i abandoned idea of biking to work tonight because of weather forecast for possible lightnening storms.
i was just wondering if such a forecast keeps the commuters off their bikes and ride a car to work instead.

I'm not too sure but because rubber is making contact between the road and you, you should be fine. That is why you are safe in a car, considering it's all metal, it has the rubber tires which do not conduct electricity.


But electricity isn't your only worry. The waves even within 100 yards are enough to "jump" up onto your metal frame. The problem is heavy rain and being able to see in it. If you are to ride, make sure you know the path (don't want to end up over your handle bars due to a ditch you didn't see) and that isn't very populated. Being splashed on by cars sucks.

It isn't more dangerous than riding in the plain rain, which we all have done before. You are at a very minimal risk of getting shocked, but I do know two people in my lifetime who got struck by lightning.

I would say go ahead, just make sure you are prepared. If I had to ride to work I would do it. But if it was to get groceries or something, I would wait for it to clear up.

no no no no no

You MIGHT be safe in a car because it has a metal frame to conduct electricity around you. (you might still suffer from splash etc, though) On a bike part of your body may become the conductor.

Rubber tires are irrelevant. Lightning jumps through miles of air - it has NO problem whatsoever jumping from you to the ground.

Well I actually don't own a car so taking one in it's an option for me but even if I did have one I'd probably still ride every day as I do. The actual act of riding the bicycle in the storm doesn't increase your chances of getting hit. They are the same as if you are walking or riding in a car, it's just that if you are in a car you are less likely to actually be struck by the jolt of lightning due to the steel as long as you are not touching anything. But the bike itself isn't going to bring the lightning to you just because it's metal. The statistics of getting hit are low enough that I really don't worry about it. Of course it would be my luck that I'd get struck AFTER I move out of Florida.

Wrong, wrong, wrong. Wrong.

You're relatively safe in a care because you are surrounded by metal. The rubber has NOTHING to do with it. The electricity travels through the metal and not through you; it takes the path of least resistance, the steel in the car.

When you're out in a lightning storm, you have hundreds of meters of air between you and the source of lightning, the clouds, and air is an insulator too. THAT doesn't stop the lightning, what makes you think an inch of rubber is going to stop it?

Also, rubber in tires is NOT really an insulator; most tire rubber contains carbon black for durability, and that is actually conductive.

If lightning strikes, it's going to evaporate that puny rubber tire. Heck, it'll explode car tires. We had a lightning strike near our house and a tiny part of it bled into our dog's invisible fence wire buried in the ground, and after most of that energy blew half the insulation off the 1300 feet of wire, a small part of it made it to the transmitter, blew half the components off the circuit board inside, travelled into the power transformer and exploded the windings like there was a ball of C4 inside it. Power like that doesn't give a damn about an inch of rubber.

Personally, riding in a lightning storm doesn't worry me all that much. The odds of any given thing getting hit is pretty low. If I were riding in Florida where lightning strikes many more times per minute, I might be more worried. In Michigan you can stand outside in a lighting storm for an hour and probably never see a strike within a quarter mile of you.

You are very mistaken on....everything.
Rubber offers absolutely zero protection against lightning. You are safer in your car due to the steel roof and not because of the tires, therefore having rubber tires on your bike is not going to do anything. And it doesn't even have to be raining for lightning to strike. And....well anyways.

Where are the steel-is-real guys when you need em? I suppose if you've got a carbon bike (plastic to those steel/real dudes) then it's ok ?

Why would you think that. Your body is the conductor.

I sometimes delay riding home to wait for thunderstorms to clear. It doesn't usually take more than about an hour, and I'm a grad student so I can work as late as I want. I check the radar if conditions look iffy so I haven't been caught in a storm during a ride so far.

There are some good safety reasons to avoid riding in a thunderstorm. But lightning is pretty low on the list. I'm far more afraid of traffic. It seems that the cars actually come closer to you in rainy, low visibility weather. (This from someone who is pretty darn visible, too.)

I'm willing to believe that your bicycle and it's tires won't help you much if you are struck by lightning. I'm also willing to bet that if it ever happens to me I'm gonna be really bummed out. I just don't expect it to happen.

Some nitwit behind the wheel panicking, locking up his brakes and sliding into me seems a lot more likely.

That doesn't mean that I won't ride at all. I'll just be very, very careful.

https://www.thedenverchannel.com/spor...17/detail.html

You decide

It is very dangerous to ride your bike in a lighting storm. Several people die each year in Chicago from lighting strikes. I use the internet to check the radar and leave early or wait it out. No reason to take chances.

If you can hear the thunder you shouldnt ride in open areas, but if there are high buildings tree or electricity transmission poles alongside the road you should be OK, as they will attract the strikes. Lamp posts are too far apart and not usually high enough to provide alternative targets.

Perfectly safe to ride in a thunderstorm. Tornadoes, too. Nothing wrong with going out in a hurricane, either.

Weather makes bicycle commuting more complicated, doesn't it?

yes it does make it more complicated
i was planning on getting rid of my car,but if i can't use my bike to work 100 percent of the time it looks like i am stuck with having a car.

Along the Front Range here in Colorado you have a chance of afternoon thunder storms Spring, Summer and Fall. I ride all year long. I worry more about the hail storms than lightening.
Oh and mountain lions when I see a fresh deer kill on the trail (last Saturday).

If I moved back to Nor Cal I would probably be a weather wimp with in a year. But not here.

bus? train?

Have you ever seen any vehicle struck by lightning? In 40+ years of driving and riding I haven't. I wouldn't worry about it. Besides, it's a quick and painless way to go out doing something you enjoy (riding in the rain??? - well, you know what I mean).

I've seen one after the strike, yes. Not a damn thing electrical worked in it. Insurance company totalled it.

Yeah I wouldn't stress about it so much. If you see the hair on your arm spike up, hop off the bike and dive into any type of ditch.

Hail sucks. I do what I can to avoid riding in a storm (check the radar and vary my departure time), but personally my bike IS transportation, which means it needs to work in any kind of weather but that which would cancel work for the day (Hurricane I guess).

I'm seriously doubtful about the real chances of getting hit: take trees for instance. Trees are out in every single storm, every day of the year. I see far more trees that haven't been hit by lighting than I see that have been hit (Only a couple and all were while hikiing in Arizona). Are you really any more likely than a tree to be hit? But some simple precautions are pretty straightforward to implement to decrease your chances even lower.

As others have said, I'm far more worried about getting hit by drivers out in low light, high moisture situations, and if possible I try to make my commute in daylight even if a storm is imminent.

Well I just had my first commute in a thunderstorm tonight in Dayton, OH and I'm not dead. It was kind of cool actually. Of course there were trees around, and poles, so no open areas.

i'm usually not worried about biking through storms as we seem to get a lot of t-storms that develop out of nowhere in the spring. however i play a lot of softball and i always get a little nervous biking back home through a t-strom with a bat sticking half way out of my backpack pointed up toward the sky.

No. If the odds are fairly small, but the risk is huge, they equal out for me. I stay inside during storms, don't need to be struck directly to wind up being well-done. If it's a quick spring shower, I wait, or catch a bus. Same goes for the old lady. If it's looking to take ages, I'll call a taxi company with a van.

We're coming up on a year car-free with two very young kids, haven't missed or needing the cars at all (after the first month.)

Not safe to be out in a lightning storm. Minute-by-minute risk may be small, but consequences are dire. "In the United States, an average of 58 people are killed each year by lightning." Many more are injured. This is considering that most people understand the risk and take cover. Here's the US National Weather Service page on lightning safety and awareness. C'mon folks - it's easy to find this stuff if you're able to post here!

https://www.lightningsafety.noaa.gov/outdoors.htm#far