Here are some guidelines for avoiding problems while turning right on a bike and making left lane changes while biking in traffic.
Beginning cyclists often feel safest when they stay to the far right of the road. However, more experienced cyclists know it can be safer to ride their bike a little further out in the lane. Whether they are tourists or bike commuters, they also grow more comfortable over time with sharing the road with cars, and they learn many habits for doing this safely. Here, we’ll talk about turning left and changing lanes, two of the trickier maneuvers for newer cyclists.
Even if you are someone who likes to stay in the right-hand lane all the time, you’re sometimes going to have to move left into the middle lane. This may be caused by a double-parked car or by some other obstacle in the path, or because you’re preparing to turn left onto another street. Here’s what to do:
Always watch far ahead and anticipate your path in the next block. You shouldn’t have to swerve out in the last ten feet to clear obstacles. (This can be confusing to car drivers. It’s better to stay a little farther to the left all the time and ride in a more or less straight line than to constantly move in and out around cars.)
Check over your shoulder for approaching vehicles. Get used to doing this a lot. Get into the habit of shoulder-checking the instant you see something coming up in your path, so you always know how much room you have to maneuver. If it works for you, you might like to use a rear-view mirror. These can be mounted on handlebars or helmets.
Signal clearly. (The universal sign for turning left on a bike is to extend your left arm straight our from the shoulder.)
Listen well, check behind you any time you’re not sure of the position of the cars (and bikes) behind you, and move decisively into a new position. You may negotiate with cars to move across a multi-lane road one lane at a time (if you are moving at roughly the same speed as the rest of the traffic). Or you may cross several lanes at once when there’s a gap in the traffic (a better strategy when traffic is moving much faster then you are).
If you don’t like turning left in traffic like a motor vehicle, you can always ride right through the intersection, pause and wait until you can safely proceed in your new direction. Legally speaking, most municipalities prefer you to dismount and walk if you use pedestrian crosswalks).
In my next article, I'll discuss how to avoid being hit when someone opens a car door in front of you.
