10 Safety Tips for Enjoying Motorcycle to Work Day

Posted by Unknown on Friday, June 17, 2011

This Monday be prepared to share the road during national Ride Your Motorcycle to Work Day. To ensure that everyone remains safe on the road with the potential influx motorcycles, here are the AAA Foundation’s top safety tips for both bikers and drivers alike:

  1. Make Yourself Visible – Follow the left tire track of the vehicle in front of you to avoid being hidden in their blind spots. Wear reflective clothing when possible and assume that other drivers don’t see you.
  2. Share the Road, Not the Lane – Never share another lane with a moving vehicle and never take a short cut between stopped or slow moving vehicles.
  3. Light Up – Keep your headlight on or use supplemental running lights at all times.
  4. Go with the Flow – Drive at the speed of traffic to make yourself more obvious to other vehicles.
  5. Treat Yellow Lights as Red Lights – Stop for yellows, don’t speed up. Motorcycles can be difficult to spot in an intersection.
  6. Know How to Stop – Periodically practice quick stops in empty parking lots, without sliding tires. Courses also are available to refresh motorcycle riding skills.
  7. Drive Defensively, Not Aggressively – Be respectful and courteous to other commuters. Avoiding antagonistic behaviors like stopping short, tailgating or cutting off drivers.
  8. Keep an Eye on Other Drivers – Anticipate a vehicle’s change in direction by watching the driver’s head movements, hand motions on the steering wheel or the changing direction of the vehicle’s front tires.
  9. Protect Yourself – Wear a helmets and protective clothing such as jackets, gloves, boots, and pants to minimize injuries in the event of an accident.
  10. Be Alert – Constantly look for road surface hazards, and at night, watch for sudden tail light movements of the vehicle in front of you as a warning of surface hazards ahead.

For more biking best practices, check out our previous blog highlighting Motorcycle Safety Awareness Month in May. Motorcycling can be an excellent commuting alternative that offers both fuel efficiency and free hair drying services, not to mention the opportunity to enjoy the outdoors without the hindrance of being enclosed in a car.  So if you choose to dust off your Harley and brave the elements on Monday morning, do what you can to make your ride as safe and secure as possible. Oh, and watch out for bugs in your teeth!

This entry was posted on Friday, June 17, 2011 at 11:05 AM. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response.