3 Tips For Safe Cycling When Biking In A New City

When traveling to a new city and exploring the different areas that that region has to offer, one of the best ways to see all the sights and experience all you can is to take to the city by bike. Especially in well populated areas or cities and towns that have a lot of locals who bike, you can often find very well maintained biking trails or roads that can easily accommodate cyclist. However, this doesn’t mean that biking around a new city doesn’t have its fair share of hazards. So to help ensure that you’re able to stay safe and avoid injury, here are three tips for safe cycling when biking in a new city.

Learn The Laws

Based on where in the world you’re traveling to, that area may or may not have different laws regarding cyclists. So to keep yourself safe and ensure that you’re following the laws of the land, Thorin Klosowski, a contributor to LifeHacker.com, recommends that you spend some time learning the laws before you get on your bike. Some of the laws that you should familiarize yourself with include things like helmet laws, laws about biking on sidewalks, and regulations regarding right-of-way for both vehicles and cyclists when sharing the road together.

Make Eye Contact With Drivers

As long as you know how to ride a bike, there really isn’t much danger within the actual activity of bike riding. But when you’re trying to cycle around other cyclists, pedestrians, or cars, that’s when you have to be particularly careful with making sure you’re seen when on the road. To give yourself more confidence that you’ve been seen by others on the road, Oli Woodman and Colin Levitch, contributors to BikeRadar.com, recommend that you try to make eye contact with other drivers and cyclists whenever possible. This will help you recognize that you’ve been seen and that you don’t get run over or crashed into while cycling.

Don’t Sightsee Too Much At First

Because you’re biking around a new city, you probably want to take in as many of the sights as you can. However, this can cause you to become too distracted while trying to safely bike. Because of this, Lindsey Adler, a contributor to Buzzfeed.com, shares that you need to focus more on the actual biking and getting to know the road first before trying to sightsee too much. By doing this, you’ll ensure that you don’t end up hitting potholes or going off curbs, which could put you and other in danger.

If you plan to rent a bike in order to transport yourself around a city in which you’re visiting, consider using the tips mentioned above to help you stay safe while cycling.

Categories: , ,