MosieGrimm

Vancouver’s bike to work week is just around the corner. Starting on May 28 everyone is encouraged to leave the car at home and try biking to work. I suggest trying it out once or twice before then just to get yourself ready. Hopefully you will find that not only will you be saving money in gas, maintenance and parking you will enjoy your commute more and get some healthy exercise at the same time.

The Vancouver Area Cycling Coalition has done a great job in promoting this event. They even offer a tracking system that you can sign up for. It will provide you with stats on your commuting benefits as well as put you into competition with co-workers as well as other companies for the most faithful bicycle commuters. If you haven’t already done so, head on over to their site to register:

Vancouver Area Cycling Coalition - Bike to Work Week

For all of you that are already planning to bike to work, or are already biking to work, here are some tips and safety suggestions. I bike everyday and here’s some things I think everyone should know:

If you are taking the Burrard Street Bridge… it is not a race. Sure, if the lane is clear, I say go for it. But it is usually busy so take it easy when passing other bicyclists or pedestrians. I’ve seen several cases of an impatient cyclist passing someone and clipping a pedestrian. Usually I tell the pedestrian that not all bicycle commuters are morons. It’s not safe and it gives bicyclists a bad rep.

Ride like you are invisible. Don’t expect any car to give you any room or stop for you because you have the right of way. Always be prepared for a car to cut in front of you or stop in front of you. I know, I know, I hate it too when they do it and yes, I’ll admit I’ve yelled at a few drivers. But play it safe.

Wear your helmet… on your head. I’m amazed at the number of people worried about helmet head and don’t bother bringing a helmet or ride with the helmet on their handlebars. If you get hit, trust me you won’t have a chance to put your helmet on. You won’t even know where it came from.

Make sure your brakes are working properly, before you have to use them. I cringe when I see cyclists using their feet to help slow themselves down.

Be courteous but be direct and deliberate. Sometimes it is worse to slow down to let a car go in than to keep going in a straight line. By doing the unexpected, guess what… someone won’t expect what you are doing.

Here’s a tough one for me, I used to hate it when I saw cyclists do this. But I now am a firm believer of this. If you are riding on a road and you don’t think there is enough room for both you and a car to use the same lane. Take the center of the lane. I used to always hug the curb, let the cars squeeze by with a friendly wave. But found that there are some not so friendly drivers out there. I’ve had three scary incidents where cars decided they were in a rush and figured that it would be safer if they got by me really really fast. So now I take the center, rather than feel the wind of a car buzzing by within a foot of your handlebars at 80KPH.

Now if you do the above… then here’s a rule I think you’ll hate. Don’t pass on the right. If you are taking the center lane, cars are working hard to pass you. Nothing will irritate them more at the next stop light if you slowly cruise by them on the right only to pull out in front of them when the light turns green.

One exception. The right hand lane is a right turn lane. Then I figure I won’t see these cars again if I’m going straight so I will pass them. But I will pass them on the left. This way I’m not riding up by their right rear door as they are trying to turn right.

OK, there are two exceptions… if you feel the lane is wide enough for you to ride in and have cars pass you, then yes, hug the curb and let the cars go by you. If you are doing this, then I think you can ignore the above rule, you can pass on the right in this case.

If I’ve scared you with the above, don’t worry, there’s another way. Take the seawall and avoid the traffic, but take it slow and enjoy the scenery. You will encounter pedestrians wandering in your lane, slow bicyclers, people on rollerblades, tourists stopping in your path, dogs dragging leashes in front of you, people talking on their cell phone, … It can be a peaceful way to get into downtown but only if you take it slow.

Good luck, enjoy the ride and let me know how it goes!

If you have any other words of advice, please add them to the comments below!

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 20th, 2007 at 2:04 am and is filed under Bicycle Commute. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.