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I have many pet peeves, probably too many. A frequent subject of ranting on this blog is the supermarket which is usually good for some enragement/humor value. However, today’s pet peeve is a serious one and not particularly humorous, especially since I have a lot of friends with young kids.

Bicycle Safety! We’ve made a ton of progress over the past 20 years in teaching people to wear helmets all the time when riding, but helmet wearing alone is not the be all/end all in bicycle safety. While running today I witnessed two things which made me want to write about this.

1) I saw a woman on a bike with her son (maybe 9 or 10) riding behind her up High Street. They were traveling against traffic and were hugging the edge of the road very tightly. When they had to pass parked cars they would essentially swerve into the flow of traffic to pass the parked car before quickly ducking back against the curb.

2) I saw a man on a road bike with riding shorts/jersey (implying he was at least a semi-regular rider) cut inside a corner at a 4 way intersection while traveling at full speed in front of turning traffic (which had the right-of-way). The oncoming car had to brake quickly in the middle of the intersection because it was unclear what the rider was doing. Observing the situation, it was clear after the fact that the rider chose to cut the corner so he could turn away from the traffic, but the erratic nature made the driver have to stop quickly to evaluate.

Bikes on the road are for all intents and purposes vehicles and have to obey the same basic rules that apply to automobiles. In the first case it’s dangerous to ride against the flow of traffic. Even if you can see oncoming traffic better, you’re traveling at a fast enough speed to close the distance between you and oncoming cars faster than you or the car can react if something goes wrong. Even when riding with the flow of traffic it’s not safe to hug the curb tightly and have to swerve into traffic to avoid obstacles such as drains and parked cars. In general it’s better to travel a slight distance away from the curb. It gives cars behind you better visibility of you and by moving straight forward without sudden swerves they’re more likely to treat you like the vehicle you are and pass you safely without trying to squeak by while you’re hugging the curb.

In the second case, the man should have put on the brakes, stopped at the red light like a car would have, and accepted the fact that he didn’t make the light. By cutting across an empty lane of traffic that a turning car was about to occupy he put himself in danger and gave other cyclists a bad name in the eyes of car drivers who observe this reckless behavior.

I’ve spent many years riding a bicycle and when I was younger I remember my parents making me learn the rules of the road before I was allowed out of the driveway and onto the road (or sidewalks for that matter). Almost every town will have an annual bike rodeo/safety day often sponsored by the local fire department. Bicycle safety rules should also be available at the RMV so you can learn how to ride safely. I think a big part of being a safe teenage driver for me stemmed from the fact that by the time I was 16 I had ridden hundreds of miles on the road on my bike over the years and I was already trained to think like a car and know what cars did on the road.

Helmeting up is a wonderful lesson, but with knowledge of how to ride safely hopefully the helmet will never be needed. Teach your kids how to ride properly, and if you don’t know how to ride properly, take the time to learn.