How to be Safe

Riding In Traffic - How to Be Safe

If you ride a bike, chances are, you aren't going to be able just ride on bike paths or sidewalks. Once you get comfortable cycling, you might find that just driving your car to the local rails to trails path, or the park isn't enough. Bicycles are good for getting exercise, as a social vehicle and even - imagine this - for errands.

If you do decide to take your bike out and ride it out there in the big world, there are a few things you really should keep in mind.

First of all, in Georgia - your bicycle is a vehicle and you have all the same rights and responsibilities as a motor vehicle. The rules on sidewalk use by cyclists may vary from city to city, most places where pedestrians sidewalk use is fairly dense, cyclists are discouraged and even ticketed for riding on the sidewalk.

Sadly, not every driver in Georgia knows the laws and rights of cyclists. If you ride at all, you've probably heard some driver yell "get on the sidewalk."

Still, you can minimize your risk of angering a driver or creating a risk by good planning and knowledge. Remember, you are an ambassador for cycling, so when you follow the rules of the road you make it a lot easier for the next person on a bike.

Pick Your Route
Please consider where you are going and how you plan to get there. If you haven't driven the route before, have someone drive you and look out for space to ride on the shoulders, road hazards, freeway overpasses or anything that requires you to be creative or careful. Even better, if you know someone who rides the route, ride with them. Also, local bike shops sometimes have helpful maps or employees who know how to get where you are going by bicycle. Bicycle South keeps copies of the Emory Bicycle Map around. This is a great resource to get around in the Emory area and includes detail on how heavily a street might be traveled by cars, how much shoulder or riding room there is, and even how steep the hills are. Local advocacy organizations can help too. Georgia Bikes and the Atlanta Bicycle Campaign are great resources staffed with volunteer cyclists and if you go over to our links page you'll find out how to contact both groups.

Go With The Flow
Once, a long, long time ago, in another time, someone thought it might be smart for cyclists to ride facing traffic. The thinking was, the cyclist could see the cars coming and cars could see the cyclists and that was a good thing. As a driver, having a cyclist appear out of no where, riding straight at your car, is terrifying. Most cyclists just want to take those riders aside and explain the law - and the laws of physics. Riding against the flow of traffic isn't safe because cars aren't expecting you there. A driver entering the road from a driveway and turning right isn't looking to the right, only too the left.