When you are riding your bicycle in traffic, you should try to concentrate. Really, everyone present should be concentrating on the job at hand, because it doesn’t take much for things to go wrong in paved, crowded spaces. I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know.
Riding a bike in traffic also requires some sharpish technical skills. I think most people associate bike skills with off-road pursuits, but actually there is a lot of bike handling necessary to ride well on the road. You have to be able to hold a line, even going around a corner. You may need to be able to control the bike in a sudden stop, which may or may not include a skid. You have to learn to behave predictably and to execute maneuvers in a way that cars recognize and can react appropriately to. It’s like a whole thing.
As with most bike skills, a lot depends on comfort and confidence. I notice when I’ve not been in traffic for a while, I feel much more reactive to everything going on. I feel much more vulnerable. This despite years of absolute urban assault riding, years of my youth spent zig-zagging through moving cars, taking tows from trucks and buses, and generally acting like I had a need for speed and a wish for death.
That is not me anymore, mainly because I just not in that kind of rush, and also because I’ve been hit three different times, and as a result have become keenly aware of how hard cars (and motorcycles) are and how very soft I am. I signal all my turns. I put a foot down at lights. I don’t touch the bus, and I neither zig nor zag unless it’s absolutely necessary.
This week’s TCI Friday wonders how much you ride in traffic, and how comfortable are you there. How good are you at it?
Riding in the city. That is how I re-discovered cycling about 15 years ago. What motivated me to get back on a bike was the relocation of my university campus, and the MASH SF folks. That felt new and dangerously exciting. I know that this type of riding (fixed gear in traffic) wasn’t a new thing at the time, but it was for me. I really felt like a kid again riding around in traffic as fast as I could on my DIY fixed gear converted road bike.
I still ride “fixed” in traffic, but I don’t live in a big city anymore so it’s not the same, I do miss it. My bike skills are not that great, but I think that I have good reflexes which probably helps with that kind of riding. I don’t know how good I am at it but doing it for a while definitely boosted by confidence, and I think it helped with other types of riding.