As part of a yearly tradition celebrating our births, Sheldon and I often exchange gifts. The past number of years, said gifts have been almost exclusively coffee, alcohol or cycling related – This isn’t something I really see changing – After all, what else does you really need?
Most recently, I received a book called “Just Ride” by Grant Petersen. The book is a collection of 89 ‘micro-essays’ on cycling – Easy to pick up, easy to read and each piece, a nice bite-sized thought on a particular aspect of riding. There are ideas that I can fully get behind, some that make me think, and some that I disagree with, but generally the book has been a fun read.
Though I haven’t finished, there was one nugget of brilliance that resonated so strongly with me I decided to field-test it and report back to you. The advice that caught my attention was what he called the “The Safety Swerve.”
In the essay Grant speaks to the fact that after extensive studies, British psychologist and traffic researcher Ian Walker determined that motorists gave the most room to helmet-less women and plain-clothed riders… Essentially riders that don’t look like they know what they’re doing (whether this assumption is based on stereotype or not). This pretty much aligns with my spandex-clad experience, since the distance by which I’m passed can usually be measured in microns ;-)
Grants advice is as follows:
The logical conclusion from this is to look like – or be – a woman and ride helmet less, but that may not be practical. There is another way: the safety swerve. You’re riding down a road, glance back quickly and note a car bearding down. Most cyclists react by riding closer to the edge of the road. That’s what the driver wants you to do – defer to them, give them more elbow room, get the heck out of the way. Here’s another option: With the car three or four seconds behind you (it helps to have a bike mirror), wiggle a bit or swerve for an instant. Look unsteady or oblivious. Reach your left arm skyward or outward to stretch it or shake it. Your goal isn’t to freak out the driver. It’s to appear slightly unsteady on the bike and unaware that a car’s approaching, so the driver will pass you more carefully. Be aware, ride with precision, but give cars reasons to pass you with a little extra caution.
A disclaimer: With certainty – I consider this an advanced technique, especially given it’s potential implications. Should you decide to give this a go, please be careful, please be controlled. I cannot take any responsibility for your actions, so you should.
Now, as mentioned, I’ve been testing this, both out on the road and on my commute and almost without fail, it works flawlessly – Though I have learned to use it somewhat judiciously. The two places I’ve derived the best value of this technique are:
- In residential areas (commuting) – Where motorists are anxiously speeding their way to clogged main arteries and are often jockeying for position and speeding to get ahead of others.
- On secondary highways (road riding) – Either where drivers are too discourteous to slide over to a completely empty oncoming lane to give you a bit of room, or to heighten their awareness of you when there’s an car coming in the other direction as well.
On roads with wider shoulders I generally don’t find any problems with traffic, the same applies to congested traffic near the heart of the city. Cyclists are a regular occurrence, and drivers seem to know that they’re going nowhere fast, so I’ve never really felt at ill-ease.
Generally, I also try to perform this technique with consideration to motorists in mind – especially on the highway since the stakes are much higher. In these cases I promptly tuck myself neatly to the shoulder after performing a “safety swerve”… When cresting blind hills or with oncoming traffic I find this to be the only sane approach.
I would hazard a guess that even the biggest asshole on the road doesn’t actually want to hit you… They just want to scare you, don’t see you, or don’t care. After all, you don’t belong on “their” road anyway. This simple technique, when executed properly not only ensures that you’re going to register in their consciousness, but that they may even give you that extra little bit of breathing room as they go roaring past.
I have actually tried this technique, but only to mixed success. Many people do slow down and give you plenty of room when they pass, presumably because they feel you are too unpredictable. But a lot of deliberate shoulder checks and a bit of eye contact with drivers will do this anyways. The problem is that some people react very differently: they see an unpredictable cyclist ahead of them, so they decide to get by them as fast as they possibly can to get ahead of the ‘dangerous’ cyclist in their path. They don’t often leave sufficient room when passing, either.
Another technique that I have found to work effectively on uncrowded roads where the ‘safety swerve’ might also be applied, yet still allows you to ride very comfortably and predictably, is simply to ride in the ‘primary position’ following the advice of people like John Forester and other vehicular cycling advocates. The most effective (and perhaps safest) way to do this requires a helmet- or eyeglass-mounted rear-view mirror so that you are constantly aware of approaching traffic. All you do is control the lane by riding in the centre (or slightly to the right of centre) of the lane, and stay there until a car approaches from behind. Instead of moving to the curb right away, even if there is plenty of space, stay in the lane until one of two things happen:
(1.) the motorist either maintains their speed, or often, the accelerate and begin move to the left to pass, at which point you slide over to the right leaving a safe and comfortable distance between you and the vehicle, or
(2. [the common occurrence]) the driver stays in their lane and slows down to decide how to negotiate a pass, at which point you do a shoulder-check and make eye contact to acknowledge that you, the cyclist, recognize the faster vehicle behind you, and then you ease to the right to provide more room to let them pass. Almost without fail, the motorist will return the respect given by the cyclist with a slow pass with plenty of room. I like when this happens because it shows drivers that cyclists can be predictable and respectful, and that sharing the road is easily accomplished when both parties behave this way.
After a number of years of year-round commuter cycling, I find myself riding in the primary position more and more, and counter-intuitively to what I thought at first, I get far fewer irate drivers passing me because of it. Anyways, food for thought to contribute to the interesting topic of discussion.
Yup. Totally good call Darren. I’ve only been commuting seriously for ~4-5 years and though I’ve had good success with the above technique, I definitely find myself “taking the lane” more and more often – Especially in situations where I’m perhaps feeling a little nervous.
I will say, that my willingness to adopt the ‘primary position’ has definitely taken some serious time (ie. years), but in addition to commuting this work well on road rides, but as you say you risk whiplash without a mirror ;-)
Leslie Bush also brought up a number of good points on Twitter, echoing a lot of your thoughts – Mainly around predictability, not being perceived as a dangerous cyclist and building advocacy with drivers. I can definitely things from that angle.
Though it has been awhile since I was a regular commuter (so long ago that the blog author and I were co-workers), I can attest that I found that I was afforded more space/respect when I simply *took* it–what you call the ‘primary position’.
Totally agree with the whole eye contact thing. It’s seems to break the car induced trance that turns otherwise decent people into militant vehicularists. A smile goes a long way too.
This is a form of “faking” — of pretending to be something that I am not — which I object to on principle: I prefer not to pretend to be incompetent.
I also object to it, because it’s unnecessary.
If I adopt the primary position (the center of the right-most lane that serves my destination) or if I adopt a position slightly left of center in that lane, or the motorist left-tire track, which is now being advocated by some teachers, I get the same result without the play acting. The more lanes that are dedicated to the direction I’m traveling, the better.
The notion that we must be ever watchful to the rear, and the associated fake-out techniques, proceed from the assumption that cyclists are not the legal, ethical and moral equals of the other traffic that we encounter on the road.
A large number of reported rear-ending collisions, rare already, are in fact a variation of the side-swipe, brought on because the cyclist was hugging the edge, thus tempting a motorist to overtake when there was not enough room for a safe overtake. When the traffic report is written, often these side-swipes are recorded as rear-endings, along with actual rear-endings, because, as “everyone knows,” cars are faster — “What else could it have been?”
Once again, “common sense” trumps engineering principles.
If I need to be constantly looking behind me and constantly changing my position in the lane, that means that I am not in the best position in the lane.
Be wary of moving rightward in the lane to facilitate an overtake when it’s not safe for the motorist. An example: A narrow, two-lane road on a blind curve or approaching a blind hill-crest. Moving rightward in the lane is a body-language message that says to the motorist following, “Now’s your chance.”
Once you have moved over, in order to regain the safest position that you surrendered a moment ago — The Primary Position — you have to look back and yield. Moving rightward you gave up your space, and now you are going to have to negotiate to get it back, only to give it up again, over and over.