What do you do to be safe while riding?
Originally Posted by
hunterbw
Inspired by the "How do you ride" thread, I am wondering what people do to be safe while riding?
I know there are lots of different ideas about what keeps us safe or makes us feel safe, and lots of different specific conditions that we ride in.
I am hoping that this is less a debate about what one "should" do and more just an archive of what we do.
Do you wear certain colors? Do you run lights all the time or just in the dark? Do you feel safer on a road with less traffic and no shoulder, or more traffic but with a shoulder?
Do you think about safety and do different things if you are commuting to work, or riding a trail, or riding alone or in a group on the road. Do you ride in urban locations, or rural locations? What sort of safety concerns and solutions do you have for these different places? ETC.
Please share your collective experience.
What do you do to be safe while riding?
As a lifestyle cyclist for decades (year round urban commuting, road cycling, touring) I frequently post about my safety mindset:
Originally Posted by
Jim from Boston
So often on these threads about calamities or near misses,
I post about my mindset that I believe gives me that extra edge.
Originally Posted by
FBinNY
In all fairness, I don't think there's anyone who's been riding for a long time, who hasn't at some time (or many times) ridden in that zone where the only thing separating us from disaster is favorable alignment of the stars. (Note the "us" rather than "him")
We all take chances and make mistakes, but fortunately life is"organized" with plenty of forgiveness. In my experience the difference between disaster and "whew, that was close" is millimeters and microseconds, and not anything we can take credit for.
Originally Posted by
Jim from Boston
I try to keep safe with certain aphorisms in my head that come to mind to alert me when I encounter a situation where unseen dangers may lurk, such as “
Like a weapon, assume every stopped car is loaded, with an occupant ready to exit from either side.” or“
Don’t ride over an area (such as puddles or leaves) when you can’t see the road surface
…I was hit from behind by a “distracted” (? inebriated) hit and run driver on an otherwise seemingly safe and peaceful route. By good fortune, I’m alive and relatively unimpaired.
Over the past few months I have come to realize that my safety aphorisms (link), collected over the years by personal or vicarious experience, are my way of actively aligning the stars in my favor, to anticipate those unseen and otherwise unanticipated dangers.
FWIW, for my own information at least, my other aphorisms beside those above [see the link]:
Those are all I remember for now, and they all pop-up in my mind as I encounter the situation.
In addition, a rear view mirror is a paramount safety item.
Originally Posted by
Jim from Boston
I use both left and right rearview mirrors, in my case Take-a-Look eyeglass mounted ones...The additional right hand mirror affords a pretty good rearward view, but is particularly useful: