Hi All,
I am sure this question has been asked a million times, but I can't find a similar recent thread to refer to. I would like to start biking, to commute and for pleasure. However, I am very concerned about safety. Are there any statistics that exist with regards to bike safety? NOT the number of deaths, as that is useless without knowing how many people actually use bikes and for how long and how often. All sources on the Internet that I found seemed to be biased towards making bikes safer than they are, or so it seemed.
Is there a guide or something like that that I can read to teach me how to be as safe as posstible on the road? One thing that I never undestood, for example, is when you have a red light on a traffic light, all the cyclists overtake the cars, because they can go in between them. But then what do they do afterwards? They can't keep up with the cars, so the cars have to overtake them again. What if the car wants to turn right, and a cyclists wants to go forward? The car could easily pick up the cyclist with it while turning right.
Lastly, what kind of bike should I get? I am thinking one of the cheap hybrid ones, for my first bike. Something like 150 Canadian dollars from Zellers, Canadian Tire or Walmart.
Any advice?
Thanks,
Crusader
I am sure this question has been asked a million times, but I can't find a similar recent thread to refer to. I would like to start biking, to commute and for pleasure. However, I am very concerned about safety. Are there any statistics that exist with regards to bike safety? NOT the number of deaths, as that is useless without knowing how many people actually use bikes and for how long and how often. All sources on the Internet that I found seemed to be biased towards making bikes safer than they are, or so it seemed.
Is there a guide or something like that that I can read to teach me how to be as safe as posstible on the road? One thing that I never undestood, for example, is when you have a red light on a traffic light, all the cyclists overtake the cars, because they can go in between them. But then what do they do afterwards? They can't keep up with the cars, so the cars have to overtake them again. What if the car wants to turn right, and a cyclists wants to go forward? The car could easily pick up the cyclist with it while turning right.
Lastly, what kind of bike should I get? I am thinking one of the cheap hybrid ones, for my first bike. Something like 150 Canadian dollars from Zellers, Canadian Tire or Walmart.
Any advice?
Thanks,
Crusader