Bicycle Safety

          Make sure your bike matches your size and height. Make sure you can straddle the frame with both feet flat on the ground. Some safety equipment's are a chain guard, reflectors, a bell, and a orange safety flag. "A bicycle is a vehicle, just like an automobile. To ride one safely, you must know not only how to balance, but how to avoid the situations in which injuries often occur" (Handal 270).

More and more often adults are riding bikes while following outdate or incorrect rules of the road. "Bicycles are, in fact, generally subject to the same laws as other vehicles" (Handal 270).

The following tips will help you become a safer bike rider:

• Wear a helmet. Make sure the helmet fits snug and comfortable for your head shape and size
• Be predictable, obey traffic signals, road signs and pavement signs
• Be visible, make sure you are riding where drivers would expect to see you
• Turn, look, signal. Before you start a turn, turn your head and look behind you, then give the proper turn signal
• Watch our for intersections. Most bike and car accidents occur at intersections
• Be prepared to yield the right of way, especially when approaching other bikes or pedestrians
• Don't ride at night, if you must then make sure to wear reflective clothing
• Don't pass cars on the right, drivers won't be able to see you clearly
• Avoid falls. Use a smooth, consistent routine when stopping and starting

          From now on, when I ride my bike I always have a reflective sticker on the back of my bike to warn cars or pedestrians that I am near or approaching. I also wear some type of reflective clothing at night when riding to make it more easily for others to see me.

Have you thought about anything you should change when riding your bike after reading this post? If so, what?