Cyclists! Make Sure You’re Staying Safe On The Road
As more and more people decide to ride their bicycles around town, perhaps recreationally, perhaps as their main mode of transport (this is especially popular amongst people who wish to lessen their impact on the environment), it’s healthy to ensure we have a refresher about bicycle safety from time to time.
After all, you need not have to pass a test or carry a license to ride a bicycle, but you can ride them on the road. For this reason, ensuring you’re not only fully aware of the best cycling practice but that you keep yourself to the highest safety standard, you can help you avoid accidents, injury, or perhaps putting others in harm’s way as they seek to avoid you.
Furthermore, in the colder months, cycling can also prove to be a dangerous mode of transportation if you’re not careful and fail to plan your routes. Even those that have been cycling for decades can find themselves in a precarious situation if they’re not careful. With that in mind, please consider our following advice to help you stay safe:
Cyclists: Stay Visible
It’s important to stay visible. You may think your bike is quite sizeable, and you may have warning lights on either side of the frame, but it’s not uncommon for cars, especially cars in the dark, to miss your presence. Wear high-visibility coats and reflective material to ensure you are lit up like a Christmas tree when headlights are shined on you. This allows you to safely cycle, keeping to your own side of the road, ensuring that road users cannot help but see you.
Know Traffic Rules
Unfortunately, we cannot control how other people drive, so it’s up to you to understand the road rules. How will you signal, for instance? An arm out is usually the most customary option. When is it your right of way? Are you allowed in the bike lanes going a certain direction? How long can you use the pavement if needing to cross a difficult situation?
You should know the answers to these questions because not only will knowing the traffic law and how it relates to you help you stay safe on the road, but it will help you understand how to explain your situation when choosing the right lawyers when pursuing post-accident litigation.
Cyclists: Stay Aware
It’s important to stay aware and healthy on the road. We often suggest that you shouldn’t drive sleepy, hungover, or is distracted, which’s the case with cycling. Cycling may seem simple, but it requires strength, agility, the means to monitor your environment constantly, and, perhaps even more so than when driving, to look out for pedestrians. While it’s unlikely for you to fall asleep behind the handlebars as easily as you can behind the wheel, you must ensure you’re fit, clothed, and aware enough for safe cycling, especially in busy environments.
With this advice, we hope you can stay safe on the road when cycling.
