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Safety
The Basics
WARNING:
It is your responsibility to familiarize yourself
with the laws where you ride and to comply
with all applicable laws, including properly
equipping yourself and your bike as the law
requires.
Observe all local bicycle laws and regulations.
Observe regulations about bicycle lighting,
licensing of bicycles, riding on sidewalks, laws
regulating bike path and trail use, helmet laws,
child carrier laws, and lspecial bicycle traffic
laws. It's your responsibility to know and obey
your country's laws.
• Always do check the safety of your bike before
you ride it.
• Be thoroughly familiar with the controls of your
bicycle: brakes (Section 4.B);
pedals (Section G);
shifting (Section 4.C).
• Be careful to keep body parts and other
objects away from the sharp teeth of chain rings,
the moving chain, the turning pedals and cranks,
and the spinning wheels of your bicycle.
Riding Safety
• You are sharing the road or the path with others-
motorists, pedestrians and other cyclists. Respect
their rights.
• Ride defensively. Always assume that others
do not see you.
• Look ahead, and be ready to avoid:
»» Vehicles slowing or turning, entering the road or
your lane ahead of you, or coming up behind you.
»» Parked car doors opening.
»» Pedestrians stepping out.
»» Children or pets playing near the road.
»» Potholes, sewer grating, railroad tracks,
expansion joints, road or sidewalk
con-struction, debris and other.
»» The many other hazards and distractions which
can occur on a bicycle ride.
• Ride in designated bike lanes, on desig-nated
bike paths or as close to the edge of the road as
possible, in the direction of the traffic flow or as
directed by local governing laws.
• Stop at Stop signs and traffic lights; slow down
and look both ways at street intersec-tions.
Remember that a bicycle always loses in a collision
with a motor vehicle.
• Use approved hand signals for turning and
stopping.
• Never ride with headphones.
• Never carry a passenger.
• Never hitch a ride by holding on to another vehicle.
• Don't weave through traffic or make unex pected
moves.
• Observe and yield the right of way.
• Never ride your bicycle while under the influ- ence
of alcohol or drugs.
• If possible, avoid riding in bad weather, when
visibility is obscured, at dawn, dusk or in the dark,
or when extremely tired. Each of these conditions
increases the risk of accident.
Wet Weather Riding
WARNING:
Wet weather impairs traction, braking and
visibility, both for the bicyclist and for other
vehicles sharing the road. The risk of an
accident is dramatically increased in wet
conditions.
Under wet conditions, the stopping power of
your brakes (as well as the brakes of other ve-
hicles sharing the road) is dramatically reduced
and your tires don't grip nearly as well. This
makes it harder to control speed and easier to
lose control. To make sure that you can slow
down and stop safely in wet conditions, ride
more slowly and apply your brakes earlier and
more gradually than you would under normal,
dry conditions. See also Section 4.B.
04
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