Riding in traffic is something many of us start into timidly and gradually get more comfortable with over time. However, some people never get comfortable with it due to fears of riding in traffic.

I’ve been bike commuting a long time, and over time have gotten to the point where I am pretty comfortable, riding even in heavy traffic if necessary. Over the years, I’ve found that educating myself on how to ride safely has helped me overcome my traffic fears, increase my confidence, and allowed me to stop feeling trapped by the necessity of driving a car.

When I started riding with my children on board, I went through another whole round of questioning myself if it was safe enough or if I should really just be toting them around in the car. My daughter’s pure enthusiasm for the bike ride, combined with our collective joy of being outside and the fact that a bike ride home was a much more enjoyable experience than a car ride, led me to continue the biking with our best safety measures in place.

Many bicycle safety groups simply emphasize wearing a helmet and “following traffic laws” in order to be safe. These are good things to do, but the simple fact is, it is critical to ride like the ultimate defensive driver and avoid having to use that helmet in the first place. Any motorcycle rider will tell you the same thing.

Fortunately, MOST bicycle accidents are caused by rider error. Not by cars hitting bicyclists, but by bicyclists themselves making errors. This is great news, because it means that YOU have the ability to become a safer rider, just by learning and working on your skills.

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SO, What can you do to ride more safely in traffic? Here are my TOP 7.

1. Choose Your Route (and time)

Seems obvious, but many people do not adequately think about this before they start out on a ride. The way you drive your car is usually not the best way to ride your bike. Is there another route you can take that avoids heavy traffic or narrow roads or bad intersections, even if it is LONGER? It might be a route you have never driven before. It might include bike paths (if you’re lucky), residential streets, even off-road paths.

One person I know told me he has designed a route to work that actually includes about 50% off road riding and a CANOE RIDE! That is a truly amazing commute. He says he does it because it’s like a weekend ride but he can do it twice a day.

Most of us are not that lucky. But with a little investigation, you might be able to discover a great route that has less traffic and is more fun to ride. One resource that might help you here is a website called Bikely . This is a mapping tool where users can make notes about routes they have taken that are good or bad. Depending on your area, you might find something useful to help you plan your route.

If you do have some busy sections that just cannot be avoided, consider when you are traveling those routes. Can you adjust your schedule to avoid rush hour? I have one route to work on my commute that is fine to ride when traffic is lighter, but is a true nightmare during rush hour to be avoided like the plague.

2. Watch the Street Surface

In actual fact, the biggest cause of bike accidents is not collisions with cars. It’s rider error. And a major source of rider error is pavement irregularities. The street surface may appear smooth when considered from the perspective of a car, which can ride over most encountered obstacles without problem. However, for a bike it is littered with cracks, potholes, road debris, and hazards like railroad tracks and storm drains. For those of you who ride with skinny road tires, road obstacles are a special concern that are likely to end up with you on the ground.

The best thing you can do to avoid this type of crash is to employ vigilance in watching the road. Take special note of anything that might catch a tire and not let it go, such as a longitudinal crack that runs in the direction you are riding, or a change in elevation of the road, such as if the road surface is an inch higher than the shoulder (as sometimes happens during construction). Potholes and debris piles should be avoided as much as possible as well to avoid a fall or a flat tire. Note, however, that you should never swerve out into traffic to avoid debris in the gutter – always check behind to ensure there are no cars there before you move left on the road.

3. Be Visible

If you are riding at night, use a front light, a rear light and a spoke light for side visibility. Riding at night without lights is a major cause of accidents. Even during the day, added visibility can be had with bright clothing, flags, and even lights during the day. Motorcycles are now required to use lights even during the day because it has been shown that this improves visibility.

For flags, many people think of the tall flag we had on our kids bikes. But another type of flag is one that sticks out to the side of the bike. This provides a visual cue for passing drivers who focus on it rather than on you. As they are focusing on passing the flag, they unconsciously give you just a little extra room.

4. But Ride As If You Are Invisible

Although we should do our best to make ourselves visible, NEVER ASSUME you are visible. This secret right here can save you from all kinds of common traffic collisions, especially at intersections. Are you riding in the lane and a car pulls out or turns in front of you? Are you exiting a driveway when a car is coming on the street? Are you passing on the left? These are all very common collisions, and often caused by the driver NOT SEEING the biker.

One of my friends was riding along a neighborhood street and passed in front of a car stopped at a stop sign on a perpendicular street. Before my friend made it all the way past the car, the driver pulled forward and ran over her back wheel. The driver claimed she did not see my friend even though my friend had JUST passed in front of the driver’s field of view.

So the best course of action is to never assume a car sees you. When approaching an intersection, cover the brakes and slow down if necessary so you can stop if someone pulls in front of you. Attempt eye contact with drivers, but don’t assume this means they see you or will yield to you. Keep an eye out for exit points where you can turn to avoid a car. And when approaching intersections always start scanning ahead for trouble points.

5. Use a Mirror

Would you drive your car without a rearview mirror? Would you feel like you are driving blind without it? I certainly would, and I feel that way on my bike too.

Most people fear being hit from behind more than any other type of bike accident. This type of accident is actually quite rare (only 3% of car/bike collisions). But having a rearview mirror can go a long way to alleviating this fear just by knowing what is going on behind you.

You can keep an eye on who’s coming up behind you and if they are going to give you space so you can take appropriate action. When you need to move left for a left-hand turn, you can keep an eye on what’s behind you well before your planned move, so you can find a break in traffic. In fact, now that I’ve ridden with a mirror for so long, I cannot imagine riding without one.

There are handlebar mounted mirrors or ones that go on your helmet. One is not inherently better than another, so try them out and see what works best for you, but you’ll be glad you did.

6. Ride Farther Left

Many beginning riders make the mistake of riding too far to the right of the road, hugging the curb or the ditch “so cars can get past”. I think this is probably due to the fear of being hit from behind and wanting to be out of the way, but often works counter to this purpose.

For example, I have one section of narrow road without shoulder that I sometimes ride (when traffic is low). The white line is at the edge of the pavement and to the right of that is a grassy ditch. If I ride right on the line, traffic coming from behind often will squeeze past me when there is oncoming traffic, resulting in a narrow pass for all 3 vehicles involved (me, the overtaking car, and the oncoming car). It makes me nervous because there is nowhere to go if I need an exit, except the steep ditch. Instead, I ride out about a foot from the line into the lane. Overtaking cars then will slow down to pass me, usually using part of the oncoming lane. And if there is oncoming traffic, they will think twice about squeezing by. Of course once in awhile you get the guy who wants to do it anyway, but with my mirror I can see this guy coming, and now I have about a foot of space to move into to give myself a little more room.

Even in the city, riding out into the lane a little will also put you in a position where cars tend to be looking for other cars, and thus more likely to see you. It will also put you out of the “door zone” where parked cars might open a door into you. Of course, you must use common sense, but giving yourself a little extra space by riding out often results in a safer situation.

7. Stay Off the Sidewalk

Sidewalks are designed for pedestrians that move slowly and stop at intersections. Although it may seem safe to ride on the sidewalk, cars and other vehicles are not expecting a bike on the sidewalk so are even less likely to see you. The chances of a car running into you when you are crossing an intersection or driveway on the sidewalk are actually quite high and this is a common accident type.

If you do need to ride on the sidewalk for any reason, assume that no one will see you, ride slowly, and of course be considerate of walkers who you will surprise.

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Follow these guidelines and you’ll be a long way towards gaining confidence and riding safely. But don’t stop here, there are many educational resources available to help you master biking in traffic. My favorite resource is the excellent book

“The Art of Cycling: A guide to bicycling in 21st century america” By Robert Hurst

This excellent book goes into many of these points and others in detail, is entertaining to read, and I found to be incredibly useful in learning how to cycle on streets. Read it, Digest it, and you’ll be a safer and happier cyclist.

It was a beautiful morning today out on the bike taking my daughter to catch the k-garten bus!

Today I had to go into the doctor’s office for a diagnostic visit. No food, no drink, and all that. The appointment was mid-morning, located on the other side of town from my home. The car was really, really tempting – it is a cold and cloudy day in Chapel Hill. Last night I stayed up way too late doing some research. And I’ve caught some kind of cold from my kids. Overall, this combination doesn’t exactly lead to an optimistic outlook on life. I don’t know about you, but with me, when I don’t get enough sleep, everything seems more dramatic, and this morning I was feeling dramatic about things. The alarm rang, and I just lay there wishing I could go back to sleep. But, nope, the world called, and I had to drag my rear end out of bed, get showered, and get on my way.

All through getting ready, I debated about whether to take the car. The problem with taking the car is that I have no parking permit at work. One of those would cost me over $1,000 per year (seriously!). So I would have had to drive across town to the doctor and back, then park in a remote, expensive hourly parking lot far from my office.

I intentionally decided not to buy the parking permit, to force myself to ride the bike more. It is just too easy to get in the car some mornings if everything is so convenient. On mornings like today, I sometimes wonder about that decision.

But anyway, I decided the hassles of driving would have equaled the hassles of hopping on the bike when it was all added up, so I took the bike – my electric assist “Big Dummy” (who comes up with those names?).

The first 5 minutes or so on the bike I continued to be in a bit of a sour mood, and feeling a bit chilly. But then the blood started flowing. Pedaling was therapy. As I pedaled on I forgot about my woes, and started enjoying the sights and smells of the morning. It helped a lot to have my eZee electric assist this morning – that made all the difference, because I was able to fly across town in time to make my appointment. And I wasn’t in the mood for major exertion today. I did pedal, I always do, because I like to. But just the light pedaling was enough to warm up my body and my mood.

I got to the doctors office, and am sitting here writing this in the waiting room. I’m in a far better mood now, and very glad I biked. I wouldn’t have been so cheery if I’d driven. Driving almost never lifts my mood. It makes me wonder about the whole concept of convenience. Does comfort and convenience equal happiness? I think there’s a fine line. Certainly some comfort and convenience is good. But for me personally, if I have too much comfort and convenience in my life, it just ends up leading to a sort of numbness. Maybe that’s what Roger Waters was writing about in the song “Comfortably Numb” by Pink Floyd. I thrive on challenges – at least small ones – and I think many people do.

This reminds me of a Cycle 9 customer named Rick. He’s a really fun guy. He’s a professor and doctor whose hobbies are sailing, flying and building airplanes, and now, electric bikes. Rick got interested in e-bikes back when Cycle 9 was operating out of a small rented warehouse space with dirt floors. We built him up a customized e-bike with a hub motor that can do some incredible speeds (I’m not going to mention them here, because I don’t want to get Rick in trouble with the local authorities). He really needs those speeds for his situation. He lives in a place with no good bike route to work. Around his neighborhood the biking is good. And around his university the biking is reasonable. But there’s a section in between where the only connector road is an almost 1-mile stretch of very busy highway, with a 45mph speed limit (meaning cars travel 55mph). Some bike advocates would say – well, just ride like a vehicle and occupy that lane. I’d say to them that one would be crazy to do that. Rick does it this way. At the one traffic light before this stretch of bad road, he waits for all the traffic to go through. Then he guns the throttle and flies down the road as fast as he can, to get past “the gauntlet” before the light cycles and lets the next group of cars through. It works, most of the time (I saw him alive and well last week!).

Rick clearly likes challenges. It might be the easier thing for him to drive everyday given the location of his home and work. But he chooses to bike. So do many other folks I know, an ever increasing number. I’m glad that I’m not the only one these days out there riding. And I’m glad for days like this that riding the bike puts me in a much better mood.

And by the way, the doctor’s test was fine.

Today I just got back from a nice bike trip with my daughter, to the Triad Electric Vehicles Association meeting, in Burlington, NC. I was invited to their monthly meeting to give a presentation about Lithium batteries and battery management systems, since some of the members are starting to contemplate moving away from lead acid batteries. In fact, two of the members have recently commissioned us to build custom packs for their EV’s.

Today I got to combine work and pleasure: I rode 38 miles round trip on my electrified Big Dummy (the Firefly) to Duke University. I gave a seminar on Bioinformatics, and then rode home. It was a cold day out (at least for these parts), with my ride home dipping well below freezing. I brought along a thermos with hot tea, and stopped several times to top off my tea cup (mounted in my handlebar beverage holder). On the way home, I even stopped at my favorite place to waste spend money, A Southern Season, to buy some more tea and sundries.

Why is such a trip even of note? For a couple reasons. First, today we spoke to one of our bicycle suppliers on the phone. He was asking us about electric assist, and saying that he didn’t really “grok” (understand) the whole electric bike thing.

Today’s trip is a perfect example of why an e-bike works. I have ridden many miles on road bikes; I could have ridden the ~40 miles on my (non-electric) road bike on a recreational ride in better weather – easily. HOWEVER, I wouldn’t have done that in a down coat, with insulated boots, with a thermos of tea, with a handlebar stereo, with a large U-lock, with a full change of dress clothes (to give the talk), with my computer, with a full array of bike lights for after dark, and other miscellany. If I had ridden my road bike with that assortment of gear, I would have arrived very tired out (and also about 1 hour later).

With the e-bike, I got two hours of exercise (I was pedaling moderately the whole time), but I did the trip in luxury (especially since the Big Dummy allows me to carry so much stuff). I never got cold, since I had plenty of spare warm gear, and big heavy duty boots, down parka, etc. I was drinking hot tea for the whole ride there and back. I had good tunes. In the narrow, fast moving parts of the road, I used the electric assist to keep my speed faster to not impede traffic. I hauled my load of stuff up some steep hills without problem. I arrived for the seminar feeling good from the ride, but not worn out. I left after the talk with plenty of energy, and had a (mostly) pleasant ride home, through some back neighborhoods up some very steep hills (to avoid the more traffic filled routes).

Simply put, I wouldn’t have done this trip without the electrified longtail bike. I would have ended up driving a car. Comparing the energy usage of that:

Car: 25 miles per gallon. That’s about 1,320 watt-hours (KwH) per mile. If I still had a Prius, that might have been as good as 45 mpg (doesn’t do as well in cold weather), or 733 watt hours per mile. In other words, each mile traveled in a Prius would have consumed the equivalent of 7-hours running a 100 watt lightbulb. For the whole trip, that would would amount to 27 kWh – the equivalent of leaving a 100 watt lightbulb on in my house for 278 hours or 11 days straight (that’s with the more efficient Prius!)

Bike: 18 watt hours per mile (about 1,833 miles per gallon). The whole ride consumed 684 watt hours of electricity. That’s equal to less than one mile in the Prius, and about 1/2 mile in the big car! I could charge my battery with the equivalent of 7 hours of 100-watt lightbulb usage, easily doable with the solar panel on my roof.

Why highlight the stark difference? Simple: I never used to think about how much energy I was using when I got into the car to drive. And I suspect most people don’t. Gas has been so cheap for so long, there is no motivation to think about it. But, when put in the above context, it is all the more clear how much energy it takes to move that hulk of steel around. It doesn’t matter whether the car is electric or hybrid or whatever. It is heavy, and it travels fast. Both of those factors mean that it is intrinsically inefficient, and consumes a lot of energy. For those folks concerned about CO2 emissions, the above numbers say a lot.

But here’s the sad part. I studied the maps carefully before going, to find a route where I wasn’t going to be fighting traffic. And the best route I could find was far less than ideal. There was a 5-mile stretch of former country road, that is now used by commuter traffic. It was busy. It was narrow. It had no shoulder. And it was the least of all evils connecting the towns of Chapel Hill and Durham. Sure, I know about things like “ride big” and “take the lane”. I did those things. But as I watched in my rearview mirror for approaching traffic, it was a constant concern; would the car slow for me? Would I have to get out of the way? Statistics show that for slower-paced roads, concerns about being hit from the rear are overblown. That doesn’t change the basic human instinct to want to know what is going on behind, and not liking having a zillion cars whiz by. It is the number one reason more people don’t bike.

It just seems absolutely crazy that two neighboring college towns, Chapel Hill and Durham, don’t have a reasonable bike route connecting them. I blame this firmly on the old boy network in North Carolina’s DOT. Maybe I shouldn’t say this on a public blog, but those guys need to get their heads out of their rear ends and realize that we are in the 21st century, not the 1950’s. Maybe in the 1950’s we needed more roads to be built; now we don’t. Now, we need more bike paths, sidewalks, railways, and other means for people to get around without burning ridiculous amounts of energy. And doing this would benefit the drivers too – it is never fun for a cyclist to be passed by a bunch of cars on a narrow busy road. But it is no fun for the drivers, either. Building out infrastructure to appropriately accommodate both would make everyone’s lives better.

Would I do the trip to Durham/Duke again? Yes. It was great. Much better than sitting in a car or bus. I got exercise, and an adventure, all wrapped within some important work-related business. I would probably plan my ride for a bit less busy time, if possible. But, regardless of whether I would do it, most people just won’t face such a ride, without the kind of experience I have commuting by bike. And some people think I’m crazy, anyway. To get more people on their bikes, and less people using up tremendous amounts of energy to move metal boxes around, we need to invest in bike facilities, now.

Why isn’t that part of the economic stimulus?
(note: there are token amounts in the stimulus for bike paths, but they pale in comparison to road funds).