Cycling can seem dangerous since the rider is completely exposed and looks helpless against motorised vehicles. However, we have to keep in mind that these brawny cars and trucks are, at the end of the day, being driven by people like you and me. They are not out there looking to run over helpless cyclists.
That being said, there are just a few things that we do on our bicycle rides to help our fellow users of the roads navigate around us safely without getting confused by our intentions.
When riding on highways, we know that other drivers don’t anticipate two-wheelers and therefore cyclists to swerve suddenly. Other drivers drive around us with the assumption that we’ll ride in a straight line. So the very first thing we learn is to ride in a straight line. We used to and still do practice by staying on the white line at the side of the road for several kilometers. No swerving whatsoever! We follow it religiously. It’s second nature to us to keep going straight irrespective of what we may be doing on the bike - we do a lot of stuff :D more on that below.
We are very aware that we don’t have indicators or horns or any of the fancy stuff that you find in automobiles these days. Therefore we know how to use our hands, mouth and ears as substitutes for these gadgets - after all the objective of all these gadgets is to communicate to other road users right? We know that most accidents happen when people assume something. For example, a car driver waiting at the road junction could assume that he would be able to cross the road before I pass. Often this assumption goes terribly wrong when I am much faster than what the driver expects, as is the case with most modern bicycle riders - they are much much faster than the classic ones that everyone is used to.
Therefore we get rid of all kinds of assumptions that others might have by clearly communicating our intentions. I generally use my hand to make a stop symbol while smiling and making sure they understand that it is a polite request to wait and not a moronic order to stop. We definitely know how to and are very comfortable riding with one hand and using the other to signal.
Oh and when doing all this, we definitely don’t forget to ride in a straight line. One hand, no hand, looking front, looking back, talking to a fellow cyclist, racing at breakneck speeds trying to beat the other riders to the line, sipping water, eating a chocolate bar, eating bananas, pouring water on our heads(It gets really hot in India), whatever we do while riding we never swerve!
If you remember, I did mention mouths and ears as well above. As a rule, we never listen to music when riding out in the open roads. Sitting on top of a bicycle in an open motor highway is not the best place to enjoy your new playlist. Trust me when I say this. You only have to keep your ears open, you’ll know what vehicle is coming from behind and how fast it is coming (Thankfully there aren’t any of those silent Teslas on our roads yet :D ). As for our mouths, we have no problems in shouting “Whoa!” or rather “WHOOOOOOOA!!!” to make that distracted pedestrian or driver look up, pay attention and not crash into us.
Another important thing to have and be sure about is equipment and accessories. We make sure our brakes work, chain doesn’t slip, our lights, blinkers and reflectors are working (when riding at night) and our helmet is of Good Quality before heading out to ride or race. We also use good quality puncture resistant tyres (there are Kevlar Coated tyres available in the market nowadays) to be sure that we don’t have a tyre burst when descending a hill at 60kmph.
There’s one last thing that I would rate as equally important as any of the above - Confidence. Most of us have it ingrained in our minds that smaller vehicles should give way to the bigger vehicles. As a result, when on a bicycle, the smallest of all vehicles, I’ve seen most people are really nervous and the instant they hear a truck horn they go out of the road and ride in the mud. Give up that nervousness. Use your ears and ride confidently on the side of the road towards the edge of the last lane.
Learn the important skills I mentioned (swerving - don’t do it! eating a banana - not really necessary, but yeah you can give it a try :D ), ride out confidently and enjoy the experience.
Note: Images from Google. For representational purposes only.
In spite of all this, I’ve personally had a very bad crash once. Not because of other vehicles, but because I slept on the bike :D Yes, you read that right! You can read about it in the link below :)
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