Staying Safe

Last week, a raucous debate erupted on a road biking mailing list. What started it? Some close call between a cyclist and a motor vehicle. Cyclists railed about bad drivers. Drivers ranted about rude cyclists. I considered weighing in, but my comments would only have been lost in the noise. Mostly, people wanted to vent.

It's a scary world out there. How can you stay safe? Two words:

Pay attention.

Why?

People can do stupid things.

It happens. Drivers run red lights. Cyclists run red lights. Watch out for the drivers, and do not be one of those cyclists.

People can make mistakes.

I have made mistakes. You have, too. The last time I hit the pavement, two people made mistakes. I saw a colleague confidently board a shuttle bus and I chose to glide past. But she had boarded the wrong bus. Without a glance, she stepped off backward and clipped me with her enormous purse. Bam! I should not have been riding there. She should have watched where she was going.

Do not depend on the kindness of strangers.

I was stopped at a stop sign this morning, waiting for a break in traffic to turn left from a residential street onto a busier road. A driver in a pickup truck stopped, yielding the right of way to me. Would he have done the same for a car? [No.] He had the right of way, no stop sign. I imagine that he thought he was being courteous. I stayed put and waved at him politely to continue on his way. Had I pedaled forward, I risked being run down by any of the vehicles behind him. Not only did those drivers have no clue why he stopped (Planning to turn? Mechanical breakdown?), they were probably annoyed and all-too-ready to accelerate and pass him.

If you anticipate that people might do stupid things and sometimes make mistakes, you will have a safer time on the road. And instead of feeling chronically irritated, you might enjoy some pleasant surprises. Like the time a driver made a sudden U-turn in front of me, then pulled to the side of the road and rolled down his window—to apologize.

If you do have (or witness) a close call, learn from it. Is there something you might have done differently, to be safer?

Some driver made a mistake, or did something stupid, on the freeway this morning [photo above]. Two lanes blocked, multiple ambulances and police cars, a big traffic jam.

Pay attention.