Road Hazards & Bicycle Safety Tips

Video Transcript

" This is Jim Toledano for Expert Village talking about road hazards and other things that you might run across or try avoid running across when you’re biking on the streets. What you don’t want to do is run over anything that’s either going to stop you, divert you, or cut your tires. You need to watch very carefully a couple of feet ahead of you on the bike to see what there is that you might be running into. It might be a tree branch. It might be a pinecone. It might be a dead animal. It might be trash; a broken bottle or glass. You want to be careful that you don’t ride into something like that if you can possibly avoid it. So if you see something at the side of the road where you’re riding, check and make sure there’s nobody who’s going to run into you if you pull out. It’s better to run through a little bit of glass and run the risk of glass in your tire, than get hit by a car because you’re trying to avoid. One thing you have to keep in mind at all times is the fact that when you’re riding on the streets in a bike, you are sharing the streets with cars. In most jurisdictions, all of the laws that apply to cars apply to a bike and you have to obey them all. What they don’t put in the books is the law of physics applies just as well. If you and a car occupy the same space at the same time, 100 times out of 100 you’re going to be a loser. So you want to ride aware at all times. One thing you need to always remember when you’re on a bike is that you’re going much more slowly than a car. Don’t try to run the yellow light that you’d run in your car because you’re going to be caught out in the middle of the intersection with cars coming the other way. Always ride aware; always ride safely, and always assume that the motorist and the cars that you see are not aware that you’re there and are liable to do something to put yourself in danger. While you’re riding you’re going to be sharing the side of the road with other bicyclists. If you’re coming up on a cyclist who’s not going as fast as you are, always pass on the left; never pass on the right. As you come up to that cyclist, make sure you say in a nice loud voice ‘on your left’ so that he or she can see and hear that you’re coming up and do whatever they happen to do, or not do something such as pull out and get in your way. If you are riding and you are approached by a large group of bicyclists stay in a straight line, slow down and let them pass you. The whole idea is to make sure that you’re safe and that you don’t endanger others. "