How to Not Get Hit by Cars

How to Not Get Hit by Cars


The Right Cross: This is one of the most common types of collision or potential collisions. A car is pulling out of a side street, parking lot, or driveway on the right. Either you’re in front of the car and the car hits you, or the car pulls out in front of you and you slam into it.

How to avoid this collision: Get a headlight. Lights make you more visible, even in daylight. Honk. Get a bell or a horn and use it. Slow down so must that you’re able to completely stop if you have to. Move left. The farther left you are, the more likely the driver will see you. Also, you have more room to maneuver by moving even farther left or by speeding up and getting out of the way.

The Door Prize: A driver opens his door right in front of you. You run right into it if you can’t stop in time. To avoid this collision, ride to the left far enough that you won’t run into any door that opens unexpectedly.

Red Light of Death: You stop to the right of a car that’s already waiting at a red light or stop sign. They can’t see you. When the light turns green, you move forward, and then they turn right, right into you. To avoid this collision, don’t stop in the blind spot. Simply stop behind a car, instead of to the right of it. This makes you very visible to traffic on all sides.

The Right Hook: A car passes you and then tries to make a right turn directly in front of you, or right into you. They think you’re not going very fast just because you’re on a bicycle, so it never occurs to them that they can’t pass you in time. To avoid this collision, don’t ride on the sidewalk, ride to the left, and glance in your mirror before approaching an intersection.

The Right Hook Part Two You’re passing a slow-moving car on the right when it unexpectedly makes a right turn right into you, trying to get a parking lot, driveway or side street. To avoid this collision, don’t pass on the right. If a car ahead of you is going only 10 mph, then you slow down too, behind it. Look behind you before turning right.

The Left Cross: A car coming towards you makes a left turn right in front of you or right into you. To avoid this collision, don’t ride on the side walk, get a headlight and wear bright colored clothing. Slow down.

The Rear End: A car runs into you from behind. To avoid this accident, ride on very wide roads or in bike lanes or on roads where the traffic moves slowly; also, get a rear light and a mirror.

The Crosswalk Slam: You’re riding on the sidewalk and cross the street at a crosswalk and a car makes a right turn right into you. To avoid this collision, slow down, get a headlight and don’t ride on the sidewalk in the first place.

Wrong Way Wallop: You’re riding the wrong way. A car makes a right turn from a side street, driveway, or parking lot right into you. They didn’t see you because they were looking for traffic only on their left, not on their right. Don’t ride against traffic. Ride with traffic, in the same direction.

Avoid Busy Streets: One of the biggest mistakes that people make when they start biking is to take the exact same routes they used when they were driving. It’s usually better to take the streets with fewer and slower cars.

Ride As If You Were Invisible: Assume that motorists don’t know you’re there and ride in such a way that they won’t hit you even if they don’t see you.