Urban Cycling 101 : Rules of the Road

I bike to work every day, regardless of weather, time constraints, how I'm feeling (for the most part) or anything else. If I'm going to work, I'm getting there on my bike. There are a few dedicated trails that I can take, particularly the Lakefront trail, but these are often congested with inexperienced and slower riders, and it's difficult for me to get a good ride in on these trails. So I ride the city streets, right along side traffic.

To the uninitiated or unskilled, cycling in heavily trafficked city streets at high speeds just feet from cars & trucks can be intimidating at least -- if you don't know what you're doing, it can also be very dangerous. Like everything else in life however, urban cycling is a skill that can be learned -- I maintain that anyone can learn it, it's not rocket science. Many of the skills you learn are simply based in common sense. Others may seem counter-intuitive. To give you an idea what's involved in my daily commute and how I've managed to remain out of trouble for the last 12,000 miles (knock on wood) I decided to write some rules of the road. Here we go...

Rule #1 : In Car vs Bike, the Bike Always Loses

This seems obvious, and it should be. But I see people on bikes doing crazy and stupid things all the time thinking that they won't be hurt. Things like rolling stop signs and red lights. Riding inches from the curb and weaving around obstacles in the roadway. Blocking the right side of a traffic lane. It doesn't take much to knock a cyclist off his ride, and when that happens things tend to break. So this rule is the foundation of all others.

All it takes to get hurt is for a vehicle to brush up against you. Or open their door in your path. Or turn in front of you, forcing you to take evasive action and change course in to a more dangerous area. So the key to being safe when riding among cars is making sure you're never in a Car vs Bike contest. There are several ways to accomplish this.

First, always be completely aware of your surroundings. This means not just what's up ahead of you, but also what's coming up from behind and from the sides. Most of the danger in the streets is in places where you can't see -- behind you, around blind corners, over the crest of a hill, on the other sides of buildings.

Second, always make everyone around you completely aware of your presence. If a motorist knows where you are and what you are doing, they won't hit you. People are not all axe murderers. Many may dislike cyclists, but they won't purposely strike you. So it logically follows that when cyclists get hit, it's because the motorist wasn't aware of where they were and what they were doing.

In making everyone around you aware of your presence, you have to be assertive. Do not hug the curb. If you are inches away from a curb, you are in the motorist's peripheral vision and he will regard you as a pedestrian. He will give you almost no conscious consideration. This is bad! You need every motorist to have a conscious thought about your presence, "There's a bike on the right." So get away from that curb, and get in to the motorist's direct line of sight.

If you are on a street with a dedicated bike lane, use the bike lane intelligently. Get off of the right-hand stripe. Don't be afraid of being close to traffic. If you picked the right street and you are in motorists' direct line of sight, you'll be safer than if you're a wallflower in the door zone. I usually ride 2 inches to the right of the left-hand stripe. This forces motorists to see me, but it keeps me out of the car lane. It also gives me plenty of space on the right if I need to execute an emergency maneuver.

Some streets have shared bike lanes. There is no left-hand solid stripe in the road in these cases. In these cases, pretend there is a stripe. Ride as close to the left-hand imaginary stripe as possible to stay out of the door zone and off cars' right panels.

In many cases on roads with or without any kind of bike lane, the roadway can become constricted. Either because of parked cars, construction, whatever. Sometimes there is just enough space for a car, but no bike. You have to be aware of situations where it would be dangerous to allow a motorist to pass you in these constricted areas. I have a 3-foot rule. If there is not enough room on the roadway for me to have 3 feet of space on both sides of me if someone passes me, then there's not enough room for both me and a car. In these cases, you must take the entire lane. That means moving in to the exact center of the lane, blocking all traffic behind you from passing you until you clear the obstruction. Usually these obstructions will only last 20 feet or so. When taking the lane, accelerate as hard as possible, giving 100% effort. Do not piss off drivers behind you any more who may already be annoyed by traffic, having a bad day, cold coffee, whatever. When taking the lane, first look behind you. This gives you an idea what's happening back there, but it also gives people behind you a signal that you're about to change course. Move to the center gradually, with plenty of lead time. Usually I start manuvering to the center of the lane about 7 seconds before I get to the obstruction. As soon as you pass the obstruction, immediately get back in to the bike lane as quickly as you can safely.

People often think that taking the lane is dangerous and reckless, but it's not. Trying to make yourself skinny and squeeze through a tight space is far more dangerous. Going through a construction area in an attempt to avoid the constricted roadway is just stupid. And hopping the curb and hitting the sidewalk is dangerous for you, dangerous for pedestrians you can't see, and dangerous for you again when you try to merge back in to the traffic lane.

Next up, I'll discuss some cycling skills everyone should have.