City streets pose many dangers for cyclists. Here are some bike safety tips on streetcar tracks, pedestrians and taxicabs.
Every city has its own challenges for the urban bicycle commuter. San Francisco has its sudden hills; northern cities have ice and snow, and so on. This article discusses common-sense safety tips for avoiding common problems while bicycle commuting.
Pedestrians
Since bicycles don’t make as much noise as cars, pedestrians sometimes fail to notice that they are approaching. (How many cyclists have encountered the all-too-common phenomenon of a parent pushing a baby stroller out into traffic from between parked cars?)
1. Be prepared to ring your bell, toot a whistle or call out to warn unobservant pedestrians that you’re coming, so they don’t leap in front of your bicycle.
2. If you’re rising about a yard/metre from the curb, you will have an extra zone for negotiation if someone does step out in front of you.
3. However, always remember that, just as you expect court4esy from car drivers, you should offer courtesy to pedestrians.
Taxicabs
Taxicabs deserve special mention, because they have an unusual behaviour pattern that you won’t see with any other type of motor vehicle. As you know, cab drivers are always on the lookout for their next fare. When they see them, they swoop to the right, sometimes across several lanes, to stop suddenly in the curb lane. (They may do sudden U-turns for the same reason.) The taxi driver is thinking first about the potential fare and second about other cars on the road. You take a distant third place in his or her imagination, so it’s up to you to be prepared for unexpected taxi movements. Also, watch our for dismounting passengers, who are likely to swing their car door open in your face without looking!
Streetcar Tracks and Metal Gratings
Any bit of metal on the roadway can cause a problem for a cyclist. Even a wet manhole cover can cause you to skid. Here are some tips:
1. When you ride over any kind of metal, maintain a straight path, stop pedaling if possible and avoid braking. Metal is slippery, especially when it’s wet.
2. Be particularly careful when riding over open metal mesh surfaces, which can be found on some bridges and over some public transit installations. If you fall on them, they can take big bites out of your hands and legs.
3. If your town has streetcar tracks, beware of letting your wheel slip into the groove. Try instead to cross streetcar tracks at close to a right angle. (You may notice bike couriers simply bunny-hopping over tracks, but that takes some practice). The same goes for railway tracks. (An extra tip: Always keep your tires inflated to the maximum pressure, because if they hit a sharp-edged hard object, like a railway track, when they’re soft, you can get a "pinch flat", sometimes in the characteristic "snakebite" configuration of two holes close together.)
The copyright of the article Obstacles for Bike Commuters in Cycling & Mountain Biking is owned by Sarah B. Hood. Permission to republish Obstacles for Bike Commuters in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
I experienced the most bizarre road obstacle in a couple decades of
bicycling on the first weekend of the 2009 New Year. The obstacle was a
police motorcycle parked perpendicular to the curb on an extensive downhill
slope in Newport Beach, California. I regularly bike up the steep hill to
the Newport Coast, and time the return downhill ride at the setting sun.
The road has a center divider, but no bike lanes and no traffic lines. The
road is popular for cycling as a pathway from a Back Bay preserve to the
upper coastline. Because of debris from trees on the roadway, I try to
stay focused on just looking ahead and listening for cars from behind. A
concern is how quickly the winter fog closes in at dusk. I was shocked to
see a motorcycle sticking out on the roadway without lights. The Newport
Beach Police Department (NBPD) officer was patrolling with a speed radar.
I slowly passed him, and he looked at me intently. I hope that he realized
the trade-off of a bicycle safety risk and ticketing a speeding car.
Jun 21, 2009 12:47 AM
Guest :
Besides cyclists being cautious and lawful, bicycle safety in a city
depends on the traffic engineers and police commanders. Newport Beach in
Southern California is an example of unsafe bicycling conditions. The
Newport Beach Police Department (NBPD) headquarters is located between two
entrances to a heavily bicycled nature preserve. For the road leading down
to the middle of the Back Bay preserve, there is a bicycle button but it
does not trigger the traffic signal. If only one car is present, the green
light lasts four seconds and the yellow pause is merely a second. The
intersection has five traffic lanes on each side, including the left and
right turn lanes. A bicyclist cannot even make it to the narrow median. I
did a quick 360 degree turn to get back to the curb as the traffic roared.
Amazingly, a police car frequently parks at the gas station apparently to
generate citations. The other entrance to the preserve just south of the
NBPD headquarters has similar risks. For many years, the left turn had a
motion sensor to detect bicycles and trigger the arrow. Newport Beach
Principal Civil Engineer Tony Brine and Traffic Engineer George Bernard
replied to my email that the left-turn signal had been set back to not
detect bicycles. Police motorcycles chase bicyclists entering the state
preserve. California has Statute AB-1581 of traffic signal detection for
bicyclists at initial installation or upon subsequent replacement. In a
telephone call with Sergeant Mike James, he supported motorcycle police
chasing bicycles. Sergeant James seemed oblivious to bicycles and
traffic-signal detection. Sergeant James also stated that the NBPD was
“following state laws” by demanding a car license plate number from
bicyclists to fabricate vehicle citations at non-detecting traffic signals.
During another call with Lieutenant Steve Shulman, he laughed. The NBPD
Lieutenant sent me a letter that bicyclists should first test left-turn
signals and then dismount to go across the traffic lanes to the pedestrian
crosswalk button. The danger is going from the left-turn lane across three
lanes of traffic to get to the curb. The bicycling risk is like the other
Back Bay entrance with a four second green and one second yellow pause.
Lieutenant Shulman has retired, and new leadership is needed for safe
bicycling on roadways.
