Showing a little consideration for your fellow riders makes bike lanes and paths more welcoming to all, finds Margot McGovern.
There’s nothing like the early signs of spring. The first buds appear on bare branches and hibernating bike riders awaken, taking to the roads once more. Popular routes are suddenly
crowded, there are longer queues at traffic lights and some riders can be slow and unpredictable. Though it can be frustrating for veteran riders who’ve enjoyed speedy commutes during the winter lull, it’s no excuse for acting like a bear fighting for the first spring berries—especially if your behaviour intimidates less confident riders and discourages them
from riding.
So, Ride On has compiled a list of handy do’s and don’ts to ensure you, and your fellow riders, enjoy a harmonious spring ride.
Don’t
Undertake
You want to overtake the rider ahead, but don’t want to get too close to the traffic, so you overtake on the left. This is a particularly cowardly manoeuvre. It may unsettle the slower (and often less confident) rider, who likely has no idea you’re there, and nudges them into traffic. If you don’t have the confidence to overtake on the right, just sit tight. If the rider ahead hasn’t given you enough room, ring your bell and call “passing right,” to give them a chance to move left.
Overtake without warning
A rider whizzing past at 40km/h, a hair’s breadth from your handlebars, without warning can be enough to put a less confident rider off balance. It’s aggressive and intimidating, if not dangerous. Before overtaking, ring your bell and/or call out “passing right!” to warn the rider ahead and give them time to move left.
‘Blind’ your fellow riders
Front and rear lights are both a legal requirement and essential for visibility in low light conditions. However, high powered lights (those with an output of over 300 lumens) can ‘blind’ other riders and path users. If you use these lights, angle them downward below eye level. If you’re worried about being visible, run a second, lower powered light pointing straight ahead.
Wheel suck
Even if you use your commute as a training ride, the rider ahead isn’t your domestique, nor do they necessarily know you’re there. Your ride to and from work will likely have many stops and starts and unexpected obstacles to navigate and the rider ahead may brake suddenly or vary their speed without warning. Hugging their wheel increases your risk of a crash. It’s also bad manners to make another rider do all the hard work. At the very least, ask if it’s okay first and take turns pulling at the front.
Do
Follow the road rules
Road laws are designed to make our streets and paths comfortable spaces for all users. If you need a refresher on the road rules, check out bit.ly/1pl5VMY.
Communicate
Whenever possible, make your intentions known. When overtaking, ring your bell and/or call out. Use hand signals to indicate turns and when you’re stopping. It’s also courteous to point out potholes and other hazards, such as opening car doors. If you’re not familiar with the commonly-used hand signals, see Ride On’s guide.
Be predictable
An erratic rider who weaves all over the bike lane or path, brakes suddenly, turns without signalling and constantly varies his or her speed poses a danger to other riders. It’s impossible to calculate what they will do next. They’re difficult to ride behind or overtake because there’s a good chance they might swerve into you or stop without warning. To ensure a stress-free ride for all, pick a line and hold it. If you need to overtake, turn, avoid an obstacle or brake suddenly, communicate your intentions.
Welcome new riders
Remember that you were once a ‘green’ rider and may have faced some of the bad behaviour noted above. Experienced riders should set a good standard of behaviour and help less experienced riders build their confidence to keep them on the bike. So instead of a bear-like growl, give fellow riders a friendly wave or “hello” as you pass and welcome them to the bunch.
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Can we also give a mention to Shoaling?
Shoaling: A shoal is a school of fish. Or a collection of cyclists at a red light. That’s where shoaling happens. A cyclist comes up to the light, eyeballs a cyclist already there, thinks, “I’m faster than that person,” and moves ahead.
But who can truly judge a cyclist’s speed potential? Maybe the person you’ve shoaled is faster than you and will want to pass you once the light changes. To avoid triggering such unnecessary passes (not to mention road rage), “it’s safer for people to wait at the light with everybody else and make the pass in the lane,” says Billing. Or if you’re really in a rush, just ask the other cyclist: “Hey, I’m late, is it OK to get in front of you?”
Excellent point, and well made. Thank you.
I invite faster riders to move in front of me at lights. This is easier for all of us than being passed/trying to pass mid-block.
I disagree with “Turn up to lights in order .” Particularly when waiting next to cars intending to turn left. It is illegal to pass a car indicating to turn left and makes a mess of the intersection when a long line of bikes queue up next to them.
It is far safer and more efficient for the group to line up in a rough bunch next to one another right out in front of the car traffic, than to queue up behind one another next to the turning cars.
When the lights turn green, all riders take off and subsequently fall back into single file depending upon the speed they accelerate at. If a few hundred meters up the road it’s discovered that the rider order is not correct, then overtaking can occur. But generally speaking, those that accelerate quickly will generally cruise at a proportionally higher speed and overtaking will not be necessary.
And when someone does line up next to you to pass you at the lights, they are not always “judging your speed potential.” Often they have noticed your actual speed, whilst following you at a slower than desirable speed for the previous 500m. The traffic light stop simply provides a good opportunity for re-ordering, based on actual speed, to occur.
Some people will try to get in front of you no matter what, because they are highly competitive. You can’t do much about this because it’s part of their personality. Posting desperate pleas in forums such as this certainly won’t change their minds, even in the extremely unlikely event that they do actually read it.
Don’t take someone wanting to go in front of you personally. It’s just riding a bike, not a comment on your value as a human being. If someone slower than you mistakenly passes you and forces you to pass them again, big deal, get over it. Same goes when driving a car. If someone wants to drive faster than you, get out of their way and let them. Stop acting as the Citizen’s Police Force and stop being so precious about non-issues. Please just let people go about their business without nit-picking on every little bit of nothing they do, until every activity becomes a depressing waste of time while we tip-toe around not wanting to offend the precious feelings of everyone with an overblown inferiority complex.
Happy riding!
Sincerely,
Deputy Strategic Policy Advisor, IFoS Southern Cell
Iron Fist of Safety
11 Righteous Avenue, Cottonwool VIC 7233
Fax. We don’t allow faxes to reduce the risk of deadly papercuts.
Email. [email protected]
Website. besafealways.com.au
“Safety above all else”
POWERED BY PEOPLE’S ANXIETY
Please consider your safety before printing this email.
I’m 100% with you Anti-line queue. All that political-correctness about everything is going over the top in Australia…!!! & there’s NOTHING wrong about the bunch pile up at the front at a traffic light; like you rightly say “it’s just ridding a bike” for fox sake!!!
All these points are great, but what about the people that overtake on blind corners? The capital city & Yarra trails are notorious for this behavior. The danger it represents is phenomenal. Serious or life threatening injuries await those that collide head on. What can be done to police this behavior? The risks these riders take, I don’t think they would ever consider in a car. So why on a bike?
An interesting point, one where I see a distinction between the worlds of commuting and racing/training. It’s a strange situation that as a cyclist gets stronger and more skillful through experience, they tend to become more courteous and less likely to do the above. Leaving hubbards (some of which seem to be expressing their anxieties in this comments section) to ride like newbies. It must be a combination of the realisation that the guy at the lights might just be Andrew Stalder or Shannon Johnson and that not being courteous can result in accidents. Coming off a bike hurts, a lot, especially when collarbones are involved.
This is really good advice. One of the biggest risks I face on my commute to work is other riders who whiz past me without sufficient clearance.
My top ten biggest risks when riding a bike are:
1. Cars with incompetent or violent operators
2. Mobile Phones attached to people who are pretending to be in control of Cars
3. Pedestrians with no sense of the present moment
4. Buses
5. Trucks
6. Motorbikes
7. Deep potholes on the road/path
8. Rubbish on the road/path
9. Birds flying off course
10. Not other bike riders
And bloody dogs!!!
#11. Bike riders using mobile phones while riding. This happens, and they are just as distracted and dangerous.
Margot, thank you for writing this piece – and for putting Undertaking at the top! Indeed it is cowardly and so unsafe; we all in it together and we need to look out for each other. Nice work.
Well said Comrade!!!
Sincerely,
Deputy Strategic Policy Advisor, IFoS Southern Cell
Iron Fist of Safety
11 Righteous Avenue, Cottonwool VIC 7233
Fax. We don’t allow faxes to reduce the risk of deadly papercuts.
Email. [email protected]
Website. besafealways.com.au
“Safety above all else”
POWERED BY PEOPLE’S ANXIETY
Please consider your safety before printing this email.
Only one rule is required, in a car or on a bike, be courteous. But thanks for your insightful contribution, it is always useful to be reminded that not all selfish people drive cars. The Herald Sun are after a few more comments on the latest anti-cycling article, how about heading over there instead.
Hard to disagree with any of this – very sensible. However, to move beyond the rhetoric and actually change behavior might be a little more difficult. Not all, but many cyclists belong to BUGS. I think we need to involve these organizations in the effort to alter rider behavior. Most groups have a ‘code of rider conduct’ and we somehow need to provide incentive for these groups to act when individuals are in their riding groups are ‘misbehaving’. Bad riders need to be told they are bad riders. Bad riders breaking the road rules do very little to enhance the public view of cyclists. They need to be encouraged to change their behavior. Engage the BUGS as well as the individual rider.
I commute to work on my bike everyday. I’m more afraid of other cyclists than I am of cars. Excellent article.
Wonderful article, thank you very much for raising awareness of these problems – which ironically are a direct result of the superb work of bicycle advocates over many years! So remember it’s a good problem to have. I live in an inner-middle suburb and commute against the traffic to an outer-middle suburb, so my list of hazards is a bit different.
1. Oncoming yobbo cyclists who think they’re in the Tour de France, cutting blind corners
2. Oncoming yobbo cyclists at night with dazzling headlights who think they’re landing a Boeing
3. Incompetent car drivers, although keeping a good eye out, not racing, and being aware that I am much softer and more fragile than a car means I avoid the worst of it
4. Poor road and shared path maintenance, which no-one seems interested in now that the guy who built the cool smartphone app to report them has got himself elected to parliament (perhaps too cynical?)
5. Pedestrians aren’t a worry for me because I only encounter them on the shared path and I know what sharing means so I slow down and even say hello as I pass. I have also learned to cope with the annoying little dogs favoured by older women.
6. You’re going to hate me for this, urban commuters: Ducks. Yes, ducks. I was attacked by one the other day because its little brood of ducklings was approaching the path. I thought there was enough room to pass politely, she/he didn’t. Lesson learned, and no duck, duckling, rider or cyclist was hurt!
Good points Colin, some of my pet hates are;
Helmet mounted, high powered lights, which contravene Australian standards, warranties and are bloody inconsiderate,
Flashing high powered lights, now you see me now you don’t,
Cyclists intimidating pedestrians,
Must get in front drivers,
Car doors, badly parked cars, bike lanes that just disappear leaving you among the the cars,
and maybe just a Brisbane issue scrub turkeys.
Arrrg!
See, in Canberra we don’t have problems with all the stoppy starty traffic light stuff queuing you are all talking about. Most of our on-road and off-road cycle routes are long clean fast runs with no lights. So here I find the biggest problem is people drafting you without telling you that they are there. Bloody dangerous, especially considering none of us are professional racers and don’t have the necessary skills to do this and minimise the risk. I think what annoys me most about this is that it is invariably road bikes that feel they have to hang on to/can’t be passed by my mountain bike. Guys, it ain’t a race or a competition – it’s a commute which we are meant to enjoy safely as cyclists, regardless of our choice of steed.
just some comments from an experienced rider.
Undertake:
if the rider ahead is too far to the right then I will undertake rather than expose myself to traffic. You can’t rely on bell etc, as they will wobble and look back and ‘really’ create a hazard. So new rider must simply keep left as practicable as I do once I overtake.
Overtake without warning:
What do you do ride along ringing your bell? Other vehicles don’t do that, its not feasible to warn every pass, also bells/shouting makes the rider nervous and unpredictable, so better to pass without disturbing new rider – with a safe distance of course. Otherwise alerting rider ahead passes the control of situation over to rider ahead and they don’t have any vision behind them so can/will create an unpredictable riding environment.
I used to ring my bell a few times to give the rider ahead some indication of approaching speed and a chance to settle down!
Bill
The amount of times I have used my bell or given the “passsing right” call and its backfired is ALOT! People hear the bell and jump into the path you are on or start to wobble or look around and the swerve violently almost causing a stack. I had two girls one arvo on St Georges road walking in the middle of the path I dinged my bell and the girl on the left jumped right and the girl on the right jumped left criss crossing each other they then exchanged startled looks as I rode through the middle. Other times people have ear plugs in listening to music or talking on hands free and dont even hear you.
These days I just pass as far right as possible and dont say or ding.
My list starts with ‘female joggers’ – the last comment described a situation that is common – given the choice they will jump the way you least expect.
On a more serious note – one thing that really gets up my nose is the lack of indication by other bikers – they leave you waiting when they turn left. Stick your arm out! Tilt your head! Call out ‘I’m going left’!, Lift your hand. Do something and don’t leave me hanging waiting, wondering. As a car driver, which I assume most of us are as well, that’s a REALLY REALLY frustrating occurence. You wait at the stop sign for a break in the traffic, then just as you’re about to go, a bike appears. OK, no problem, wait for him/her too – then they TURN LEFT!! Come ON guys, surely you wouldn’t drive a car like that….would you?
What an interesting article! I got my first bike in1989 as gift on my 16th b’day 🙂 To say that I was a green rider is a supreme understatement. Not a year in Oz, getting used to being on the other side of the road and barely able to read the road map, I ventured into a world full of cars that considered me a moving obstacle. No Beach Rd Tour heroes, not many Aussies knew who Phil Anderson was and the V8 reigned supreme (none of them sissy scooters, Smart two occupant cars and eBikes). The bottom line was: to survive you had to get SMART in a big hurry. No on road bike lanes, pretty off road paths full of numpties on iphones/headphones or numbers to keep you safe. I had to signal, had to have a light to be seen and wear a helmet(just in case) before they even thought about the law. Only because I wanted to live! Speed and side streets were my only friends. I learnt the need to listen to my surroundings and to hold a steady line, not from riders, but from trucks passing a foot away.
I see the behaviour listed often. I still have to be smart and not worry about what anyone else is doing… I am responsible for my safety first and yours second. If you don’t care enough about you, you will never care about others anyway. And before I get picked on, I respect everybody when I am on a bike and I do all the above described things already, even shielding my lights regardless of the blinding bright shoals…it’s common sense 🙂 Two wheels are my life! Happy riding people and don’t become a statistic. Cheers.