How Not To Get Hit By Cars Part 4 - LT Tyler Hickman

Thursday, July 17, 2008

So far, we’ve covered the Right Cross, the Door Prize, the Red Light of Death, the Right Hook and the Left Cross. This week, it’s the Read End. A car running into them from behind is what many cyclists fear the most and one of the hardest collisions to avoid, since you're not usually looking backwards. Here are some suggestions for avoiding this collision. • If you're riding at night, you must use a flashing red rear light. USA Today reported that 39% of deaths on bicycles nationwide occurred between 6 p.m. and midnight. Bike shops have red rear blinkies for $15 or less. These lights typically take two AA batteries, which last for something like 200 hours. If you ride at night, get a rear light! • Wear a reflective vest or a safety triangle. High quality reflective gear makes you a lot more visible even in the day time. At one-quarter mile, you probably can’t see a bike, but you will see a vest. At night, the difference is even greater. Bike shops have vests and triangles for $10 to $15. Also, when you hear a motorist approaching, straightening up will make your reflective gear more noticeable. • Ride on streets whose outside lane is so wide that it can easily fit a car and a bike side by side. That way a car may zoom by you and avoid hitting you, even if they didn't see you! • Choose slow streets. The slower a car is going, the more time the driver has to see you. • Use back streets on weekends. The risk of riding on Friday or Saturday night is much greater than riding on other nights because more impaired drivers are on the road. If you do ride on a weekend night, take neighborhood streets over arterials. • Get a mirror and use it. If it looks like a car doesn't see you, hop off your bike and onto the sidewalk. Mirrors cost $5-15. Once you've ridden a mirror for a while, you'll wonder how you got along without it. • Don't hug the curb. Giving yourself a little space between yourself and the curb gives you some room to move into in case you see a large vehicle in your mirror approaching without moving over far enough to avoid you. Also, when you hug the curb tightly you're more likely to suffer a Right Cross from motorists who can't see you. In a variation on the basic Rear End, you innocently move a little to the left to go around a parked car or some other obstruction in the road and you get nailed by a car coming up from behind. You can avoid this collision. • Never, ever move left without looking behind you first. Some motorists like to pass cyclists within mere inches, so moving even a tiny bit to the left unexpectedly could put you in the path of a car. Practice holding a straight line while looking over your shoulder until you can do it perfectly. Most new cyclists tend to move left when they look behind them, which of course can be disastrous. • Don't swerve in and out of the parking lane if it contains any parked cars. You might be tempted to ride in the parking lane where there are no parked cars, dipping back into the traffic lane when you encounter a parked car. This action puts you at risk for getting nailed from behind. Instead, ride a steady, straight line in the traffic lane. • As we mentioned before, get and use a mirror. There are models that fit on your handlebars, helmet, or glasses. You should always physically look back over your shoulder before moving left, but having a mirror still helps you monitor traffic without constantly having to look behind you. Next week: The Crosswalk Slam, the Wrong Way Wallop and a wrap up. In offering these thoughts and those we have presented in the past weeks, we are in no way suggesting that the primary responsibility for biking safety in on the bike riders. Motorists have at least an equal and, given the kinematics of the vehicles we are talking about, perhaps greater obligation to be attentive when sharing the roadways. As cyclists, however, we have far more to lose and need to recognize that many motorists are frequently insufficiently attentive to other users. Truck Lieutenant Tyler Hickman is a Bethany Beach native and joined the BBVFC in 2000. He lives in Bethany Beach, has a degree in construction management from DelTech and works in contractor sales at 84 Lumber. His grandfather, Jack, is past chief engineer and life member, his father, Chad, is past fire chief and life member and his younger brother, Travis, is also a member.