Cycling is an excellent way to stay in shape, meet new friends and a fantastic way to commute into your town or workplace. With a rise in car traffic and the cost of fuel, many of us are turning to an electric bike to make a saving and improve our quality of life.
An aspect that does come with commuting by bike is ensuring you are as safe as possible while doing it. In this article, we’ll tell you everything you need to know when it comes to staying safe on your ebike.
Why is it important to stay safe?
Commuting via ebike statistically does ensure more risk than if you were to be on a train or a bus. It’s important to stay as safe as possible because it reduces the chance of you getting into an accident. If you make an effort to stay safe using this guide, you heavily reduce your chances of ever having any issues. Here are our recommended safety tips to keep yourself as safe as you can while riding your ebike.
Wear bright clothing
Wearing bright clothing is an excellent way to keep yourself seen when riding. Colors like fluorescent green and orange go a long way to keeping you seen by other people, mainly vehicles. It has been said by Cycling GB that you have a 50% less chance of being in an accident when wearing high visibility or reflective clothing.
We highly recommend using a reflective high viz jacket, jersey, or gilet on your ebike commute. On top of that, items like gloves and overshoes are also great to keep you seen.
Lighting
Lights don’t need to be just used at night but in the day too. With USB battery lights now becoming so bright and lasting for much longer than they ever have, there’s no reason not to be using them. You can pick up a good set of lights for about $30, and they will last many commutes without needing a charge.
We recommend when using lighting to use a flashing setting during the day and at night a constant setting. This will give you the best chance of being seen by other cycle path users and cars. Many ebikes now come with lights installed that run off the ebike riders battery, making it even easier.
Pick good routes
Cycling can be a pleasant experience, or it can be crazy. Before making your commute, we recommend picking routes that will be great to ride. Staying off busy roads and cycle paths are going to make it a much more pleasurable experience for ebikes and regular bikes.
Applications like Komoot or Ride with GPS can be excellent alternative route planning tools that will tell you the safest and most popular route that other local commuters use. You can download them to your phone and can even navigate with them for a safe route.
Ensure you have enough charge
It’s important to understand that when it comes to electric bikes, you need to keep them charged. A lot of the time, not only do you require power for the battery to keep you cycling but also for lighting. It is very important to check the distance of your route and ensure you have enough charge to complete it. For more information on ebike range check out this blog.
Many companies are now getting on board with electric bikes and offer places where you can charge your ebike batteries while you’re working. Alongside ride to work schemes, this is a great way to save on money and electricity. If you were ever curious to how much an ebike costs to run check out our blog.
Use a bell
In certain countries, having a bell on your bike is the law. Although it might sound like such a simple thing, it does make such a difference. A common cause of many accidents is when cyclists can’t make themselves aware to others.
Having a bell and using it can warn others you’re close and stop you from getting any nasty surprises, such as the person in front of you becoming startled by your presence. A bell or horn costs as little as $5 and can serve such a handy purpose for your safety.
Use signals
When cycling into work, it’s important to use proper signaling as much as possible. Tell people when you intend to turn left and right, when you’re slowing down, and ensure at all times people know if you are making any drastic movements.
We recommend learning how to ride confidently with one hand to make signaling much easier. Even telling users your passing parked cars and making your intent If you are unsure of what signals mean and how to use them, here’s a guide on cycling signals.
Have confidence
When you ride a bike, you need to ride it with confidence. Stay close to the pavement but not too close, and when you need to make maneuvers, you have to be confident and very clear in doing so. If you don’t act confidently and hide right next to the curb, it can feel intimidating, and you won’t get as much respect from drivers as you might want.
Riding confidently will give you a much better road presence, and with that comes respect from other road users. A confident rider won’t need their hand on the brake lever at all times and will be able to brake lightly with a good estimation of stopping distance. If you are new to commuting the first few rides can be a lot to take in, but the confidence will come in time. Even experienced commuters need to work on their confidence from time to time.
Follow the law
One thing very overlooked when it comes to ebike commuting is being patient and following the law. Waiting at stop lights instead of going through them when you shouldn’t, getting to roundabouts and waiting for larger gaps, and not going above the speed limit in zones where it is below the max speed of your bike.
Doing this will ensure you don’t put yourself in risky situations and will give you much less chance of being in an accident or causing one. It will stop you from getting fined and keep you out of trouble without the worry that you could have needed to brake sooner to avoid that accident.
Conclusion
Commuting on your ebike is a great way to get around. We highly recommend following our tips for staying as safe as possible. Make yourself as seen as possible by using high-visibility clothing and good lights. Ride confidently and follow the rules of the road. Finally, ensure you have enough charge in the bike and plan a safe route. If you want to know the safest cities for cycling check out our blog here.
