5 Always keep a finger on your brake levers. Braking reaction is delayed if you have all of your fingers wrapped around your handlebar, far from your brakes. Most times you will have less than a second to brake to avoid an accident. With your fingers not on your brake levers, that second becomes two, already too late to brake. If your fingers are not able to comfortably reach the brakes, then change your brake levers to a different option that will fit your hand size correctly.

6 Beware of the dark. When riding at night, it is imperative that you have a bright white blinking headlight, and a bright red blinking taillight mounted on your bike, each with fresh batteries. If you thought you were invisible to cars in the daytime, at night you’re nothing more than future roadkill. Popular LED “blinkie” lights increase the visible distance between you and a car tremendously, giving drivers a much longer time to react and avoid you. Make sure you have a headlight as well as a taillight to help prevent oncoming cars from turning directly in front of you, or others from pulling out of parking spaces into you.

SKILLS FOR DEALING WITH
OTHER VEHICLES

1 Watch for a car’s turn signals, but don’t rely on them as fact. Never assume a car is going to go straight because their turn signals are not on, or going to turn left just because their left signal is blinking. Always expect the unexpected. Turn signals can be a hint, but nothing more.

2 When riding in traffic, do not always follow the law that dictates it is illegal to split a lane with another vehicle. This, in my opinion, is far more dangerous than the increased possibility of getting sideswiped, as it places you wedged between cars in front and behind. If for any reason a car behind you is unable to stop, you will be crushed. A simple “fender bender” could prove fatal to an exposed bicyclist. Instead, where safely possible, stay to the far side of a lane, splitting the lane with the cars – especially when stopped at a light. Getting rear-ended is no fun. I cringe whenever I see a bicycling family on the streets waiting at a red light, standing out in the zone like ducks in a shooting gallery. The parent is thinking they’re doing the right thing by following the letter of the law, but they’re just ignoring common sense and good survival skills. Get your ass out of the line of fire as much as possible.

3 Give yourself a safety cushion. Make sure that you’re not riding too close to the curb or edge of the road. Give yourself enough breathing room should a car get too close to pull farther off to the side to avoid being hit. Ride too close to the edge, and you’ll have nowhere to go. If the road is that tight where you can’t give yourself at least that much of a safety cushion, then you probably shouldn’t be on that road at all unless you’re able to keep up with traffic.

4 Never assume a car will stop just because they have a red light. In other words, never rely on traffic signals to determine whether or not it is safe to proceed. Traffic signals are there to attempt to control the traffic, but unfortunately they can do quite the opposite. It has been proven that at intersections where there are no traffic signals, there is a markedly lower rate of accidents, as people are forced to rely on their own common sense and visual determination of whether it is safe or not to proceed. When traffic signals control people, the same people get lazy and incorrectly assume that is safe. We all should know this is rarely true, as people blow through red lights all the time.