A Guide to How to Drive When Cyclists Are Around

Blog Post

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Ah, what life would be like if we had the road to ourselves

The biggest concern for cyclists is always how on earth the cars on the road are going to deal with the fact that we exist. Is there a shoulder for us to ride in, or is it filled with rumble strips that makes it unridable? Or maybe there’s no shoulder at all. Are you an open back pick-up truck with crap flying out? Well that’s annoying to us because we could get hit by your crap. Are you drunk? Because not only is that stupid and illegal, but it makes us feel iffy about sharing the road with you. These are only some of the topics that we think about when considering another day of riding our bikes on roads occupied by cars. So here is a brief How-To Guide for How to Drive When Cyclists Are Around.

Rule #1: Give us some room. Whether you have one lane or two, it is definitely DEFINITELY worth the effort to swerve a little to your left so that you don’t come within inches of our elbows. Interestingly, 18-wheelers tend to be the best at this because they’re driven by professional drivers. Most, though not all, swerve all the way into the other lane so they don’t get all up in our business. How nice! On the other hand, nothing is more terrifying than feeling a car whiz by and brush the hairs on your forearms. Cars, do you realize that we are unprotected? Do you know how much it would hurt to get swiped by a car and flung through the air only to land on our uncushioned bodies? Clearly that hasn’t happened to us, but my impression is that it would hurt. A lot.

Rule #2: Don’t Honk. It’s startling and it scares the bejeezus out of us. Even if it’s meant as a supportive honk, it makes us jump out of our skin which is disruptive because we need to stay in our skin in order to continue riding our bikes. And if you’re honking because you want us to get out of your way, then consider Rule #1 and go away.

Rule #3: Don’t shout weird things at us. Particularly outlandish and unnecessary name calling and obscenities. Is our environmentally friendly and impressive physical exercise really that offensive to your gas guzzling way of life?

Rule #4: Don’t pull out into our lane and then just sit there. Mostly because it’s annoying and it makes is have to swerve into traffic which is dangerous and could easily be avoided if you would just stop at the actual stop sign.

Rule #5: Don’t drink and then drive your car. Doing this impairs your ability to drive between the lines and avoid hitting nice folks like us. It’s also illegal and stupid and although it doesn’t seem to be as rare as it should be, it’s still illegal and stupid.

All that being said, most drivers have been incredibly gracious and courteous to us and every other cyclists we’ve met, so thank you for that! Keep on following Rules #1-#5 and maybe one day we can all be friends.