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Cycling is one of the best ways to get exercise, see sights and reduce your carbon footprint.
However, cyclists face a range of risks. They often have to share the road with vehicles, and injuries can occur even on a particular path.
The number of deaths due to bicycle accidents has increased by 6% in the recent period and 37% in the past ten years, and among the 1,089 deaths of amateur cyclists according to the latest statistics, 712 were involved in cars.
Safety tips for cyclists
- wear a helmet. A helmet can never be 100 percent guaranteed to save your life, but it will always give you better odds. You can also look into airbags for your bike.
- Must be visible: Wear brightly colored and reflective clothing, especially early in the morning, late at night, or on cloudy days.
- Protect yourself from the sun. Wear sunscreen, especially on the back of your neck. Wear long sleeves with breathable fabric. Wear sunglasses.
- Be on the lookout for gravel, ice, sand, puddles, and other road hazards. Slowing down sometimes should help you find safety.
- Install rearview mirrors on handlebars or helmet.
You must learn to still look around, but mirrors will help you see behind you at all times
- Be alert. Never ride with headphones or earpiece. You must hear all you can
- Ride with friends. Two cyclists will be more visible than one.
Plus, if something happens to you, your friend may be able to facilitate emergency response (and vice versa).
- Get creative and enjoy your way. When you're into cycling, what's more important than getting there faster is having fun with a choice of routes that are extremely wide or have dedicated bike lanes.
- Carry a repair kit at all times. Learning to repair your own flat tire can prevent you from being stranded in an unsafe or remote location.
- Carry a cell phone and ID: If you don't have a repair kit and need to bike, your cell phone should come in handy. If something bad happens to you, the Emergency Recognition Service will help responders know who you are and how to help.
- Bring drinking water for longer bike rides. This is especially important if you ride mountain bikes.
- Learn about the bike safety rules for your state. Check out this list compiled by the American Cyclists Association.
- Learn about the most common cyclist and motorist collisions and how to avoid them.
- Dump the old hand signals - use the ones drivers understand. signal to change a left turn or lane by holding your left arm to the left side of your body; Signal a right turn by holding your right arm to the right side of your body.
- Ride with the traffic, never against it. Riding against traffic makes it almost impossible to make a right turn.
- Don't rely on eye contact to gauge whether an oncoming driver has seen you. When you're traveling at high speeds, it's hard to know exactly where a person is looking. Rely more on the general behavior of the driver than on eye contact.
- Use body language and make noises. When eye contact fails, try waving an arm, yelling, ringing a bell or other noise maker to get the driver's attention.
- Always be willing to submit. Drivers have to learn to share the road, but you can't make it. What you can do is go slowly enough that you can stop or give the right of way at any moment.
- Use front and rear lights. This goes back to staying visible.
