Riding In Traffic

One issue I deal with on a daily basis is navigating our road system on a bicycle. As anybody who does this on a regular basis knows, it can get pretty dangerous. In my opinion, its one of the most dangerous things I do, more dangerous than driving on high speed highways in my opinion.

The real problem with biking around cars is that neither cyclists, nor motorists know what is expected of each other. Usually there are two extremes: too passive or too aggressive, but to be in the safe, you need to know when to be passive and when to be aggressive.

Cyclists

Cyclists that are being too passive on the roads are the ones that don't stick up for themselves. They'll be found riding along the very edge of the road to get as far away from traffic as possible. This is an issue for two reasons. First of all, this allows cars to pass them without exiting the lane which means that if the road is around the same width as the car, there is a temptation for the driver to risk hitting the cyclist. Now say there is a hazard on the road and the cyclist is forces to swerve while a car is going past the cyclist. There will be no room to move, so the cyclist will either be hit by a car or crash into the hazard.

On the flip side, aggressive cyclists get fed up with this and decide to ride right down the middle of the lane, or even closer to the centre. There IS a time and place for this, but it's a small percentage of the time. Taking the entire lane is generally only a good idea when changing lanes, turning, or the road is thinning ahead (a bridge, ramp, etc.). Taking too much of the lane causes traffic to slow down so much behind you that drivers get too impatient and again, will be liable to pass too closely to you or run you off the road to avoid oncoming traffic.

One extremely effective way of controlling the traffic around you, other than by choosing the right place in the lane is to always look behind you in heavy traffic. This accomplishes two things: (1) it lets drivers know that you see them coming and (2) it makes them pass you at a "greater" (read: acceptable) distance. I'm not sure what the reasoning is for the latter, but it could be that they think you might take a left turn or maybe I just have an intimidating face. Either way, it works, so I won't complain.

Cars

Just like bikers, cars can be too passive. This is generally better than being too aggressive, but it at times it can be just as dangerous. A couple examples:

A car slows down behind you, waiting for an extra perfect special time to pass (or maybe looking at your bum). This confuses other traffic, which may result in an aggressive move from another driver, or just hold you up in your workout because you want them to pass you. This could be particularly dangerous if the cyclist is also being passive on the right hand side of a lane, but is waiting to take a left hand turn.

A car on a two lane street stops so that you can take a left turn. All the cars behind it, move into the other lane making it unsafe to cross anyways.

Drivers are usually too aggressive though. Passing cyclists too closely is probably the single most dangerous move a car can make. Another one would be passing a cyclist and immediately stopping to turn.

Transport truck drivers are usually the worst for this, because if they pull back into the lane too soon, they can easily run your off the road. I've been in more close calls of this nature than I can count.

One that happened to me just the other day was when I was travelling up a two lane street, trying to move from the right lane to the left in order to make a turn. The problem was that once I moved to the left hand side of my lane, waiting for a chance to make a lane change, all of the cars behind me changed lanes to pass me. This left me sitting between lanes, going slower and slower and cars passing me faster and faster. In the end I gave up and took the next turn.

The problem with drivers is that most of them don't know what it's like to ride on city streets, so they don't know how to treat cyclists. My solution: everybody needs to ride a bike more often.

One final piece of advice: cyclists need to communicate clearly with body language. For example, when you are turning, you use signals, when you come to stop signs, do a track stand and look straight at the other car, letting them know that they can take their right of way without hitting you and when you are passing a side street, you stair the driver waiting to turn into your lane down, making sure they see you so you don't get side swiped.

For more info, Road ID does a great series on how to ride in traffic.