Keeping that in mind, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has three primary motions that bike riders should use to indicate imminent changes in travel direction or speed: “Although these laws are largely the same between states, there are variances in hand signals between some states-mostly pertaining to the Right Turn indication.” “Each state has the authority to set its own traffic laws,” he said. But be aware of some variation in local guidelines, cautions Kyle Wagenschutz, vice president of local innovation at PeopleForBikes. Simplicity is best when trying to communicate quickly and effectively on the road, and cyclist hand signals are easy to learn. If you’re new to commuting by bike, here’s a quick guide to cycling hand signals to remember. And because bicycles don’t (typically) come equipped with turn signals, this means you need to know the proper hand signals for letting drivers know which direction you’ll be going. Not only is it a courtesy to others and a safety measure for yourself, it is often the law for cyclists to signal to drivers when they are preparing to turn, slow, or stop. Hey Drivers: Bike Lanes Don’t Cause Traffic Jams.Please stop teaching the car-based, archaic, confusing way of signaling a right turn. The same can be said for my colleagues over at BikeRadar's UK office - and those guys ride on the wrong side of the road with their brakes reversed!Īs cyclists let's do ourselves a favor by using a safer, more logical way to announce our intentions while riding in traffic. They ride bikes more than almost any first-world country, and guess what, they use the point where you want to go method. If fact, it's latest version (from 2000) mentions cyclists using their right arm to signal turning right.Īccording to Policy Director of the League of American Bicyclists Ken McLeod, "In our most recent Bicycle Friendly State survey, 37 states said that a bicyclist could signal a right hand turn by using their right arm." The now defunct, US-based National Committee on Uniform Traffic Laws and Ordinances, whose members are made up of state governments, strongly encourages the more common sense approach of pointing with the right arm. Both the League of American Bicyclists and the US Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration show two ways for a cyclist to hand signal a right turn. Despite riding for decades, I even get caught off guard, wondering “what are they waving at?” Or if I’m far away or not paying close attention to the rider way up in front of me, questioning “what are they reaching for?” Much to my chagrin, I still see cyclists stick their left arm up to signal right turns. Simple, easy to do, but more importantly, safer and easier to understand for all parties involved. It’s brutally simple: point with your left hand and arm to signal a left turn, point with your right hand and arm to signal a right turn. While there’s been and will continue to be new blinker and taillight solutions for cyclists, for the most part they’ve been gimmicky, too heavy or too fragile. Just like cars with blinkers on either side, cyclists need to point the direction they are going to turn. There’s a safer, easier, more instinctive way to indicate which way you’re going to go. And it pains me to say, but unless a young driver has time to ask Siri or Google search on their smartphone what it means when a bike rider raises their left arm bent at the elbow, there’s a very solid chance they have no idea. It wasn’t until the mid-1940s that turn signals were commonplace on automobiles.īut now, cars have blinkers (although most drivers don't know what they are) and are loaded with more screens and distractions than ever. They couldn’t use their right arm because it was inside the car. They come from the earliest days of automobiles before blinkers and taillights were standard.ĭrivers of some of the first cars had to use their left arm to signal turns and stops. Here’s the problem, hand signals used by cyclists weren’t invented by, or intended to be used by, riders. The presenter showed us the answer, left arm bent up at the elbow. I don’t recall all the guesses, but I do remember no one got it right. The presenter told us that wasn’t right and to try again. As expected, since it’s intuitive and makes complete sense, the majority of kids who weren’t more engaged with picking their noses shot their right arms straight out. Then he asked how we would go about signaling a right turn. 9 reasons why bike commuting is better than driving.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |