Help me to ride my bike in traffic without becoming what I hate

In My Humble Opinion
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      • Just my opinions/observations:
  • The safest way to get through any intersection is to get in the middle of the lane that’s going where you want to go, and make the cars behind you wait 20 more seconds. A BIG and VERY COMMON problem is drivers that turn right, but do not signal or check their right-sides. And you want to go straight, so they pull halfway in front of you and then turn right, running you into the side of their car and putting you at risk of going under the rear wheel.
    …A common “trick” among more-hardcore bicyclists is to remove the plastic plugs from their handlebar-ends, and if you clip them this way, they slam on their brakes and lean the bike over, and scrape the handlebar end along your car as you turn on them. So if you got a mysterious scratch down the back-half of the right-hand side of your car somehow, this may be how it happened. --I have been clipped four times, with many more near-misses. I did not learn of the handlebar trick until after the first two times, but the next two I scratched good and hard. None of the four even stopped or looked, they didn’t even appear to notice what they had done. Cars turning right at intersections without signalling or checking visually is by far the biggest problem I have seen.
  • I rarely do this, but when I do it is generally when there is a two-lane road with LOTS of traffic. So basically–I walk into the first lane, and stop traffic, while waiting for a spot to cross the other lane. Which pisses lots of drivers off, but there’s really no way around it, because these are streets that are basically not possible to cross on bike or foot without stopping traffic. And if you are riding, drivers seem to think you’ll get out of their way faster, and tend not to stop at all. It’s almost as if you are riding, getting hit will somehow be more-your-fault, but walking, it would be more-their-fault.
  • Some bike lanes are only one one side of the road, and in those cases, that is the better side to ride on. But normally it’s best to go with traffic. Many drivers seem to be unnerved by an oncoming bicycle riding on tiehr side of the road, even if there’s a 3-4+ foot shoulder you’re on.
  • No, just point with the arm on the side you’re turning. Most people wouldn’t know the hand signals anyway. But then, if you really think you need to signal, then you should probably just get in the middle of the lane and block car traffic anyway, to get through that turn. Your objective here is to not get run over, not to “avoid annoying drivers”.
    ~
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I ride on a fairly busy main drag, with and without a bike lane (parts of the road has it, other parts don’t)
If there is a bike lane ride in it with the flow of traffic
If there is no bike lane, still ride with the flow of traffic. As close as possible to the right. If there are parked cars, a couple of feet to the left. If there are no cars parked but space for them I ride in about the middle of where a car would park. No space for parked cars, no bike lane, as close as you feel comfortable to the right side of the road. I usually ride closer to the shoulder than the 3’-4’ that has been recomoned, but that is me. If you feel uncomfortable riding closer that 3’-4’ than ride that far from the shoulder. One word of warning, the further you ride from the shoulder, the more you will get honked at.
Left turns
Assuming you can turn your head far enough to verify that there is no traffic coming, and traffic is clear, stick our your left arm and make a lane change approaching the intersection. If you need to wait at a left turn lane, stay to the right of the lane, when you can turn go wide and allow the cars to pass you on the left. I generally only do this type of turn if there is a left turn lane with a green arrow.
If the above conditions don’t apply or you don’t feel comfortable sitting on your bike in the middle of the street there is a very easy way to make a left. Drive straight through the intersection. Get off your bike and walk down the street to your right a few feet. Place your bike back in the cross street facing the way you want to travel, and wait for the green light. I use this quite often at busy intersections. A couple of places where I turn regulary there are gas stations on the corner, and I don’t even have to get off my bike, I just ride up one driveway and down the other. :cool:
One more tip, when passing parked cars be aware of cars that are ready to pull out. Look for drivers in the cars. No driver = good thing. Person in drivers seat= WATCH OUT. Move left in case door opens, watch front wheel of car to see if it turns left or starts to roll. You can also see if driver see you by watching the rear view mirror. If you don’t see his eyes, he does not see you.

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That would explain it. My area is very bicycle-friendly.

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You’re absolutely right, scr4 – I didn’t state that well. I didn’t mean that you should TRY to be invisible. You should just assume that car drivers won’t see you, or that THEY will treat you as though you didn’t exist. It’s up to you to watch out for them. Don’t expect them to watch out for you, because to most drivers, anything that isn’t a car is invisible.

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I ride my bike to work every day. And my ride usually entails me riding at 2pm, peak traffic time, and 12 am, peak drunk time. Just be sure to ride like you’re invisible. If your ride involves being out after dark, buy good lights, they’re worth the money. I ride on the sidewalks if pedestrian traffic is light and auto traffic isn’t. It just isn’t worth being someone’s hood ornament.

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Preach it, bro’!! One thing people forget when riding/driving on roads that have a curb (most city riding especially), is that the curb pan (the cement extension from the curb onto the road) is not part of the road. In my area the curb pans average about 18 inches. So if I’m riding 2-3 left of the curb pan, it looks like I’m riding 4-5 feet into the road.

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No, that isn’t strange. Bike PATHS might go in 2 directions. A bike LANE, i.e. a lane “integrated” with the roadway should only go in one direction, WITH the flow of traffic.

NEVER drive into traffic, in a bike lane or otherwise.

There’s some misinformation in this thread, and some of the good information is buried. let’s boil it down for Anaamika for a minute.

You have no reason to hate bikers who don’t wear helmets. you may think they’re dumb, but you don’t need to hate them. I make up some of my own rules. Do you really think some rule book has better advice for a situation than your own brain is telling you?

For a single lane from which cars go straight, left, or right: establish your position IN FRONT OF A CAR. Stick your arm out straight to the left so the car knows you’re turning. Turn into your normal right-hand-side of the road position, and cars can now pass you again. Make your turn when oncoming cars allow, jsut like when you’re in a car.

For an intersection with a straight lane, and a dedicated left turn lane: Be on the right hand side of the left turn lane, and make your turn as described above.

For an intersection with a right turn ONLY lane, and a straight ONLY lane: If you want to go straight, be on the right side of the straight ONLY lane. Go straight through and establish your position to the right side of the road. Don’t go straight from the right turn lane.

I NEVER do this, but if you’re uncomfortable about an intersection, I guess you would move to the sidewalk and walk your bike across like a pedestrian.

Yes. ALWAYS.

No. Be like a car. Any road busy enough to be dangerous should have lights. Just pretend your a car. You need to get into lanes with cars at intersections.

Yes. Although, as a driver, you’re taught that “left hand up” means “right turn”. That’s because your right arm is in the car. On a bike, signal a right turn by holding your right arm straight out to the right. I signal a “stop” by placing my hand against the small of my back, palm out. That’s mostly for other bikers, though. There’s no reason to really signal to cars that you’re stopping. Either you’re at a stop sign/red light so they know it, or you shouldn’t be stopping.

One that I like. Google “biking in traffic” or something similar for lots more.

Curbs. I stay as far to the right as possible to be nice to traffic. When I see obstructions up ahead, I move INTO the lane so that a car can’t pass me. You don’t want to be squeezed between a car and an obstruction. I think it’s being an asshole to take a lane if the road is wide enough for a car to pass a cyclist, if you have good pavement ahead of you.

Counterintuitively, in the situation where a road is narrow, or has no shoulder, I ride further from the curb. In these cases, you don’t want to be cramped.

Just be confident. If you are approaching an intersection and you need to be “left”, signal and move over. Think ahead. If you look back and notice a big space, then a line of cars, move into the space and make the cars wait behind you for a little bit. It’s better than waiting until you get too close to the intersection and then trying to force your way over.

The “car hitting cyclist from behind” is about the rarest of car-cyclist accidents. It’s not something to worry about.

Keep your eyes on the intersections ahead of you.

My most important tip about riding with traffic: Learn to look over your shoulders. No mirror is going to give you the full picture you get from actually looking over your shoulder. Practice doing it when you’re riding without traffic around, trying to keep your path straight as you look back. Make sure your path is clear for the next few feet, then look back. I’m such an advocate of looking over your shoulder, I’d recommend AGAINST getting a mirror because I don’t think you should ever make a decision based on what you see in a mirror, AND, I think they make people paranoid about what’s behind them.

Keep in mind, the law is just the law. Maybe you totally respect every law just because it’s written in a book somewhere. If I deem that a law has to be broken for safety or convenience based on the current traffic situation and my own personal experience, I break it.

Here’s one law I break pretty often. I ride straight through an intersection all the time that has a left-only lane, a straight-only lane and a right-only lane. The oncoming traffic has the same thing. Before the “main” light turns green, oncoming traffic and “my” traffic gets a left-green arrow. If all of the oncoming cars have made their lefts, and the “main light” is still red, I’ll go straight through at that point. It’s only red because of the left-turners and they’re all done. AND it avoids me accelerating with the straight-goers.

Here’s another. There’s an intersection on my route with a road coming in from the left and the right, but the one from the right is one-way, so no car coming from teh left goes straight through – they ALL turn. So. if there are no cars coming from the right, I go through the intersection, staying in the shoulder. No danger. No inconvenience.

Rolling through a stop sign when there’s no one around? Come on. Half the cars roll through stop signs.

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Yes, but I’ve never seen a road with a bike lane only on one side. :slight_smile:

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Oh, that’s what you’re saying. I thought you meant two-ways in the same lane.

Still, I’ve seen places where there’s a bike lane one way, and maybe the “return” lane that you’d use is over another block or something.

It’s not a given that bike lanes, especially as they’re designed in the US, are safer or useful.

They can give a cyclist a false sense of security. They can cause more confusion at intersections than not having them at all (e.g. how do you coordinate with a “right hand turn” lane when traffic has previously been riding to the left of the bike lane?). They preclude what I think is the best solution. . .wide shoulders. Most of all, they convery the idea of “a bike is a separate type of vehicle on the road”. That can cause the wrong mindset in an area with bikelanes because even with bikelanes, there are always going to be roads you want or need to be riding on that don’t have them.

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If you want another riding guide, my favorite is here: http://www.bikexprt.com/streetsmarts/

If you want a simple rule to boil it down: remember that motorists don’t drive into things they can see. So ride where they’re expecting to see moving things: in the standard lanes of traffic, just like a car.

Don’t ride the wrong way, through red lights, too close to parked cars, or anywhere where a driver isn’t expecting traffic to come from.

It can be a little scary the first few times taking a lane on a four lane road, with cars passing you. But it’s actually much safer that way, because everybody can see you as they come up from behind, and everybody looks your direction before pulling out from a driveway or turning left across traffic or making any other move.

I agree with scr4 and Trunk, but disagree with a couple other things people said.

> Don’t rely on seeing someone in a parked car. Always, ALWAYS, stay a car door’s width away from a parked car, whether you can see someone or not. If that means you have to get out in the lane and slow the driver behind you, so what? Don’t get the “door prize”!

> If you want to turn left, and there’s a left-turn lane, you should be smack in the center of the left-turn lane. If there’s time for a car to turn, there’s time for you. Don’t

> It’s a bad idea to take of the plastic caps from your handlebar ends. Uncapped handlebars can cause nasty wounds in a crash.