Cycling Tips & Stories

This video shows League of American Bicyclists certified traffic cycling instructors demonstrating how bicyclists make normal vehicular maneuvers including lane control, lane sharing, left and right turns, through movements and a freeway ramp crossing. These skills are taught by the League of American Bicyclists' Bike Ed program.

* Find out more about Bike Ed in Missouri



If you watch the video and think "I could never do that--I'll get run over!" take heart--I used to think the same thing.

Now I do all my riding exactly as shown in the video--and what do you know, it really works. I have far less conflict with automobile drivers and far less 'close calls' or scary moments on the road.

Some tips:

* Start out by practicing these techniques on low-traffic neighborhood streets.

* Once you feel comfortable, try them on more complex streets (say, 4-lane roads with left or right turn lanes) but find low-traffic roads to practice on or do it at low-traffic times of day--say, early Sunday morning.

* Take a class--it's a lot of fun and even if you've been bicycling for years, you'll learn more than you think.

* Bicycling Street Smarts is a very useful (and free) online booklet that summarizes how to bicycle safely. permanent link to article: "How to bicycle safely in traffic--"
posted by Brent Hugh at 4/03/2008 09:01:00 AM |comment on this article