List Your Street Riding Strategy

Street riding strategy is probably the most critical part when it comes to riding a motorcycle in traffic. So let's here from what other members have learned to stay safe. Mae sure you are able to have some reason or logic to your strategy. Even though I could spend an entire thread on this subject, I will list only one for the moment.

Stay away from the right lane when you are on a multi-lane road going in each direction. Too many entry and exit points for vehicles to pull out in front of you or suddenly pull off, require hard braking. Most importantly, the angle of view in which the vehicle is pulling out onto the road is greatly reduced, reducing the ability for them to see you. Think about it, when you are pulling out onto a major street, your vew of the oncoming traffic is best toward the outer lanes, the immediate lane is the hardest to view many times, which is the most dangersous. Also being in the right lane when a car suddenly pull out doesn't give you much time and space for you to react. No margin of safety. Then what about all the left handers? I'm going to become vulnerable. Yes, but everything is in front of you between 10:00 and 2:00, including the vehicles making the left hand turn. You both should have a good view of one another. Not always the case, but you should see it coming. Possibly turn signals, cars in the turn lanes, etc.

This holds true for freeways as well. Too much merging and exiting going on within populated areas. How many times have you seen vehicles taking an exit at the very last second, often from one or two lanes over? I guarantee you, they won't be looking for a motorcycle. Automatic wipout here. I prefer being in the left lane, you only have to worry about a bad lane change from one side and usually no merging or exiting from the left lane.

Go faster than the traffic. Yeah, it's speeding, but it means that 90% of the danger is in front of you. It does expose you to cars changing lanes because they didn't see you coming up behind them, so it's a bit of a tradeoff. But if you're aware of that risk, you can avoid it.

Use the whole width of the lane to make yourself as visible as possible to those who are about to enter from a side road or turn left across your lane.

the short version is: Stay out of the way

The long version is: anticipate what could happen, then position yourself so that if it does happen, you are not there.

Also I'm working on increasing my following distance from about 2.5-3 seconds to 3-4 second following distance.

Im a fan of the "go faster" mentality.
Not by much, but enough that I dont have to worry too much about whats going on behind me if im just cruising and never have to worry about getting boxed in.

I agree with moving faster than traffic when possible...it also helps to NOT be the holes that open on freeways...when that hole opens there WILL be a car that will want to advance thier position; so I don't want to be "IN" that hole at the same time.

I like to keep more to the inside on a two lane (4lane total) street, particularly at intersections.

This way, if someone comes up from behind, they have enough room to get into a turn lane without risking hitting me. Or if I get rear ended, I'll more likely end up along side the cars ahead of me rather than crushed into the back of the car in front of me.

This is also good for avoiding gravel that builds up on the shoulders, but does mean that I'm closer to traffic moving with me.

my strategy is "avoid."

I'd rather spend 30 minutes on he bike than 10 in traffic. So I take the long way around traffic.

Kinda off subject but some great advice is "don't ride beyond what you can see." If you can't see the corner exit, don't commit beyond what you can save if there is a log in the road, dead animal, or stopped vehicle.

Keep it safe out there guys.

Over the years I have been rear-ended (keep your mind out of the gutter :spank three times in my cage at a dead stop.

So... I am always a little paranoid about getting rear-ended at stops on my bike. I use two strategies to deal with this.

- If the stopped traffic is a short line (1-3 cars), I will lane split to the front.

- If the stopped traffic line is longer I will stop about 5 feet back from the driver side bumper and leave the bike in gear until I am sure that the cars behind me are going to stop. If at least two cars behind me are stopped I will put the bike in neutral.

Im invisible.

Never assume that you have been seen & you wont be disappointed when someone is picking you up off the road saying "sorry I didnt see you there".

You could have your lights on high beam & be wearing a fluro jacket, a car driver will still change lanes without looking & use it as their defence.

I run red lights.

Let me specify... there is one red light in particular off a 4 lane highway with a very small turning lane (2, MAYBE 3 car size) which takes forever even IF it detects my bike. So here I am, sitting still in a left turn lane with a red arrow while cars and trucks roar past me, feet away, at around 70 AND have to hope somebody doesn't jump in my lane to turn and not see me... first safe chance I get, I GO!!

Stay to the right when entering/exiting a roundabout. Too many times the car in the right lane decides it doesn't want to exit and you don't want to be beside them when they take your lane to go around.

I work very hard on anticipation. Using "floodlight" vision to see flashes and bits and pieces of vehicles approaching intersections and then not being there when they get to the intersection.

I put all vehicles I see into high, med, and low threat catagory. I.E. Can hit me, may hit me but would have to work at it, and they cant get to me with out hitting another car, pole, curb, or what not, or I am beyond reach.

I move between lanes though, I do not hang out in the right, but I do put myself there if at the time it gives me the most outs.

I look for outs everywhere, IE can I ride up on the sidewalk? how much room in the breakdown lane do I have, if I have to go into oncoming to avoid getting hit can I slow enough to get back in my lane in time.

On my commute I know all the merge points, I am just not there. If I have to jump out and open distance a half mile back to get a big cushion I do it.

I stop in a position that the driver next to me can see me. I leave a out at all intersections where I am stuck behind another car. I keep it in gear, hand on throttle, clutch just back from the friction zone and eyes and ears open to move if needed.

Always always always watch for redlight runners.

Expect the right on red, expect the no signal lane swap, expect them to try and kill me and just dont let them do it.

jtarkany said:

Over the years I have been rear-ended (keep your mind out of the gutter :spank three times in my cage at a dead stop.

So... I am always a little paranoid about getting rear-ended at stops on my bike. I use two strategies to deal with this.

- If the stopped traffic is a short line (1-3 cars), I will lane split to the front.

- If the stopped traffic line is longer I will stop about 5 feet back from the driver side bumper and leave the bike in gear until I am sure that the cars behind me are going to stop. If at least two cars behind me are stopped I will put the bike in neutral.

Click to expand...

+1 on watching your back. I believe that being able to lane split and filter up to the front of stopped traffic affords you a little more protection from a rear ender. Even before I come to a stop, I try to assess what's going on all around me. All states should have at least lane splitting for stopped traffic so that bikes can filter up to a safer spot.

and awesome topic idea Kenny!!

Dunno said:

Im invisible.

Never assume that you have been seen & you wont be disappointed when someone is picking you up off the road saying "sorry I didnt see you there".

You could have your lights on high beam & be wearing a fluro jacket, a car driver will still change lanes without looking & use it as their defence.

Click to expand...

+1000,I ride like I,m invisible.Nothing you do will make you visible to everybody so ride like your invisible to everybody.

Regarding double left turn-on-arrow-only intersections:

Do these unnerve you guys too? Which side do you pick?

A lot of the drivers in my area tend to turn too shallow (scared of hitting cars turning from the other side of the intersection no doubt) and almost push the left lane into the median at the end of the turn. A lot of the time, there's no lines to follow, but nobody uses them if they are there anyway. I still usually take the left lane though.

Don't exceed the speed limit on surface streets. Because:
* It's hard to cars to judge the speed of an oncoming motorcycle due to your size not increasing much as you approach, and if they do see you in the first place, they'll never expect you to be coming at 60 mph if the speed limit is 30.
* It takes 2x as long to stop from 45mph than 35mph (if vague recall serves me correctly).

cv_rider said:

Don't exceed the speed limit on surface streets. Because:
* It's hard to cars to judge the speed of an oncoming motorcycle due to your size not increasing much as you approach, and if they do see you in the first place, they'll never expect you to be coming at 60 mph if the speed limit is 30.
* It takes 2x as long to stop from 45mph than 35mph (if vague recall serves me correctly).

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Totally agree with this and adding to this. Most cagers have no concept of rate of acceleration of a motorcycle hence they'll think they have time to pull out and if we don't take this into our defensive skills we may suffer the consequences.

When riding behind any motorcycle or multi-wheeled vehicle, keep a good following distance, especially in the rain. Also always look ahead, far ahead and brake early.