First off i would like to thank Michael Bluejay for coming up with this amazing article and his permission for me to produce a version for countries that automobiles drive on the left of the roads. If you reside in a country that vehicles drive on the right side of the roads, you should read Michael's version of How to Not Get Hit by Cars instead.

Being a cyclist myself, i had close shaves with Collision #2, #3, #4 and #6 which Michael had mentioned. In a traffic dense country like Singapore, cycling on the road is considered dangerous. That is made harder with the car ownership mentality society in Singapore where cars are considered as a status symbols and cyclists relying on human power to move are considered paupers by some. However that didn't deter me from cycling on the roads.

Everything you do has its risk and dangers, even in moments when you least expect it. Events such as natual disasters and the numerous things that happen around us. In fact driving a car is more dangerous than an occasional cyclist on the road when taking into consideration the number of hours exposed on the road. Even something that we must do everyday such as eating is dangerous. Eat the wrong food for a period of time and no exercise and you expose yourself to various diseases.

Just as in knowing what to consume and when, i believe Michael's article serves as a very good piece of advice of what to do and what not to do when cycling on the roads. Being informed of the dangers will certainly increase your odds for a safe journey. Whether you own a mountain bike or a road bike, you will inevitably take to the roads at one time or another to reach your destination so what is written here helps you in becoming more aware of the mistakes drivers and mistakes make.

Drivers would benefit from reading it too to get a perspective of the situations from a cyclist's point of view.

DISCLAIMER: I have developed this page to provide what I believe is very good advice to help you avoid getting hit by cars. But of course, bicycling will never be 100% safe, and I can't guarantee you won't get hit by a car, even if you follow all the advice on this page. (Naturally, I believe if you follow this advice you will be much less likely to suffer a collision than if you ignore it.) Ultimately, you are responsible for your own safety.

"Since I've become more observant of how bikes and cars interact, I've decided that bicyclists have two major safety threats: cars and themselves."-- Lee Nichols

As I bicycle around my town, I avoid getting hit by cars all the time, by taking very specific preventative measures which definitely keep me from getting killed. Every time I avoid a collision, I wonder whether a less experienced cyclist would have been smashed by a car. So I want to share what I know so you can avoid getting hit, too.

What I aim to show you is real ways you can get hit and real ways to avoid them. This is a far cry from normal bike safety publications which tell you things of questionable usefulness, such as admonishing you to always signal your turns. (While it's a good idea to signal, it's more important to ride in such a way that it's not NECESSARY for cars to know where you're going -- if a car has to know what you're about to do in order to avoid hitting you, then you're a prime candidate for getting hit. Even if you signal.) Most bike safety manuals also emphasize helmets with a certain zeal, as though simply wearing a helmet magically makes you safe. Well, consider this for a moment: Wearing a helmet will do absolutely nothing to prevent you from getting hit by a car! Sure, helmets might help you if you get hit, and I wear one myself, but your #1 goal should be to avoid getting hit in the first place! Plenty of cyclists are killed by cars even though they were wearing helmets! Ironically, if they had ridden WITHOUT helmets, yet followed the guidelines listed below, they might still be alive today. Don't confuse wearing a helmet with biking safely. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Don't get hit.

Collision Type #1: The Left Cross

This is the most common type of collision or potential collision. A car is pulling out of a side street, parking lot, or driveway on the left. Notice that this are actually two different kinds of possible collisions here: Either you're in front of the car and the car hits you, or the car pulls out in front of you and you slam into it.

How to avoid this collision:
1. Get a headlight. If you're riding at night, you should absolutely use a front headlight. It's required by law, anyway.

2. Honk. Get a bell or a horn and USE IT whenever you see a car approaching (or waiting) ahead of you and to the right. You may feel awkward ringing your bell or honking your horn, but it's better to be embarrassed than to get hit. Do it.

3. Slow down. If you can't make eye contact with the driver (especially at night), slow down so much that you're able to completely stop if you have to. Sure, it's inconvenient, but it beats getting hit. Doing this has saved my life on too many occasions to count.

4. Move right. Notice the two blue lines "A" and "B" in the diagram. You're probably used to riding in "A", very close to the curb, because you're worried about being hit from behind. But take a look at the car in the diagram. When that motorist is looking down the road for traffic, they're not looking in the bike lane or the area closest to the curb; they're looking in the MIDDLE of the lane, for other cars. The farther right you are (such as in "B"), the more likely the driver will see you. There's an added bonus here: if the motorist doesn't see you and starts pulling out, you may be able to go even FARTHER right, or may be able to speed up and get out of the way before impact, or roll onto their hood as they slam on their brakes. In short, it gives you some options. Because if you stay all the way to the left and they pull out, your only "option" may be to run right into the driver's side door. Using this method has saved me on three occasions in which a motorist ran into me and I wasn't hurt, and in which I definitely would have slammed into their driver's side door had I not moved right.

Of course, there's a tradeoff. Riding to the far left makes you invisible to the cars ahead of you at intersections, but riding to the right makes you vulnerable to the cars behind you. Your actual lane position may vary depending on how wide the street is, how many cars there are, how fast & how close they pass you, and how far you are from the next intersection. On fast roadways with few cross streets, you'll ride farther to the left, and on slow roads with many cross streets, you'll ride farther right.

Collision Type #2: The Door Prize

A parked car opens its door right in front of you. You run right into it if you can't stop in time. If you're lucky, the motorist will exit the car before you hit the door, so you'll at least have the pleasure of smashing them too when you crash, and their soft flesh will cushion your impact.

How to avoid this collision:
Ride to the right. Ride far enough to the right that even if someone swings their door out all the way, it won't hit you. You may be wary about riding so far into the lane that cars can't pass you easily, but you're MUCH more likely to get doored by a parked car if you ride too close to it than you are to get hit from behind by a car which can clearly see you.

Collision Type #3: Red Light of Death

You stop at a red light (or stop sign) immediately to the left of an automobile that's waiting at the same light. They can't see you. When the light turns green, you move forward, and then they turn left, right into you. Simple cars can do you in this way, but this scenario is especially dangerous when it's a bus or a container truck that you're stopping next to.

How to avoid this collision:
Don't stop in the blind spot. Look at the diagram. Either stop in point A, where the driver can see you, or stop in point B, behind the first car so it can't turn into you, and far enough ahead of the second car so that the second car can see you clearly. And it does no good to avoid stopping to the left of the first car if you're going to make the mistake of stopping to the left of the second car. EITHER car can do you in.

If you chose spot A, then ride quickly to cross the street as soon as the light turns green. Don't look at the motorist to see if they want to go ahead and turn. First of all, if you're in spot A and they want to turn, then you're in their way. Why did you take spot A if you weren't eager to cross the street when you could? When the light turns green, just go, and go quickly. (But make sure cars aren't running the red light on the cross street, of course.)

If you chose spot B, then when the light turns green, DON'T pass the car in front of you -- stay behind it, because it might turn left at any second. If it doesn't make a left turn right away, it may turn left into a driveway or parking lot unexpectedly at any point. Don't count on drivers to signal! They don't. Assume that a car can turn left at any time. (NEVER pass a car on the left!) But try to stay ahead of the car behind you until you're through the intersection, because otherwise they might try to cut you off as they turn left.

While I'm not advocating running red lights, notice it is in fact safer to break the law and run the red light if there's no cross traffic, than it is to wait legally at the red light directly to the left of a car, only to have it make a left turn right into you when the light turns green. The moral here is not that you should break the law, but that you can easily get hurt even if you follow the law.

Collision Type #4: The Left Hook, Pt. 1

A car passes you and then tries to make a left turn right in front of you, or right into you. Just because you're on a bicycle they think you're not going very fast (even if you are) so it never occurs to them that they can't pass you in time. Even more frustrating is that even if you have to slam on your brakes to avoid hitting them, they often won't feel they've done anything wrong. This kind of collision is very hard to avoid because you typically don't see it until the last second, and because there's nowhere for you to go when it happens.

How to avoid this collision:
1. Ride to the right. Taking up the whole lane makes it harder for cars to pass you to cut you off or turn into you. Don't feel bad about taking the lane: if cars didn't threaten your life by turning in front of or into you or passing you too closely, then you wouldn't have to. Unfortunately, this is a trade-off: it's often safer, or at least more comfortable, to ride far to the left. Your choice of riding position will probably depend on the particular roadway you're on. If the lane you're in isn't wide enough for cars to pass you safely, then you should be taking the whole lane anyway.

2. Glance in your mirror before approaching an intersection. (If you don't have a mirror, get one now.) Be sure to look in your mirror well before you get to the intersection. When you're actually going through an intersection, you'll need to be paying very close attention to what's in front of you.

Collision Type #5: The Left Hook, Pt. 2

You're passing a slow-moving car (or even another bike) on the left, when it unexpectedly makes a left turn right into you, trying to get to a parking lot,driveway or side street.

How to avoid this collision:
1. Don't pass on the left. This collision is very easy to avoid. Just don't pass any vehicle on the left. If a car ahead of you is going only 10 mph, then you slow down, too, behind it. It will eventually start moving faster. If it doesn't, pass on the right when it's safe to do so.

When passing cyclists on the right, announce "on your right" before you start passing, so they don't suddenly move right into you. (Of course, they're much less likely to suddenly move right without looking, where they could be hit by traffic, then to suddenly move left, into a destination.) If they're riding too far to the right for you to pass safely on the right, then announce "on your left" before passing on the left.

If a bunch of cars are stopped at a light, then you can try passing on the left cautiously, being prepared in case the traffic starts moving again unexpectedly.

Note that when you're tailing a slow-moving vehicle, ride behind it, not in its blind spot immediately to the left of it. Even if you're not passing a car on the left, you could still run into it if it turns left if you're on the left side of it. Give yourself enough room to brake if it turns.

2. Look behind you before turning left. Here's your opportunity to avoid hitting cyclists who violate tip #1 above and try to pass you on the left. Look behind you before making a left-hand turn to make sure a bike isn't trying to pass you. (Also remember that they could be coming up from behind you on the sidewalk while you're on the street.) Even if it's the other cyclist's fault for trying to pass you on the left when you make a left turn and have them slam into you, it won't hurt any less.

Collision Type #6: The Right Cross

A car approaching from ahead tries to make a right turn right into you.

How to avoid this collision:
1. Get a headlight. If you're riding at night, you should absolutely use a front headlight. It's required by law, anyway.

2. Slow down. If you can't make eye contact with the driver (especially at night), slow down so much that you're able to completely stop if you have to. Sure, it's inconvenient, but it beats getting hit.

Collision Type #7: The Rear End, Pt. 1

You innocently move a little to the right to go around a parked car or some other obstruction in the road, and you get nailed by a car coming up from behind.

How to avoid this collision:
1. Never, ever move right without checking your mirror or looking behind you first. Some motorists like to pass cyclists within mere centremeters, so moving even a tiny bit to the right unexpectedly could put you in the path of a car.

2. Use a handlebar mirror. If you don't have one, go to a bike shop and get one.

Collision Type #8: The Rear End, Part 2

This is what many cyclists fear the most, but it's not the most common kind of accident (except maybe at night, or on long-distance rides outside the city). However, it's one of the hardest collisions to avoid, since you're not usually looking behind you. The best way to avoid this one is to ride on very wide roads or in bike lanes. Practically all these accidents happened at night. Getting rear-ended in the daylight is rare.

How to avoid this collision:
1. Get a rear light. If you're riding at night, you absolutely should use a flashing red rear light. Bike shops have red rear blinkies for $25 or less. These kind of lights typically take two AA or AAA batteries, which last for months (something like 200 hours). I can't stress this item enough: If you ride at night, get a rear light!

2. Choose wide streets. Ride on streets whose outside lane is so wide that it can easily fit a car and a bike side by side. That way a car may zoom by you and avoid hitting you, even if they didn't see you!

3. Choose slow streets. The slower a car is going, the more time it has to see you. I navigate the city by going through neighborhoods. Learn how to do this.

4. Use back streets on weekends. The risk of riding on Friday or Saturday night is MUCH greater than riding on other nights because all the drunks are out driving around. I avoid riding on Friday & Saturday nights as much as possible. If I do ride on a weekend night, I make sure to take neighborhood streets rather than arterials. 5. Get a mirror. Get a mirror and use it. If it looks like a car doesn't see you, hop off your bike and onto the sidewalk. Mirrors cost $5-15. Trust me, once you've ridden a mirror for a while, you'll wonder how you got along without it. My paranoia went down 80% after I got a mirror. If you're not convinced, after you've used your mirror for a month, take it off your bike and ride around and notice how you keep glancing down to where your mirror was, and notice how unsafe you feel without it.

Collision Type #9: The Crosswalk Slam

A car makes a left turn, right into you, as you're biking through the crosswalk between two sidewalks. Cars aren't expecting bikes in the crosswalk, so you have to be VERY careful to avoid this one.

How to avoid this collision:
1. Get a headlight. If you're riding at night, you should absolutely use a front headlight. It's required by law, anyway.

2. Slow down. Slow down enough that you're able to completely stop if necessary.

3. Don't ride on the sidewalk in the first place. Crossing between sidewalks can be a fairly dangerous maneuver. If you do it on the right-hand side of the street, you risk getting slammed as per the diagram. If you do it on the left-hand side of the street, you risk getting slammed by a car behind you that's turning left. You also risk getting hit by cars pulling out of parking lots or driveways. These kinds of accidents are hard to avoid, which is a compelling reason to not ride on the sidewalk in the first place.

And another reason not to ride on the sidewalk is that you're threatening to pedestrians. Your bike is as threatening to a pedestrian as a car is threatening to you. Finally, riding on the sidewalk is illegal in some places. If you do plan on riding on sidewalks, do it slowly and EXTRA carefully, ESPECIALLY when crossing the street between two sidewalks.

Collision Type #10: Wrong Way Wallop

You're riding the wrong way (against traffic, on the right-hand side of the street). A car makes a left turn from a sidestreet, driveway, or parking lot, right into you. They didn't see you because they were looking for traffic only on their right, not on their left. They had no reason to expect that someone would be coming at them from the wrong direction.

Even worse, you could be hit by a car on the same road coming at you from straight ahead of you. They had less time to see you and take evasive action because they're approaching you faster than normal (because you're going towards them rather than away from them). And if they hit you, it's going to be much more forceful impact, for the same reason. (Both you and their velocities are combined.)

How to avoid this collision:
Ride in the same direction as traffic. That is, do NOT ride on the right-hand side of the road which would make you face oncoming traffic.

Riding against traffic may sound like a good idea because you can see the cars that are passing you, but it's not. Here's why:

1.Cars which pull out of driveways, parking lots, and cross streets (ahead of you and to the right), which are making a left onto your street, aren't expecting traffic to be coming at them from the wrong way. They won't see you, and they'll plow right into you.

2.How the heck are you going to make a left turn?

3.Cars will approach you at a much higher relative speeds. If you're going 15km/h, then a car passing you from behind doing 35 approaches you at a speed of only 20 (35-15). But if you're on the wrong side of the road, then the car approaches you at 50 (35+15), which is 250% faster! Since they're approaching you faster, both you and the driver have lots less time to react. And if a collision does occur, it's going to be ten times worse.

4.Riding the wrong way is illegal and you can get ticketed for it.

There's one possible exception to riding the wrong way. When you're riding in the country on narrow roads, it may be helpful to ride against traffic so you can see what you're up against. Compared to city traffic, country traffic is likely to have less roadspace for bikes and cars to share. That being the case, riding the wrong way allows you to bail into the shoulder if a car doesn't see you. You don't have problem #1 above because side traffic is rare, and #2 is avoided because you're riding primarily along one road and not turning left.

Country traffic is more likely to be sparse, which means that you may have the ability to switch to the "correct" side of the road when a car approaches you from ahead. I did a 100-mile all-night ride with a friend once, continually switching from the right-hand side of the road to the left-hand side depending on whether traffic was approaching us from ahead or behind, since a vehicle passed us only once every several minutes. But cars will still approach you faster when you ride the wrong way, and it's still illegal. It's your choice.

Avoid busy streets
One of the biggest mistakes that people make when they start biking is to take the exact same routes they used when they were driving. It's usually better to take the streets with fewer and slower cars. Sure, cyclists have a right to the road, but that's a small consolation when you're dead. Consider how far you can take this strategy: If you learn your routes well, you'll find that in many cities you can travel through neighborhoods to get to most places, only crossing the busiest streets rather than traveling on them.

Light up
Too obvious? Well, if it's so obvious, then why do most night-time cyclists ride without lights? Bike shops have rear red blinkies for $25 or less.

Ride as if you were invisible
Assume that motorists don't know you're there and ride in such a way that they won't hit you even if they don't see you. You're not trying to BE invisible, you're trying to make it irrelevant whether cars see you or not. If you ride in such a way that a car has to see you to take action to avoid hitting you (e.g., by their slowing down or changing lanes), then that means they will definitely hit you if they don't see you! But if you stay out of their way, then you won't get hit even if they didn't notice you were there.

On very fast roads, cars will have less time to see you because they're approaching you so fast. Now, you should avoid fast roads in the first place if at all possible, unless there's plenty of room for a car and a bike side by side. And if there IS such room, then on fast roadways, you can practice invisibility by riding to the extreme left. If you're far enough left that you're not in the part of the lane the cars are in, then they'll zoom by and won't hit you, even if they never saw you. (exceptions to riding on the extreme left are noted below)

Here's another example: It's a good idea to signal a right turn, but it's a better idea to make your right turn at a time or place where there aren't cars behind you that could hit you while you're stopped and waiting to make that turn. You can hang out in the middle of the street, stopped, with your right arm out, waiting to make your turn, but you're counting on cars behind you to see you and stop. If they don't see you, you're in trouble.

Naturally we don't advocate running red lights, but if you're the kind of person who does, then apply the invisibility principle when deciding on whether to run a particular light: Could any cross traffic possibly hit me if I were invisible? If yes, then absolutely don't do it. Never make a car have to slow down to avoid hitting you. Remember, the more you rely on cars to see you to avoid hitting you, the more chances they'll have to actually do so.

Remember, you're not trying to BE invisible, you're just riding with the assumption that cars can't see you. Of course, you certainly WANT them to see you, and you should help them with that. That's why you'll wave to motorists whom you think might be about to pull out in front of you, and why you'll be lit up like a Christmas tree at night (front and rear lights).

There are exceptions to riding as though you were invisible. For example, often you'll need to command a whole lane of traffic instead of riding to the extreme left, for the reasons mentioned in the next section.

Take the whole lane when appropriate
While you'll often prefer to ride to the extreme left to keep out of the way of cars passing you, it's often safest to take the whole lane, or at least move a little bit to the right. Riding a bit to the right allows cars at cross streets at intersections to see you better. Also, you should take the lane if cars are passing you too closely from behind. This requires cars behind you to see you and either slow down or change lanes. Then again, if you're on the kind of street where you've got cars blocked up behind you or constantly changing lanes to get around you, you're probably on the wrong street and should find a quieter neighborhood street.

Here are some things that make it impracticable to ride to the extreme left:

1.Cars are passing you too closely. If the lane is too narrow for cars to pass you safely, then move right and take the whole lane. Getting buzzed by cars is dangerous.

2.Cars are parked on the left-hand side of the road. If you ride too close to these you're gonna get doored when someone gets out of their car. Move right.

3.You're in a heavy traffic area with lots of side streets, parking lots, or driveways ahead and to your left. Cars turning right won't see you because they're looking for traffic in the MIDDLE of the road, not on the extreme edge of the road. Move right. See Collision #1 diagram above.

If you're paying attention, you'll notice that there are risks to both riding to the extreme left as well as taking the lane. If you wanted a steadfast rule, then sorry, it isn't that simple. (But take heart, because many of the OTHER concepts we mention in our Top 10 list above work 100% of the time.) If you ride all the way to the left, you risk getting doored, and you make it hard for cars at cross streets at intersections to see you. But if you take the lane, you'll definitely get hit if a car behind you doesn't see you. To make it more likely that they'll see you when you're taking the lane, be lit up like a Christmas tree at night, and take neighborhood streets when you can, since the cars will be traveling slower and therefore approach you from behind slower, and have more time to see you.