Once you’ve been bike commuting for a while, it’s easy to forget how overwhelming it felt to hop on a bicycle and head off into the city streets for the first time. While safe cycling practices and comfort in the saddle come to feel like second-nature after a while, a person who hasn’t been on a bike in years (and maybe has never cycled on the road), may have a lot more questions than answers when it comes to bicycle commuting. Hopping on a bike and heading out on that first ride can be uncomfortable, confusing, and even outright dangerous if you don’t know what you’re doing. But cycling isn’t dangerous, there are just a few things to keep in mind to make your experience as safe, comfortable, and convenient as possible.
In an ideal world, we would have sprawling, interconnected networks of protected bike lanes that would render many of these suggestions obsolete. But in the meantime, here are a few tips and tricks for first time bicycle commuters, both in and out of the bike lane.
1.Practice Cycling
If you haven’t been on a bike in years, the first step you should take before riding around town is simply getting comfortable on your bike. Take some time to practice in your driveway, in a park, or on a calm side street before you take your wheels on the road. Practice the range of motions you’ll at some point do on your bike, such as riding with one hand, shoulder checking, stopping quickly, and standing up to pedal.
2. Check your bike
Give your bicycle a good once-over before you take it out on the road. Clean the chain, put air in the tires, and make sure the brakes are working properly. Check out our guide “How to get your bike ready for spring” for more in-depth instructions on how to get your bike road-ready. If you’re not comfortable with basic bike mechanics, take it to a local bike co-op or bike shop for a tune-up before you go.
3. Find somebody to ride with
Finding a more experienced rider to tag along with can be a great way to beat those first ride jitters. Find a friend, family member or coworker who cycles regularly, and join them on a trip around town. Let them lead the way, so you can just focus on getting comfortable.
Look for a map of bike lanes and paths in your community and plan a route that will have you spending as much time as possible in protected bike lanes or bike routes on traffic-calmed roads. While in most North American cities, commuting entirely in dedicated cycling infrastructure is impossible, many cities have cycling infrastructure that will cover you for at least part of your trip. If there isn’t a bike route map on the municipality’s website, contact a local cycling organization or bike shop for advice on the best routes in town.
5. Be space aware
Be cognizant of other cyclists, pedestrians and vehicles around you. Yield to pedestrians at crosswalks, shoulder check before turning, and mind the turn signals of cars in front of you as you approach intersections. Pay special attention to staying out of the blind spots of motorists.
6. Use alerts
Pass on the left, and use a bell to alert other cyclists and pedestrians that you are about to pass them. You can also say “passing on the left,” if you don’t have a bell.
7. Follow the rules of the road.
Bike in the direction of traffic and obey traffic lights. There are a few traffic laws – such as the requirement to come to a complete stop at stop signs – whose relevance to people on bikes is currently being debated. The ability to treat stop signs as yields, known as the Idaho Stop, is a bike-specific law designed to reduce congestion and keep cyclists safe. But the Idaho Stop aside, obeying traffic laws is the best way to keep yourself and others safe.
8. Use hand signals.
Biking in a predictable manner can go a long way to keep you safe on the road. If people behind you (other bike riders, cars, etc.) can predict what you’re going to do, they can better plan their movements around you. Just as drivers who don’t signal cause crashes, so do people on bikes. Use hand signals when you’re turning or stopping to avoid unnecessary confusion. A bent left elbow, fingers raised skywards, means turning right, while pointing your arm straight out to the left indicates a lefthand turn. Pointing your fingers down with a bent left elbow signals that you plan to stop.
9. Make yourself visible
Use bicycle lights when riding at night to be more visible to other road users. While the usefulness of helmets and other safety-wear for cyclists remains a contentious issue in the cycling community, the use of lights is hard to argue against. Motorists can’t look out for you if they can’t see you!
10. Have fun!
While cycling in the city needs to be approached with the same degree of precaution that any form of transportation should, it shouldn’t be a stressful experience. Cycling is safe, healthy and importantly, fun! Relish the experience of the wind in your hair and the sun on your back. Take note of your surroundings, say hi to other cyclists. As much as it’s about health and sustainability, cycling is also about putting the joy back into your commute.
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Always assume that the drivers around you have not seen you.
If stopped at a junction with a car behind you, turn round, make eye contact and signal your intentions
Remember you have as much right to use the road lane, do not limit yourself to a tyre width next to the kerb.
Keep an eye out for the 3 holes – pot, man and arse
Might suggest that cyclists use front and rear lights 24/7. Many light companies promote such on their packaging and makes a big difference in being seen.
They didn’t mention riding on the sidewalk. This is one of the most dangerous things that beginners do. So many times i’ve heard of cyclists getting hit passing a driveway on the sidewalk or transitioning from sidewalk to road where cars are turning. Am I wrong here?
I wear a helmet that’s bright, so it serves the purpose of making me visible more than anything else. Combine that with the lights, and it’s tough for anyone to say that they can’t see me.
That’s because they’ve written articles dedicated to the topic and the research is inconclusive. Wear one if you want. Don’t preach to those who choose not to.
Helmets make sense, but focusing on helmets is putting the cart before the horse.
A helmet will not save you from a right hook from a panel truck. A helmet will not make it any safer on highly congested streets where token bike infrastructure is poorly thought out and shoehorned in. A helmet will not teach/recall the basic rules of the road and rights of cyclists to an entitled, aggressive motorist.
A helmet is an affordable, reasonable safety precaution. But using the lack of a helmet as an argument for or against cyclist rights sound a lot to me like “She was asking to be raped, dressing like that.” The problem of bike safety is structural and systematic, and no amount of molded polystyrene is going to change that.
Yes, it is the same sort of victim-blaming women have endured for far too many years. Cycling safety is based on infrastructure (physical, legal and social) and our numbers. Asking a slow everyday cyclist to wear “gear” is akin to forcing pedestrians to wear walking helmets.
There is a lot of mis-information out there about what’s safe and what the best practices are. Raise your bike IQ with a StreetWise Cycling course to get some on-bike practice and to debunk some of the myths! bikehub.ca/streetwise
How about another tip? Watch out for car doors! Expect every car door from a parked car that you go by may be flung out in front of you by an unthoughtful, unaware motorist. So give the parked cars some space. Believe me, you will not be able to react and stop quickly enough when a car do opens in front of you!
my best advice to you all is to obtain an E Bike from PIM Bicycles . Check out PIMBICYCLES.com for great pricing on the world’s best e bikes.
Always assume that the drivers around you have not seen you.
If stopped at a junction with a car behind you, turn round, make eye contact and signal your intentions
Remember you have as much right to use the road lane, do not limit yourself to a tyre width next to the kerb.
Keep an eye out for the 3 holes – pot, man and arse
Might suggest that cyclists use front and rear lights 24/7. Many light companies promote such on their packaging and makes a big difference in being seen.
No point in lights in bright sunlight.
Good quality lights improve visibility during the day.
They didn’t mention riding on the sidewalk. This is one of the most dangerous things that beginners do. So many times i’ve heard of cyclists getting hit passing a driveway on the sidewalk or transitioning from sidewalk to road where cars are turning. Am I wrong here?
I wear a helmet that’s bright, so it serves the purpose of making me visible more than anything else. Combine that with the lights, and it’s tough for anyone to say that they can’t see me.
Don’t understand how any responsible article like this cannot insist on wearing a helmet. They should not be “debated” as the article suggests.
That’s because they’ve written articles dedicated to the topic and the research is inconclusive. Wear one if you want. Don’t preach to those who choose not to.
Helmets make sense, but focusing on helmets is putting the cart before the horse.
A helmet will not save you from a right hook from a panel truck. A helmet will not make it any safer on highly congested streets where token bike infrastructure is poorly thought out and shoehorned in. A helmet will not teach/recall the basic rules of the road and rights of cyclists to an entitled, aggressive motorist.
A helmet is an affordable, reasonable safety precaution. But using the lack of a helmet as an argument for or against cyclist rights sound a lot to me like “She was asking to be raped, dressing like that.” The problem of bike safety is structural and systematic, and no amount of molded polystyrene is going to change that.
Yes, it is the same sort of victim-blaming women have endured for far too many years. Cycling safety is based on infrastructure (physical, legal and social) and our numbers. Asking a slow everyday cyclist to wear “gear” is akin to forcing pedestrians to wear walking helmets.
You need an urgent trip to the Netherlands.
Sport cyclists wear helmets there. Everyday cyclists don’t.
There is a lot of mis-information out there about what’s safe and what the best practices are. Raise your bike IQ with a StreetWise Cycling course to get some on-bike practice and to debunk some of the myths! bikehub.ca/streetwise
How about another tip? Watch out for car doors! Expect every car door from a parked car that you go by may be flung out in front of you by an unthoughtful, unaware motorist. So give the parked cars some space. Believe me, you will not be able to react and stop quickly enough when a car do opens in front of you!
Exactly! More important than “obey all traffic laws”
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