LDN - Health & Fitness

Rules for riding
Spring brings need for bicycle safety

[APRIL 26, 2000] Spring, with its lengthening days and warm weather, brings people of all ages outdoors. Many of them, about 67 million every year, will be riding bicycles. In 1998, 761 of those bicyclists were killed in traffic-related accidents, and over 500,000 more were admitted to hospital emergency rooms because of bicycle-crash injuries, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Bert Rawlings, owner of Lincoln Cycle Center, thinks something can be done to lower those statistics. He cites six rules:

Wear a helmet.
Have a safe and properly operating bicycle.
Be seen.
Be aware.
Be predictable.
Follow the Rules of the Road for bicycles.

Rawlings, who gives talks on bicycle safety to third, fourth and fifth graders in Lincoln’s District 27 schools, especially stresses the use of helmets.

While it is not the law in Illinois that everyone riding a bike must wear a helmet, Rawlings thinks it should be. Wearing a helmet is one of the best safety precautions any rider can take and one of the best safety devices parents can buy their children.

He can tell you why. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, 98 percent of bicyclists killed were not wearing helmets. Studies on the effectiveness of bicycle helmets in preventing serious head injuries (which account for more than 60 percent of bicycle-related deaths) show two important facts:

First, helmets can reduce the risk of head injury by as much as 85 percent and the risk of brain injury by as much as 88 percent.
Second, 75 percent of bicycle-related fatalities among children could be prevented with a bicycle helmet (nearly 33 percent of those killed in 1998 were between the ages of 5 and 15).

Rawlings emphasizes that manufacturers are working hard to make helmets lightweight and comfortable, and that it isn’t a chore to get used to wearing them.

[Lincoln College students Paul Yehling (left) and
Josh Wegrzyn try on bicycle helmets at
Bert Rawlings’ Lincoln Cycle Center.]

Be sure you are riding a safe bike, he tells the young people he talks to. If there is something broken on your bicycle, fix it before you ride it. Everything on your bicycle is an important part of the machine and should be in good working order. Tires should be properly inflated, cables taut and unfrayed, chain lubricated and wheels true.

Be sure you can be seen, Rawlings says. During the day, cyclists should wear bright clothing. Earth-tone bicycle clothing is fine for the trail, but Screaming Yellow and Safety Orange are best for road riding. If you must ride at night, wear reflective clothing and a white helmet that will bounce back motorists’ headlights. Also, the law in Illinois now says that anyone riding at night must have a headlight that can be seen for at least 500 feet and a rear red reflector that can be seen up to 600 feet.

Be aware of where you are and what’s going on around you. Even though you should dress so you can be seen, you should ride as if you’re invisible, Rawlings says. If you think a person in an automobile can’t see you, you’ll ride more responsibly.

Other tips on being aware are to be hyper-alert when turning and crossing intersections. Almost one-third of bicycle accidents occur at intersections. Signal turns half a block before the intersection, using the correct hand signals. If traffic is heavy and you must turn left, dismount and walk the bicycle across both streets at the crosswalks. Before entering the traffic flow, stop and look both ways carefully.

Being predictable means following the safety rules recommended by the state of Illinois. A small handbook explaining these “Bicycle Rules of the Road” can be picked up at any driver’s license facility.

Bicycle riders, like motorists, should be on the right side of the road and should follow the same general rules that motorists do, while staying as close to the right edge of the road as is practical. They should ride single file and one to a bike. Like motorists, bike riders should use hand signals to let the traffic behind them know what they are going to do (left arm straight out for left turn, forearm up for right turn, forearm down for stop). Bicycle riders should also know the shape and color of warning signs, such as the stop sign and the railroad crossing sign.

Although many bicyclists’ greatest fear is that a car will overrun them from behind, that is actually a rare occurrence, according to a Federal Highway Administration research study. Seventy percent of bicycle accidents are the result of erroneous or careless behavior by the cyclist. Behaviors such as riding into a street without stopping, turning left or swerving into traffic that is coming from behind, running a stop sign or riding against the flow of traffic are much more likely to cause accidents than being run over by a car from behind.

Every group concerned with bicycle safety – the League of American Bicyclists, the National Safety Council, cycling guru and transportation engineer John Forester and Lincoln’s own Bert Rawlings – repeats the same thing. Wear a helmet.

As the National Safety Council puts it, “When you consider that the first body part to fly forward in a collision is usually the head, with nothing but skin and bone to protect the brain, it’s a tip worth repeating.”

[Joan Crabb]

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