, but there are hazards in doing this as well. There may be someone crossing the street that you didn’t notice, perhaps another cyclist. Drivers that see you breeze through stop lights will certainly not respect you, and may even become angered at your actions.
That said, you have certain rights of your own, and one of them is the right to a safe lane of travel. In most locations, you are supposed to ride as far right as is practicable. In practice, this means you should ride as far to right as is safe. If there are potholes, cracks and debris littering the side of the road, you don’t have to ride though it. Just ride slightly to the left of the obstacles, holding your line and not swerving back and forth. Riding predictably in this way will make it easier for cars behind you to pass safely.
There’s a lot more you can do to ride safely on roads. Basically, it comes down to this: Act like you’re a vehicle. Well, a vehicle that obeys all the laws, anyway! Acting like a vehicle, or “Vehicular Cycling” as it is more commonly known, is the best way to share the road with cars and ensure your own safety.
For more information on Vehicular Cycling, visit these links:
Wikipedia entry on Vehicular Cycling
A short entry by Tom Swenson, and lots of links
An introduction to Vehicular Cycling on Bicyclinglife.com
