BICYCLE SAFETY

Safety while riding a bicycle means understanding what to do and where to be on the road.  It involves riding in a predictable fashion and obeying traffic laws.  Be aware of when you might put yourself in a position where a driver may not realize that you are there.  Watch out for car doors, drain grates - that sort of thing.  Keep your bicycle in top mechanical condition.  Be extra careful when riding at night.  Even with lights and reflectors, the chances of an accident at night are much higher than during the daytime.  (Lincoln now requires a front headlight and a rear taillight -- not just a reflector -- when riding a bicycle at night.  Follow the law.  It makes good sense.)

Wear a helmet!!  We won't allow riders on our rides without a helmet.  A helmet won't make you a safer rider, and it won't ensure that you won't be injured in an accident, but it will substantially reduce your chances of a head injury.

One common misconception of many inexperienced riders is that it's safer to ride on the sidewalk.  While there are undoubtedly stretches of certain streets where that may be true, it is not true in general, most notably not for adult riders capable of reasonable speed and that understand vehicle movements.  Sidewalks expose the bicyclist to greater chances of accidents on account of sidewalk irregularities, vehicles going in and out of driveways, and clueless pedestrians and children.  Crossing streets on a bicycle using the crosswalk is much more likely to result in bicycle-vehicle accidents than when the bicycle is riding down the street in a normal fashion.

Not all riders agree on every detail of safe riding, but most agree on most. Check the links below for more safety information from various sources.

Bicycle Helmet Safety Institute

Federal Highway Administration's Pedestrian & Bicycle Safety Research Page

National Bike Safety Network

Ken Kifer was* a touring cyclist with oodles of material on the web; you might not agree with all of it, but most of it is very worthwhile.  His safety-related pages are worth checking (even though he didn't wear a helmet).  *Ken Kifer was killed in 2003 by a drunk driver.

A paceline is something that you'll often encounter on Club road rides and occasionally on rail-trail (MoPac or Oak Creek) rides.  This is when riders will follow closely behind each other to substantially decrease wind resistance for all but the lead rider.  An Internet search will find a number of sources of good advice on riding in pacelines; here is one from Norway.

John Forester is another person with an interesting and thought-provoking website on bicycle safety.

The Pennsylvania state bicycle driver's manual is notable for its completeness, although there is some advice regarding laws that is not accurate for Nebraska.  Go to http://www.dot.state.pa.us/, click "special interests," scroll to the bicycle section, and click "PA Bicycle Driver's Manual."  There is quite a bit of useful bicycle information on this website.