Let’s Talk About Fear and Cycling

I totally agree with predictability, confidence, and attentiveness.

I also try to set a good example as a road user by working with traffic and yielding to motorists when safety and courtesy is involved. I commute daily to work and do early morning rides on the weekends. I am lucky to to have a generous shoulder to ride with only a few “pinch” points. I am one of the few bicycle commuters in my community.

Some of my riding involves pre-daylight riding and I use lighting. Hopefully my lighting trains motorists to recognize bicycles. I use a steady light as I find the flashing systems irritating.

I consider non-shouldered roads to be too high a risk when speed limits exceed 35mph or traffic volumes are moderate or greater. For me it is not a fear issue, but acceptable risk.

You cannot ride scared. You own part of the road too. Act like you’re invisible, ride defensively, and use your head.

It’s the braking. Braking is naturally done with the foot, not the hands. You hang on with the hands. Most people have a fear of falling, falling leads to breaking something. Cycle manufacturers need to reinvent the bike and give riders the choice of braking with the feet or the hands. You don’t brake a car with your hands. Put both kinds of brakes on the bikes and riders can just set the bike for which braking system they are comfortable with. When I got my first hand brake bike it scared the heck out of me. I never fell off my bike since I learned to ride but when it was time to get a new bike the brakes were on the handlebars. The first time I needed to stop in a hurry to avoid hitting something I couldn’t go around, I applied the feet to stop. I didn’t stop. My feet just turned the pedals backwards. By the time I remembered the brakes were on the bars, I was already into what I tried to stop for. I didn’t want to ride the bike anymore. Also there are people who just cannot ride a bike because of the brakes on the handlebars. I know several people who don;t bike because of this. For example. One man does not have much strength in his right hand and can’t grip the brake lever so he can only apply half the brakes and it has sent him over the handlebars. Now his bikes sits in the garage. A former co-worker use to bike to work, summer and winter but had an accident at his workplace and lost two fingers, now his bike sits in his shed because he can’t ride it because he can’t use the hand brakes. Both have a fear of riding because they can’t stop. A friend has one arm shorter than the other so sitting on the bike and braking is difficult to do for her and she loves to ride. In order for her to reach the brakes she has to sit very awkwardly on the bike. She gave up riding. Again, not being able to handbrake puts a big fear in riders. You see a car coming on the side street and see he is not going to stop at the stop sign and you can’t brake properly, you know what is going to happen to you in two seconds and you can’t get stopped.

I generally feel safe, but when I see drivers on cell phones it scares me. Those are the ones that don’t pay attention and do things that are not safe. I’ve had a few instances where a driver almost hit me because they were looking down at their phone.

A bike shop owner told me to ride where the cars right side tires would be. Reason – cars won’t be able to squeeze by without slowing down- they would have to slow down and wait until traffic clears and can pass safely. Don’t ride in the gutter, you’re better than that- you’re a cyclist! Also, ride with a rear blinking light!