My rides to and from work give me some experience riding in town. This experience along with the many hours I spend on the county roads have given me good insight into the driving habbits of civilians. In the process I’ve decided to outline some tips for drivers, from a cyclists perspective. I’d say only about 5% of drivers follow these guidelines in our area, so 95% have something to learn:
- When you want to make a right turn and you are driving up behind a cyclist, speed ahead so that you just clear the cyclist and then make the turn. This will ensure there is a good chance you T-bone the cyclist on your passenger door.
- If you are on a narrow country road and you see a cyclist and an oncoming car ahead, make sure you time your speed just right so that a 3-wide situation happens.
- When a dog is running wild by the road and a cyclist is in the vacinity, remain oblivious to both so that when the dog bolts in front of your vehicle, your knee-jerk reaction will kill either the dog or the cyclist.
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In my consistent run of bunch riding in Canberra, I became a quick study in the morays of the bunch:
- You must ride in bunches. If you are solo, you had better be: (a) riding to a bunch, (b) riding home or work from a bunch, (c) dropped from a bunch or (d) flatted or had some type of mechanical that has forced you from the bunch. Never admit to going on a solo ride either, or you will receive a look of confusion as if you have just admitted to masturbating.
- Always ride 2-by-2 and be sure to engage in deep conversation with your partner.
- When everyone sits up at the end, find a select clique of riders and follow them to their coffee shop.
- In some cases, you may need to give or look for the signal for “coffee shop” to let people know where you are going. This sign is administered by making your hand to look like a teacup with little finger and thumb extended, raising it it up as if sipping from your thumb.
- If you want to get in more K’s after the ride, roll up behind the guys who finished first at the final sprint or any guy in red, and follow them wherever they go. They will either: (a) ride on forever at a conversation pace, usually involving some crazy-scary bike path riding for a least a few of the K’s, (b) roll to a coffee shop and then ride extra K’s in the “a”, (c) whack 5+ climb intervals and then accomplish follow that with “b”.
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