jcm

Don't have time for my ususal long-winded bloviational response so:

1) Overall, I try to ride strategically. That is: defensive when appropriate, assertive when appropriate.

2) As a truck driver, I'm used to sweeping the mirrors constantly. I apply the same technique to cycling - eyes moving around alot. Not just looking, but seeing.

3) Clear, unambiguous (sp)hand signals - always. Even when stopped at 4-ways and waiting my turn to go straight. I make eye contact and point to where I'm going.

4) Bike lane? I take it and move to front at stops No bike lane? I do not filter up and I wait in front of stopped drivers til the light goes green, then move over. I ride to the right where there is no parking.

5) Cars on shoulder? I just mind the doors.

6) Going thru town with angled parking? These are slow traffic areas around here. I take the lane in the driver's position because normally I'm nearly as fast. This keeps me from being smacked by backers because I see them early and they see me. My buds have been hit by riding just off the rear bumpers of these parked cars.

7) Yellow helmet, reflective gloves. Bright top, often a reflective vest, yellow reflective tape on the fenders, lights and all. My old Trek 830 is light gray, so I got some white reflective tape (it's actually gray) years ago and basically taped the whole bike (tastefully ) so the tubes all look like they have 1/2" pinstripes and do look like a bike at night from the sides.

ok, that was a short book...

sauerwald

The vast majority of the miles that I put in are commuting miles - I leave early in the morning (5:30 - 6:00), so I do not see a lot of traffic. The first 8-10 miles of my commute is relatively rural, narrow if any shoulders, light, but fast traffic. In this area I ride to the right side of the roadway, usually about 18-24" from the edge of the pavement, which sometimes places me on the shoulder, sometimes in the road. The last 5-7 miles of my commute is more urban, traffic speeds tend to slow down, more intersections, cars parked along the side of the road etc. In this area I ride futher from the right edge of the pavement, often taking the lane.

On my ride home, there is often significantly more traffic, but my overall riding habits don't change a lot - I still tend to hug the edge of the road in rural areas, and assert myself more strongly in the city.

At this time of year, and later, when much of the commute is in the dark, I am lit up like a christmas tree, between lights and reflectors.

When I ride recreationaly, I rarely ride in the city, and my riding style is similar to the rural part of my commute - as far right as is reasonable.

Daily Commute

I take the lane far more often than not. My street commute is mostly one-way three-lane roads. That means cars have two full lanes of their own to pass. When I stay far enough to the right to let cars get past without leaving the lane, they pass too close. Plus, cars from side steets often can't see me if I'm on the right (especially when there are cars parked) (I know this because I can't see them, either). If I am to the right, I also have to ride through the oil drippings where cars park during no rush hours, as well as garden-variety road gunk. So I try to stay in a tire track.

I generally follow traffic rules-I treat stop sings with the same respect most car drivers do, I don't filter forward, and I obey traffic lights. There are exceptions to the traffic lights. There are a few lights that I can't trigger when there's no traffic behind me. Theoretically, I could get off my bike, walk to the sidewalk, and push the pedestrian button, but that just ain't gonna happen. So I treat those lights as yield signs.

I also don't filter forward at lights. A general rule of road courtesy is that no one should have to pass another twice. Filtering forward forces cars to pass me twice. The only exception is if I have timed a light, and a car has passed just before the light and stopped. Then, I will pull ahead. They shouldn't force me to pass them twice.

When I get downtown, I can mostly keep up with traffic, so I'm always in a tire track. I don't know if cops will let me do this if they put in a contemplated system of bike lanes on the 25 mph downtown streets.

I turn on my lights when cars start to turn on theirs. I figure that when cars start to turn on their lights, drivers start only looking for lights. I have a 13w HID headlight, up to three blinkies, and a safety vest.

When I take my MUP route (which takes about 50% longer than the street route), I assume that pedestrians are idiots. That means I go at a speed that allows me to stop without an accident if they take two steps in the wrong direction at the wrong time.

I always where eye coverage. I splurged for a set of good sunglasses last year, and I love them. I have dark lenses for bright days, amber lenses for less-bright days, and clear-lenses for night. They keep bugs, debris, cold, and wind out of my eyes. I once had a bug wap me in my closed eye. It hurt like heck, but it would have been worse if I hadn't closed my eye in time. The glasses wrap around nicely, and they have a fantastic venting system. They fog a little when I stop in cold/wet conditions, but they clear up almost immediately when I start riding. Your eyes are your prefered interface with traffic and road conditions (the other options are more painful). The glasses work down to about 10F, then I switch to ski goggles.

Bekologist

traffic cycling?

I'm a powerweaver. I ride roads of every kind and variety. I ride everywhere from the downtown core of an admittedly mellow major metropolitian area, six lane arterials, suburban 45 MPH speedways, rural roads both in agricultural, ranchland and forest. From Interstates to gravel forest roads, I ride all conditions.

my daily riding as a dedicated transportational commuter takes me between 15-20 miles or more in urban big city, both accomodated and unaccomodated roadways, and downtown stop and go trafffic as I "ride-365" for all my shopping, errands, work and doctor and dentist trips, etc.

i ride tours out of the puget sound area year round that take me over the Cascades into eastern washington and into the Olympic Peninsula quite frequently. I range from 150-240 miles on overnight trips.

How do I ride in traffic? appropriately. assertively. defensively.

i motorpace traffic when i can. i find riding off the left rear corner of a car is often the safest defensive position in traffic if you are moving at speed.

I motorpace, run traffic signal sprints off the lights, always try to use appropriate lane positioning. that includes bike lanes when safe for use and unobstructed.

I am a "gap weaver" that advances on stopped traffic or thru auto clusterfuzzles and congestion when i think it is safe.

I "Point and Shoot" my turns and use a "Tickle the lane" hand signal to ask for greater clearance from drivers when necesssary.

I have Sony flat speakers and handlebar bag stereo system for when i'm feeling groovy.

fenester

My riding is in Brooklyn and Manhattan. Traffic speed is usually 25-35 tops, except when you've got a relatively traffic free avenue and then the motorists will haul. Relatively narrow streets with lots of funky double parking going on.

As a few mentioned earlier, I think the technique drivers and motorcyclists should be using applies to cycling; always looking ahead to anticipate trouble as well as constantly checking to the sides and behind. Is that cabbie behind looking antsy, squirrely, revving and then hitting the brakes? Look out for him, possibly even make allowances to get him out in front of me where I can keep an eye on him.
Usually we want to get to where we're going, and want to keep up a pace, but conceding a few meters of pavement or a second's pause, even when repeated isn't going to add that much onto your overall travel time (even though it may feel like it does) and will really help keep you out of dangerous situations. The best way to get out of a bad spot is to not get yourself in that spot in the first place. Some driver's had a bad day at work? By all means, buddy, after you.

I also try to ride predictably, maintaining my lane position even though an absence of parked cars may open some room on the right to move over. I just ride straight through keeping the lane position I will need when I reach the next cluster of parked cars. (same goes for avoiding wide-spaced gratings and potholes) As for spacing next to parked cars, riding far enough into the lane to avoid all possible doors would mean blocking the lane the whole ride which I feel can lead to Driver Vengeance Syndrome. So I usually ride far enough out where I will have to make a only a small adjustment for a fully opened car door (say, 12" swerve). Combining that with staying aware of what's behind me (so I don't swerve 12" into the path of a delivery truck) has worked for me so far. (And part of looking forward anticipating problems means scanning through the rear windows of vehicles and checking their left sideview mirror for the presence of a driver. Especially with trucks where there's no rear window to look through, I often am able to establish a quick eye contact with the driver who is using the mirror to check for traffic. Not a 100% assurance, but better than nothing)

When there's a big truck parked at the curb, a double parked car, someone parallel parking, or a combination of those, I spot the situation ahead of time, check the situation behind, and move out to take a full lane a good distance before reaching the obstacle so that the motor traffic around me will already be aware of my presence and position when we reach the obstacle.

Lastly, regarding riding near other cyclists, sometimes their style won't jibe with your style. Maybe they ride close to the curb, or move more to the right when there aren't parked cars and then cut back out when there are. Maybe they feel they need to take a full lane and you don't (or vice versa). I will either pull ahead a ways, or pause and let them get ahead. One cyclist seems to be confusing enough for some motorists, let alone two cyclists with different styles who are going to respond differently to the obstacles. Again, I think it's much better to get to the store/work/? a minute later and be safe.

San Rensho 

It works really well the other way around, too. I bicycled many years before I road motorcycles on the road, and the survival skills I learned bicycling crossed over perfectly to motorcycle riding. One big advantage of motorcycles (obviously) is the power, especially on the freeway. As long as you go a little faster than traffic, all you have to worry about is the idiots in front of you, and not the idiots in back of you, as you constanly have to on a bicycle.

John C. Ratliff

I ride mostly for commutes, or for exercise. I ride different bikes, usually my Rans Stratus long-wheel base, above-seat steering recumbant bike, but also my Trek 1420 upright and my Swinn LeToure. These are my controls for cycling:

Engineering Controls
--Ride the recumbant with two mirrors (one each side). The recumbant gives me a remarkable view of everything around me.
--A lot of lighting and reflective tape or patches. I have a blinking light on my winter helmet (a hard shell), so I have two lights to the rear for those situations. I ride with lights blinking on every ride, regardless of whether its light or dark, sunny or raining.
--I've raised the handlebars of my uprights to above my seat level. This gives me a good look at traffic.
--In rain, the Schwinn and recumbant have very good fenders. I have a back fender and a piece of plastic shield for my Trek 1420 when it's in rain.
--I use panniers, and have my bike loaded, not my body.
--I use clipless pedals on all my bikes.

Personal Protective Equipment
--'Always ride with a helmet.
--Use gloves, cycling shoes.
--Dress appropriately for the weather.
--In heavy traffic, I wear hearing protection (ear plugs). They have no impact on my ability to hear traffic as traffic sounds are a combination of high and low frequency sounds. The high frequency sounds are reduced, and the low frequency sounds come right through. My work in industrial hygiene makes me aware of road noise as a hazard for cyclists, as it can be quite noisy, and can over time damage hearing.
--I use sunglasses or safety glasses most of the time, except in rain where they get obscured and inhibit vision.

Administrative Controls
--I ride all kinds of roadways, except freeways. This includes local residential, bike paths, bike lanes (when available), roadways (on the right side, in the right wheel marks if possible (some roads are so damaged, I'll go either right or left of the damaged areas, depending upon the situation).
--When bike paths are available, I'll use them preferable; I don't try to go real fast, but there are few walkers in our area, and they are mostly abandonded. If I encounter people, I slow down and make sure they know I'm there. I'm more into getting somewhere intact than getting somewhere fast.
--I use side streets when possible, unless I'm pressed for time. Then I'll ride the regular roads, which usually have bike lanes. When on side streets, I ride to the right.
--At stop signs and intersections, I'll get into the traffic if it's busy, especially if it looks like someone will make a right turn.
--I'll completely take the lane when needed, usually at a place where there is no bike lane and there is a narrowing of the roadway. I have two bridges where I take the lane, and do so stratigically (letting as much traffic pass as possible before being in a position no need to take the lane). Traffic comes in waves around here, and like entries for diving on a rocky coastline, I'll wait for the wave of cars to pass before taking the lane. This usually is easily accomplished without waiting around, but just by observing the traffic patterns.
--I don't ride in heavy fog, or in icy coonditions; rain doesn't bother me at all though.
--I don't ride on Fridays. I've been in the hospital twice on Fridays, and cars will not get a third chance. Thursday, when the traffic is getting "antsey", I declare as "Auto-Avoidance Day," and pay particular attention to my route. I try to go on side streets, bike paths, etc. on Thursday.
--I ride differently with my wife than I do on my own. She is not comfortable in traffic, and so when we ride, we stay in the bike lane, use paths, etc. When we come to an intersection, we'll use the crosswalk to cross, and get to the other side, then re-position for the other lane if we are turning.
--I usually turn using the car left lane for turning.
--I am particularly aware of traffic at intersections.
--I sometimes use sidewalks (again, we have very few walkers here). When I do, I am aware of the intersections (this is not in residential areas, so there are no driveways).