Urban riding survival

[Smitty]

This article was originally published in Sport Rider. ... http://www.sportrider.com" target="_blank
and I think its a good 'un



Urban Guerrilla
Motorcycle riding tips for in the city
writer: Nick Ienatsch


Ten years ago I signed on at Motorcyclist magazine and began commuting to work on a motorcycle over the busiest freeways and streets of Los Angeles. In those 10 years of commuting, two staff members had commuting accidents, neither of which caused significant damage or pain. That's five to seven editors riding to work every working day for 10 years. If we were the survey panel, the conclusion would be that commuting on a motorcycle is an extremely safe way to get to work. And with the proper skills, it can be.

Experience is a great teacher, but an often painful one. To help shortcut experience, we've compiled five basic steps to existing in traffic to help get commuters out of their cars and onto motorcycles. You'll save time (one of the few nonreplenishable resources we have!) and reduce parking problems, and your work day will begin and end with less stress and more pleasure. One thing we know for sure: That sports bike in your garage isn't just for Sunday mornings.

URBAN GUERRILLA STEP ONE: TRUST NO ONE

Learn to rely on one person, and one person only: yourself. Be paranoid. When you see a dented, dirty or neglected car, be especially paranoid. Dents are a rolling history of mistakes, and you don't want to be involved. Dirt and neglect show disinterest, and that disinterest probably bleeds into their driving as well.

Experience has taught us to watch for particular car types in addition to neglected cars. Volvo works hard to promote the safety of its cars, and that means some owners of Volvos buy them because they know they're going to be in an accident. Sure, it's an unfair generalization of Volvo owners, but it's an observation made after a decade in Los Angeles. Watch for minivans. They're usually purchased to carry the kids, so the driver is often dealing with much more than the road. Beware of high-performance cars in a hurry; a modern car can accelerate and change lanes surprisingly quickly, so give them room if they're driving aggressively. Give four-wheel drive pickups some room because (another unfair generalization) they're often driven by aggressive young men who believe that might makes right. What car types can you trust? None.

URBAN GUERRILLA STEP TWO: AVOID BLIND SPOTS

How other drivers interpret your actions has a great deal to do with urban riding skill.
If one thought rules your urban riding, let it be this: Stay out of blind spots. If you can't see the driver's face in the car's mirror, that driver can't see you and you simply don't exist. Place blind-spot avoidance on top of your priority list for urban survival. Use acceleration, deceleration and lane position to "ride in the mirrors" of the cars around you. Develop a blind-spot warning buzzer that blares every time you approach a blind spot. The Highway Patrol teaches its riders to constantly move through traffic, to ride slightly (slightly!) faster than traffic and move through blind spots rather than sitting in them. Good advice.

Of course, just because you're riding in the mirrors of a car doesn't mean that driver will use that mirror before changing lanes into you. Position yourself so that if the driver fails to see you in the mirror, you still aren't in danger of getting tagged. You will know when you're riding well and staying clear of blind spots because you are no longer using your horn to warn encroaching drivers of your presence; they've already seen you in the mirror, alongside or ahead. In fact, our response to "loud pipes save lives" is "get out of the blind spot."

URBAN GUERRILLA STEP THREE: BE DEFENSIVE, BE AGGRESSIVE

By predicting a car's last-second freeway flop, a rider has made plenty of room for the expected mistake. Avoid passing on the right, and never pass immediately before a freeway exit, intersection or driveway; give the driver a chance to drive poorly without your involvement. Accelerate ahead or fall behind.

Combining defensive tactics and aggressive riding will create a riding portfolio that will weather any storm. The secret is knowing when to use each of the tactics. After all, blasting aggressively down Main Street is an open invitation for trouble. Conversely, creeping slowly down Main Street invites different but still deadly trouble, putting you at the mercy of other drivers' skills-or lack thereof.

Defensive riding means being aware of your space and maintaining that space by positioning yourself in surrounding traffic. Riding defensively is a way of looking at traffic to predict its effect on you, and making sure that effect is minimal.

Riding aggressively is much less a way of riding than an applied technique to be exercised only occasionally. As motorcyclists, we must put ourselves in view, and sometimes that means a bit of aggressive throttle use to come up even with a driver's window. Simply put, sometimes slowing down is extremely dangerous and some aggressive acceleration or lane changing is called for.

Correct lane positioning will allow you to be seen and keep you away from danger. This rider approaches the cab in the right side of his lane so the cab driver will see him in the cab's mirrors. As the rider approaches the cab's blind spot, he moves left to gain valuable space in case of a sudden lane change.

Create your own traffic destiny. Put yourself in a position with an escape route if your worst-case predictions come true. Look for traffic patterns and try to move through traffic, rather than sit within a knot of traffic. The time you become lethargic will be the time somebody parks a Suburban in your lap at 60 mph.

URBAN GUERRILLA STEP FOUR: MAKE ROOM FOR OTHERS' MISTAKES

In case you haven't noticed, drivers make mistakes. Dozens of them, from no turn signal to last-minute freeway exits to locked brakes at a yellow light to-well, how long a list do you need? America's current driver's training programs aren't going to correct America's drivers in the foreseeable future, so the secret is to plan on and predict the mistakes and make sure you're not affected. In other words, give 'em room to screw up.

A car's blind spot varies according to the vehicle, mirror size and mirror adjustment. Anytime you're parallel to a car, truck or van, you're in the most dangerous spot on the road. Learn to move through this Death Spot aggressively; don't ride in a blind spot, even for a few seconds.

Understand this: You won't change the mistakes being made out there, but by recognizing and giving them room to happen, you won't be negatively affected by them either. There's no reason to get upset, violent, aggressive or reactionary; once you begin to make room for mistakes, it becomes almost humorous to watch the stupidity around you because you will no longer be taken by surprise or put in danger.

URBAN GUERRILLA STEP FIVE: SLOW DOWN IN TOWN

Speed itself doesn't kill, but it sure makes those sudden stops painful. Basically, too much speed makes us unreadable. The car driver looks down the street, sees a headlight approaching at what he guesses to be the speed limit, and proceeds through the intersection. Unfortunately, the bike is doing double the speed limit and slams into the side of the car. Whose fault is it? Not the car driver's. Slow down to be seen; slow down to avoid being misread.

An ugly chain reaction can be started when a car squeezes into the right lane of a crowded freeway, and you'll be affected if you don't take action. Predict possible outcomes and place yourself safely in surrounding traffic. Often that means safely accelerating ahead of the mess.

Slowing down allows you to stop before becoming involved in someone else's mistake. Even if you're the Kevin Schwantz of braking, it takes more distance to stop a bike from 50 mph than it does from 30 mph; that extra distance usually isn't available to urban guerrillas.

Slowing down gives your brain a chance to notice things and more time to react. Your peripheral vision widens and you relax enough to read and predict traffic. Try walking down the supermarket aisle and reading labels, then try running down the same aisle. Now imagine all those soup cans are about to jump into your path and you'll see how slowing down affects your perception. There are plenty of places to go fast, but in and around traffic isn't one of them. If you can't slow down in town, put me in your will.

URBAN GUERRILLA BONUS STEP: PRACTICE

Intersections are our toughest challenges. Slow down, cover your brakes, and use your lane to position yourself for maximum conspicuity.

When everything goes wrong and the above five steps fail to keep you in safety's arms, you'd better be a good motorcycle rider. Get to an empty parking lot and practice braking; take a Motorcycle Safety Foundation Experienced RiderCourse. Experiment with flicking lane changes. Become intimately familiar with the effects of countersteering, experimenting with differing pressures on the handgrips. Practice quick glances in the mirrors and hurried looks over your shoulder, as if you were initiating an emergency lane change. Use your turn signals in all conditions so that you'll remember to cancel them when things get stressful. Know the route you and your neighborhood commuters take on the way to the freeway and study the mistakes being made; when you're not on your bike, watch traffic patterns and instances that would get a rider in trouble.

All this is practice, and it's just as important for the urban guerrilla as it is for the expert-level roadracer. You can't win a trophy with your commuting prowess, but you can step out of the car or bus and add two irreplaceable things to your life: time and enjoyment.

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take care out there in 2008

cheers

Smitty

[mick_dundee]

And remeber the above is American so swap left and right thourghout the article Good read Smitty, no argument on the trust noone part.

[smek]

yeh that is pretty good.. I'm pleasantly surprised! =)

Commuting is a skill in itself imo and a lot of people are crap at it!
Most of the those crap ones appear around this time of year....

An extra thing I'd add is, as part of your scan, keep an eye on the head and hands of the drivers around you. You can tell when they're thinking of doing something other than driving straight ahead in their lane.
And when lane splitting in moving traffic, make your move when cars are side by side.

[daffy67]

Lane splitting/filtering is legal in L.A ( i was there not long ago), i did not see that many bikes considering the traffic there.
I commute to work on the 10 in good weather-60klm round trip- about half that on the M1 to the airport district.
Have to agree with the accel/decel theory, quite often a quick squirt get's you out of harms way.
It's a nightmare ride sometimes but it does sharpen your awareness of things and you get to use many skills you may or may not have practiced.

[Nanna10r]

Good Read Master Yoda.

I liken commuting to playing "Chess with chainsaws".

Except in the Rain ... "then it's personal & mother nature is a BIG FAT BIATCH who likes the sound of bikes crunching"

[midorioni]

Good info Smitty, an informative read for my urban rider friends who ride here in Singapore. May I copy this thread for them to read?

2007 wasn't a good year for bikers here, too many deaths, lost 4 good friends in a space of 7mths

[robracer]

Good info Smitty, an informative read for my urban rider friends who ride here in Singapore. May I copy this thread for them to read?

2007 wasn't a good year for bikers here, too many deaths, lost 4 good friends in a space of 7mths

Damn that's 4 too many ............. for me its 2 in 23 years

[Smitty]

Good info Smitty, an informative read for my urban rider friends who ride here in Singapore. May I copy this thread for them to read?

yep...anything that will help a rider survive...

[midorioni]

Good info Smitty, an informative read for my urban rider friends who ride here in Singapore. May I copy this thread for them to read?

yep...anything that will help a rider survive...

Thanks Smitty , been a long while since i came into this forum cause of things that happened here in SGP, but i am back.