Three Overlooked But Golden Rules of Cycling Safety

All the precaution in the world cannot prevent every accident. However, safe riding can go a long, long way to mitigate accidents and injuries, so here are three easy but overlooked tips to keep in mind while on your bike.

Keep Your Eyes Up

I’m a big believer in sticking to the basics and this is one of them. How many car accidents do you think could have been avoided if drivers focused on the road rather than their phones?

The same applies to riding a bicycle. As a cyclist myself, the majority of the accidents I’ve avoided involved other pedestrians, bike riders, and drivers who were doing everything other than looking where they were going.

It’s common knowledge that whether you’re walking, driving, or riding, you go where you look. So if you’re looking at your power meter, your phone, or the cyclist riding in the other direction, it’s impossible to ride in a safe manner.

Above all else, keep your eyes up and look where you’re going. If you can follow this most basic of all rules, I can pretty much guarantee your riding will be a heck of a lot safer.

Courtesy Counts

I think it’s fair to say that, when it comes to cities like New York and the surrounding ‘burbs, courtesy has fallen out of grace. Yet that’s what makes courtesy so easy and so effective for a cyclist’s safety.

Let’s face it: most pedestrians and drivers who don’t ride don’t have the highest opinions of cyclists, especially when we’re out on group rides. Giving a pedestrian or driver a quick “courtesy” wave when given the right of way or when you inadvertently blaze through a stop sign may not seem like a safety tip, but the benefit of the courtesy is twofold.

First, it improves the image of cyclists overall. There isn’t a driver in the world who enjoys feeling held up by a bunch of cyclists hogging a narrow road. Giving a wave can mean getting a few extra feet when that frustrated driver goes whizzing by.

Second, a courtesy wave mitigates road rage which, in turn, mitigates the chances of you getting run down by a psycho in a 3-ton truck.

Try it and I guarantee you’ll see results. I do it all the time. When I give a wave to the car that’s been behind me on a narrow road waiting for oncoming traffic to pass, I almost always get a few extra feet when they go by. Again, it requires next to no effort and the benefits are pretty big.

Braking + Pedaling = Stability

Unlike the first two, this tip is counterintuitive because most cyclists are taught to avoid braking while cornering. Negotiating slow corners is the exception to the rule.

For any rider who’s ever ridden over the George Washington Bridge, they’re familiar with the slow turns that require navigating the bike path near the security booths. The slow speed alone makes handling the 90-degree corners somewhat tricky, not to mention steering clear of oncoming bike and foot traffic at the same time.

Here’s a good and easy tip on how to improve your safety when faced with similar circumstances.

Once you’re down around 5 MPH or slower, the bike doesn’t want to stay upright, especially if you’re decelerating. Therefore, the challenge with managing a 90-degree turn at such a slow speed is that the bike feels unstable. You can correct this by accelerating through the turn but then holding your line through the corner becomes a challenge.

Instead, when you reach the corner’s entrance, keep the pedals turning. Doing so will improve the bike’s stability. Apply the brakes at the same time so you can maintain a steady speed. This will leave you comfortable enough to make the corner holding a line much tighter than you would have needed otherwise.

And it doesn’t require a lot of brake or a lot of acceleration. A little bit of both at the same time will produce the exact result you need.

Good luck and stay safe out there.