It's no secret that we like bikes here on Re-Nest — we love the designs and of course that biking is an eco-friendly mode of transportation. Unfortunately bicycling can be dangerous, especially when maneuvering around traffic and through drivers and pedestrians who aren't expecting you. We know our fare share of people who've been injured on their bikes, that's why it's important to remember a few simple tips when in traffic to keep bicycling enjoyable and safe.
Discovery's green blog, Planet Green, along with Biking Toronto, has compiled a great list of tips and secrets to easily and safely navigate the streets on two wheels. Here are a few that we think are most helpful:
Play By The Rules: You and your bike constitute “a vehicle” according to the Highway Traffic Act. This means that you have to abide to the same rules that drivers do. This means stopping at red lights, stopping for people at crosswalks, and not passing open streetcar doors....Why should they treat you like a vehicle with a right to the road if you don’t behave like one?
Signal Sensibly: The signals we were taught make no sense; they were invented for cars when there were no brake lights or turn signals (or they were broken) and the driver could only use a left arm. Most have forgotten that an arm pointing up means a left turn or down means stopping... just point in the direction you are going. Makes sense.
Ride in a Straight Line: Don’t ride in the gutters and then swing out into the road to avoid the drains. This throws drivers off-guard because they aren’t thinking about the drains and aren’t expecting you to do this. There’s a very good chance you’ll get honked at if you do this, because nothing scares a driver more than a cyclist swerving in front of their car....This also applies when there are a lot of parked cars… instead of swerving in towards the curb between parked cars before swerving back out again, keep riding in a straight line… it makes you more predictable to car drivers.
Avoid the Right Hook: One of the most common places that car-bike collisions happen is at intersections, and more commonly, when a car is turning right... Cars, but especially buses and trucks, just can't see you and don't expect you when you are between their vehicle and the curb. Some cities are experimenting with bike boxes so that cyclists are out in front, but this is such a common way of getting killed.
For the complete list of tips and explanations, visit Planet Green.
(Images via Biking Toronto & Planet Green)
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Also don't bike on the sidewalk and then jump out onto the street to avoid pedestrians without looking to see if there's a car right behind you. AUGH, I had the dickens scared out of me by someone doing this last week.
Also, go the right way on streets with bike lanes. A bike lane is not a "sidewalk for bikes" it is a "traffic lane for bikes", and as such they are directional, just like traffic lanes for cars. I have nearly hit a couple cyclists on a street near my house because they were going down the street the wrong way and I didn't see them when I made a left turn.
I see bicyclists riding the wrong way on one way streets. I'm not sure why this is but I assume they think they are more visible as they are coming towards you and they don't get startled when you pass them. This is crazy and dangerous. Not only are bicyclist not more visible coming towards you but they come up on you so quickly reducing a drivers time to react or allow them room to pass.
Another thing I see often is bicyclists that ride on the street only to ride up on the curb to hit the crossing signal then ride across the intersection in the crosswalk only to swerve back onto the roadway. I think it is common here because in Denver the crossing signals will allow all 4 sides of an intersection to cross at once as well as diagonally (I've heard it referred to as the "Denver square dance").
I'm all for more people riding bicycles, but around here there are very few that abide by the laws. Seeing a bicyclist stop at a red light or stop sign is almost unheard of here. There is a campaign called Share the Road that is probably common in a lot of cities. I'm all for a campaign for "Sharing the Responsibility" too.
Those who are in places where their is minimal street lighting: the average bike lights are too small for you to be seen. The only way I realized this was by having very close calls with bikers in the dark. I realized that I need way more lights on my bike when I'm driving at night!
These biking tips are great and all, but there are way more idiotic drivers than bikers out there.
I'm a law-abiding cyclist who operates her bike as a vehicle, and I have to say-- leisure cyclists who are out there without helmets, riding every which way up and down the streets and sidewalks, drive me absolutely crazy. My city has great bike lanes all over the place, and every fall we get a new crop of college kids who ignore them and ride down a no-shoulder, high-traffic road instead because it saves them a block of distance. This leads to more confusing encounters than I can count-- two bikes and a car at an intersection, one bike is on the sidewalk acting like a pedestrian, one is in the lane with signals... gah!
I'm at the point where I'm about to outfit my bike with blinker signals, high-powered headlights, and "low lights" just so I can send the clearest possible signal that I wish to be treated like a car.