Safety Tips For Beginners

Given a number of threads dealing with new bikers getting into it for the benefits offered when commuting, perhaps a thread aimed at safety tips from those with more experience with commuting .. to those with less. Like this (from Seamus) dealing with riding along a line of stopped traffic.

Look out for right turns up ahead - some cars are liable to jump out of the queue in frustration, even if they're 100+m away from the turn.

2. As you figured out, don't rely on indicators to tell you what people are going to do (but do watch them).

3. Watch out for cars suddenly doing U-turns. These are next to impossible to predict and I'm sure a number of regulars here will tell their stories of colliding with them.

4. Once the queue starts moving, stop overtaking and rejoin the traffic flow.

5. Above all, keep your speed down. If the traffic is stopped, then any progress, even if it is at 20km/h, is better than no progress and better than being splattered on the road. Your ability to react safely to sudden occurences will be much better at slow speeds.

1. Try and put an open-car-drivers-door-width between you and the line of cars your passing. Doors open for ashtrays to be emptied or for the driver to step out so as to remove a suit jacket on a warm day or because the driver has bumped the car in front and steps out to deal with the "accident".

2. When filtering between stopped lines of traffic going in the same direction - say approaching a set of red lights on a dual carraigeway - be wary of passenger doors opening. Schoolkids being let out is a common one. Once, a bikecop filtering in front of me stopped, knocked on the passenger window of a car and told the passenger to put on his seatbelt - he'd seen the belt hanging unused through the car windows whilst filtering slowly between lines of traffic. Impressive. But you should be looking at activity in cars whilst filtering: if you are looking you'll see the passanger shifting as they go to remove belt/open door. Clearly, you have to going slowly enough to observe this.


3) As a general rule, I tend to ride in one or other wheel track of the car in front. If there is an object lying in the middle of the road the car driver will simply pass over it ... and you'll miss it by virtue of your position. If the object is lying in his car wheel track he'll steer to avoid it and you'll be alerted by his action. I've seen all sorts flash by me over the years - a dead badger being the largest object .. but bricks, lumps of wood and rocks have passed to one side too. You also tend to be on the clear bits of road this way too.


4) Carrying on from above. On a single lane road the general position to take up would be the driver-in-fronts' right hand wheel track - you'll be about 2/3 of the way out between kerb and white line. This provides drivers pulling out of side roads more opportunity to see you too. In the "slow" lane of a dual carraigeway you should track the same wheel as above, the drivers side wheel.

In the "fast" lane of a dual carraigeway I prefer to run in the track of the left wheel of the car in front. It opens up more escape routes and tends to discourage drivers behind undertaking you. You get better visibility up the road too.


5) Part of the logic of above road positioning has to do with creating a "safety zone" around yourself - an overall goal to be aiming to achieve. Consider a single lane with you positioned near the white line (instead of hogging the kerb): you're away from parked cars (and what appears from behind them), side roads on the left .. and you won't be encouraging car drivers behind to overtake you if you happen to be keeping at a safe speed (if hogging the kerb you look like a learner and are almost indicating to the driver behind that he should overtake you)

6) Play the odds. Seamus points out an example of this above. Pottering at slow speeds between lines of stopped traffic is playing the odds: progress for minimal risk. Weaving in and out through moving traffic and ending up stopping at a set of red lights 200 yards further up isn't playing the odds: no discernable progress for high risk. The gains to be made whilst commuting haven't to do with riding fast - they have to do with trickling gently through the jams and predicting what's the best route to take through the mess.


7) Part of the predicting armoury involves learning what the traffic light sequences are on your daily route. When you do learn them, you'll frequently find that the best thing to do on a particular stretch is to potter along with the moving traffic (rather than whizzing past it in the buslane). You'll arrive at at the next red light knowing that it'll change to green before you have to put your feet down. The bikers who blasted off from the previous set of lights and left you in his wake won't have gained a thing on you. He's consumed more tyres, petrol, chain/sprockets and brake pads that you - as well as running more risk.


8) Use buslanes whenever they benefit you. I've not been in them for a while now (using the M50) but spent many years using them on a daily without getting any grief from cops. Just treat lanes with respect: don't blast by stopped lines of traffic, don't ride up a bike/car cops arse, move out of the lane when spotting a cop up ahead (he'll ignore you when you get to him), show you're paying attention when squeezing between a bus at a busstop and the line of stopped traffic beside it - by doing so slowly and gingerly. I tend to keep 1/3 lane width from the kerb in order to increase the distance between me and the line of cars to my right. I expect that one will suddenly decide to zip into the buslane to get to their exit up ahead. Folk doing so are often stressed/in a hurry: not the best combination for good car driving.

I've lost count of the amount of times I've seen a rider (usually an inexperienced-looking one it must be said) riding in the buslane whilst hugging the side of the line of cars their right. Lethal.

9) In dark, wet winter weather, your headlight gets lost in a sea of other headlights. Before I gave up daily town commuting I considered supplimenting things by using one of those rapid flashing white LED bicycle lights for tight town riding . The glance a car driver makes before pulling out will catch this as nothing else.

10) If you get proficient at one thing let it be wet weather (front) braking. Because heavy-handed use of the front brake in the wet usually causes the front end to lock up - leading to sphincter-loosening moments as the front ends slides away to one side - folk tend to avoid going there. But your front brake is the one that stops motorcycles (the back being supplimental). You can give the front brake far more welly than you think - so long as you do it properly. It's a matter of practicing on wet - but clean and well surfaced roads - so that you have an idea what to do on the greasy, tar-lined roads you'll encounter during your commute. Google how to do it and practice doing it. Essentially it involves remembering that:

- gradually increased braking force should be applied rather than snatching the brake on in a panic. Gradual application shifts weight onto the front tyre allowing it to "bite" into the road. Once bite is established you can add more braking force. Which increases grip. It's a continuous movement leading up to quite hard braking.

- if you do lock up the wheel and the front end dives away sickeningly, releasing the brake is the magic solution - the front will right itself. You have to release as soon as you feel the front let go - so be watching for it during your practice



11) Don't be in a hurry commuting. You'll only get to the next red light quicker.

12) Don't become one of those moany bikers who blame "cagers". Make it your goal never to be clipped - no matter how bad the car driver is. Make it your goal that you're going to compensate for his weakness, hurry, selfishness, lack of concern, etc. ...with your proficiency. Make it your target that you're going to take control of your environment so that your safety is down to you and no other. Decide that it's a game of life and death that you're going to win - not any cager.

And take what comes with it. If you get clipped, if you have a near miss, if you get a fright ... then it was YOU who was to blame. YOU didn't play the game as good as it needed playing that time. And thank God or your lucky stars that you've got another chance to demonstrate your skill.