If you decide to wear a brightly colored cycling shirt when you venture out onto the road, you will have quite possibly just made a life-saving decision – whether you realized it or not! But cycling shirts are not the only device you can use to give yourself a fighting chance of reaching your destination in one piece. They form a part of your self-preservation armory and belong in the category of Personal Visibility. The other parts are Lighting, Safety Equipment and Training. Your goals, through thorough training, high personal visibility and effective lighting, are to avoid the need to test out the effectiveness of your safety equipment – the last thing you want to do is find out through personal tragedy that it wasn’t effective!
So let’s take a look at some of the available options for staying safe cycling on the roads.
Personal Visibility
Your ability to attract the attention of other road users is paramount, because if they have seen you, there is a negligible chance that they are going to be in collision with you. Unless of course they are taking a chance or they underestimate your speed when approaching a junction – a common cause of accidents is a vehicle overtaking a bike and then cutting across to turn at the junction, usually forcing the cyclist to turn with them.
So to attract attention, wearing really bright clothing is a great start, whether that means cycling shirts, cycling jerseys or heavier cycling jackets. Some people use the terms cycling shirts and cycling jerseys interchangeably; often though, the former will be a short sleeved cycle top, whereas the latter will have long sleeves. But it doesn’t matter; firstly avoid black, grey, brown, dark blue or dark green ones – the kind that drivers will have difficulty spotting at night, or dawn or dusk. Bright yellow, or white, or light green, or red will be good colors. Anything you wouldn’t be seen dead in normally (that choice of words was deliberate!) is good, and the more garish the better.
If you happen to like your design of cycling jersey or jacket, and it is a dark color, maybe because you ride for a team or club, and those are the team colors, then the next thing to add to your Personal Visibility cache is a high visibility vest, like those often worn in the construction industry. They are great for keeping you highly conspicuous at night as these vests have light-reflective strips, and it is hard for a driver not to see you. And while on the subject of light-reflective strips, it is also a good idea to wear reflecting wrist straps. These have the effect of making you appear wider, as your hands will be positioned apart on the handlebars; they also allow you to indicate your intentions with clearer hand signals when turning left or right.
Wearing combinations of some of these practical devices will help to make you stand out on the road to other users, and keep you safe. Remember, prevention is better than a trip to the hospital.
Bike Lighting
Lighting comes in various forms, and includes both powered lights and reflectors. Many bicycles are manufactured these days with four reflectors, under the saddle, on the handlebars, and one on each wheel; it is a good way to prevent a bicycle accident, because you can be seen from all four directions. If your bike is missing any of these, go and find them so you can upgrade your bike safety!
If you are cycling at night, or other times when visibility is poor, you should have powered lights on your bike. Most savvy motorcyclists always have their lights switched on when riding, even in broad daylight, as it adds to their visibility. The norm, as for all other road vehicles, is a white light at the front and red at the rear. For bikes, the lights are usually battery operated, although some are operated by a dynamo and light up when the wheels are turning; of course, this can put you in some danger when you are stationary!
Many people these days also wear some personal lights, either on their backpack or bike helmet; these are LED type lights and flash randomly to warn drivers. It’s best to find a good quality flashing LED light that flashes randomly because people have a tendancy to become accustomed to a regular flash and after a while, begin to filter it out.
Bicycle Safety Gear
If the worst does happen, and you end up in collision with a vehicle, you will need some bike safety gear to try to minimise injuries. The one piece of gear all riders need is a bicycle helmet. The law varies from place to place, and many countries do not make wearing a bike helmet compulsory. But whether compulsory or not, get yourself a cycling helmet – would you prefer to bash your head against the road after a bike accident, or have a padded helmet take most of the damage? You don’t need to be a brain surgeon really, do you!
As for other safety gear, you might wish to wear knee guards and elbow padding, and perhaps a pair of leather gloves. These will give you some basic protection against scrapes in minor bike accidents. To be realistic, if you suffer a head on collision with a truck, travelling at speed, you are going to suffer major injuries, and your prime concern in this situation is your head. Of course, your “real” prime concern is prevention!
Bicycle Training
Some countries have formal tests for cyclists (eg the Cycling Proficiency Test in the UK); often they are not compulsory, but it is a wise idea to go and try the test, and learn as much as you can about staying safe on the roads. You will need to obey the rules of the road, and these days many cyclists get killed because they think a red traffic signal doesn’t apply to them, or a one-way street is just one-way for motor vehicles, and they can go the wrong way up it if they like. It does sometimes seem that many of the rules on the road are just there to bully road users; but most are there either for our safety or simply to keep traffic moving smoothly. Cyclists: for your own sakes, stick to the rules!
If you can find courses that teach defensive cycling, go on one. Similarly anything that teaches you awareness is great; think martial arts perhaps. And while on martial arts, find one that will teach you how to fall properly. Many bike accidents result in broken wrists, arms or collar bones as victims throw their arms out when flying over their handlebars. This is needless, as many martial arts teach people how to roll out of similar situations without any injury at all.
So those are some of the things you can do you keep yourself out of harm’s way when road cycling. Make sure you get yourself some super-shiny cycling shirts to improve your chances of being seen; always use your lights when visibility is poor, and perhaps even also when it’s not; always, always wear a bike helmet; and be aware of what is going on around you – that means no ipods or cellphone conversations etc. when riding.
If you want to see some more excellent practical tips on cycling road safety, then read How to Not Get Hit by Cars by Michael Bluejay.
