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The Basics

First of all, being visible and predictable are essential in all conditions. When riding in mixed traffic, it is especially important to be assertive in controlling your space and to communicate your intentions clearly. Following those basic guidelines will eliminate 95% of crash risk. It also results in more civility and respect from your fellow road users.

Special Dangers

There are 3 common themes that repeat over and over in reports of serious crashes. They are circumstances where the cyclist was unaware of specific dangers that are well known to those of us who study crashes. The first two, in particular, are especially heart-breaking because I’ve seen so many cases where they happen to vibrant young people who simply were never given simple information that would have saved their lives. After you read this article, you will have the information to keep these crashes from happening to you.

1) Dooring

Cyclists in large cities become aware of this one sooner or later. “Dooring” is what happens when a motorist or passenger opens a car door into the path of a bicyclist. A dooring can be relatively minor—resulting in nothing more than scrapes, bruises and rattled nerves—or it can result in death. While a cyclist can be killed by the door-strike itself, fatalities are more commonly caused by the cyclist being thrown into the road and run over. When the door is swung open, the cyclist swerves. The handlebars clip the door, yanking them to the right. The cyclist is then ejected into the lane of traffic.

Dooring is the legal fault of the person who opens the door. But you have a vested interest in preventing this from happening to you.

Dooring is VERY easy for a cyclist to prevent!   See Door Zone Video!

• Keep your entire body, and the ends of your handlebars, at least 5 feet from the side of a parked car. We refer to the area within 5 feet of parked cars as the “door zone.”
• The largest doors extend about 4 feet. You need to keep enough buffer that a suddenly-opened door won’t startle you into swerving in front of passing traffic.
• Watch where people drive their cars. People instinctively don’t drive their cars in the door zone when the lane is wide enough to avoid it. Next time you are on a road with parallel parking, notice where the oil stain and tire tracks are. The right tire track will always be as far from the parked cars as the lane-width allows. Unless the lane is very narrow, riding in the right tire track should keep you outside the door zone.
• Bike lanes: Most bike lanes are 5ft wide. So if a bike lane is next to parked cars, it will give you a good guideline of where NOT to ride.
• Sharrows (Shared Lane Markings): These are being used where there is not enough width to stripe a door zone bike lane. Don’t trust the placement to indicate where you should ride. The guidelines for sharrow placement is too close to parked cars and many municipalities are violating even those meager standards.

2) Trucks and Buses

The crash type known as a “right hook” is another common urban crash. There are 2 basic types of right hook crashes. One happens when an oblivious driver overtakes a cyclist and immediately turns right. This is best prevented by riding far enough into the lane to make drivers change lanes to pass, the ones who want to turn right will be more likely to wait until you pass the intersection. The other type of right hook happens when a cyclist is passing slower traffic and rides into the blind spot of a turning vehicle.  The most deadly of these involve large vehicles.

It’s essential that you understand the characteristics of large vehicles and the limitations of their drivers!

• A large vehicle must make a wide turn. As a result, it may be on the far left side of the lane and appear to be going straight. The vehicle will also off-track, so while the front turns wide, the back wheels will track close to the curb at the corner.
• If you ride into the space left for off-tracking, you will be knocked over before you know what’s happening, and you cannot escape the rear wheels.
• Trucks have large blind spots along their right side and in front of the high cab. These are areas the driver physically cannot see.
• A truck driver has a lot of responsibility when making a turn in a complex urban environment. He must watch for pedestrians crossing the road he is turning onto. He must also ensure his rig does not off-track over the curb and hit a pedestrian. When turning into a narrow lane, he will often have to drive the front of his rig into oncoming side of the road, thus, he needs to look ahead for conflicting traffic. The last thing a truck driver should be focused on is traffic sneaking up on his right side blind spot.
• God gave us eyes in the front of our heads. Coincidentally, our traffic system operates best by placing the legal responsibility on avoiding what’s in front of us. Don’t make the drivers in front of you responsible for you.
• Don’t pass trucks! Don’t stop between a truck and the curb at an intersection. If a truck passes you, slow down and let it get well ahead of you. Be aware that a truck driver might turn right from the left lane, this happens frequently on roads with very narrow lanes.
• For more tips and videos see What Cyclists Need to Know About Trucks
• Bike lanes: Never let paint think for you. Paint is static. Traffic is dynamic. An open bike lane may invite you to pass a queue of vehicles, but the decision to do that must be made based on ALL the existing conditions.

3) The Screened Left Cross

The “left cross” is another common crash type. It happens to both bicyclists and motorcyclists. This can also be divided into 2 basic circumstances. The first happens when a driver simply does not see a cyclist or motorcyclist who is plainly visible. The best way to prevent this is to ride prominently, seek some indication that the driver sees you and keep your pedals moving while covering the brakes with a plan for evasive action in case they violate your right-of-way. The second type—the screened left cross—is very common in urban riding. It’s something many cyclists (and motorists) are not aware of. It happens when a vehicle is screened by a same-direction vehicle to its left. A motorist turns left in front of or behind the vehicle he sees and hits the one he doesn’t see.

You can prevent this by staying alert to your environment and recognizing where and how this dynamic develops.

• If you are approaching a queue of traffic, move to the left side of the lane and align yourself so you can see down the left side of the cars in front of you. This way, you can see vehicles waiting to turn left and those drivers can see you.
• If you are passing a queue of traffic on the right, move slowly. Recognize that every single gap in that queue that is aligned with a driveway or intersection is an opportunity for a driver to turn left across your path without seeing you.
• Be mindful that even when you are controlling a lane on a multi-lane road, traffic passing to your left can screen you from left-turning drivers. The closer the speed differential, the longer you will be hidden, making the lane appear empty. Drivers are typically more cautious about crossing full traffic lanes than bike lanes, but it’s important to be aware of the left-cross potential on any road.
• Also, be aware that if the sun is at your back, it is in the eyes of left-turning drivers.
• See Animation: Preventing the Left Cross for more detailed information.
• Bike Lanes: An urban bike lane encourages (and, in some states, requires) bicyclists to be in the exact position that makes them most vulnerable to a screened left cross (and numerous other crashes). Never be lulled into a false sense of security. Your risk of being hit is greater when you are beside the flow of traffic because you are in the cross-flow of traffic entering and leaving the road.

You can learn more about common crash types on this Florida Bicycle Association page.

There’s more to successful, low-stress cycling than knowing how not to get hit, but the tips and techniques above are essential, simple knowledge that could make the difference between an uneventful ride home and never getting there. If you’d like to learn more about safe and easy traffic cycling, visit CyclingSavvy.org.