General Safety Practices
Let's talk a moment about crashing. First, let's talk about how to avoid crashing. The best way to avoid a crash is to be aware of your surroundings. Even without moving objects such as cars and pedestrians, there's a lot that can tip you off your bike. Trolley lines both active and abandoned can be very hazardous. The top of these rails lay nearly flush with the surface of the street and have a deep slot for the trolley wheels. Many different widths of bicycle tires will fit entirely into that slot. It is possible for you to drift into one and ride for many feet that way without being aware of it. You usually become aware as you crash to the ground. So you have to know where these rails are along your commuting route. Cross trolley lines perpendicular if possible, otherwise, make sure you cross them at a fairly steep angle. Another hidden pitfall, literally, are poorly seated gutter gratings. Older storm drain grates may not sit perfectly in the opening due to the settling of the street over time. Most of the time, these grates might just rattle as you ride over them, but in poorly maintained streets these grates may have enough of a gap to pin your front wheel as you pass.
Now that you've learned to scan the ground for potential hazards, it's time to expand these practices to the wider cycling environment. In order to avoid collisions, notice, and otherwise enjoy your cycling experience, you should keep your eyes moving. I do sort of a clockwise rotation, checking out everything around me. Like I said this is about interacting with the world as much as it is about safety. This is how you find unique little restaurants, cool shops, and the car that's about to cut you off. This philosophy also proscribes headphones of any sort while riding a bike. You may not have eyes in the back of your head, but you do have eyes on either side of your head. Use them! Learn to listen for the sound of car coming up behind you. In time, this will become automatic; just one more bit of sensory input you use to position yourself in the street.
You may have to communicate with those that share the road with you. Many times you can make eye contact at stop signs and drivers will wave to grant you the right of way. Many times they are misguided, so take the right of way when offered, only if the conditions warrant. Drivers greatly appreciate it when you signal your intentions with a hand signal. You signal with your left hand, the one that motorists will see. Hold it straight out at shoulder level to tell traffic you want to turn left. You will need to look over your shoulder to make sure that traffic is heading your message otherwise you might wind up very dead. Hold your arm out with below bent ninety degrees and your hand facing upwards to signal a right turn. When you need to slow down suddenly, put your arm out elbow perpendicular, hand facing down. I also use this to signal drivers of road hazards they might encounter. If the conditions ahead will make a cyclist slow down, then a car will really need to brake.
Left Turn
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Right Turn
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Caution/Slow
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While we're on the subject of right turns, do not, I repeat, do no ever sit next to a car on the right at a stoplight. You will either want to be just ahead or just behind, never amidships. The reason for this is that the driver may be signaling a right turn and you will never know. If the driver starts to turn while you're adjacent, a collision is all but inevitable. If you're behind the car, then you will see the car begin to turn even if the driver does not signal. If you are just ahead of the car, then your paths diverge and everyone's happy. Be very careful of this with buses and large trucks. In these cases, you're better off just dismounting and retreating to the sidewalk if you find yourself stuck in the vehicle's lee.
Speaking of hand signals. The key to avoiding collisions is visibility. You want them to see you. Dress in bight colors. Black is okay for tights and shorts since your legs are below the line of sight, but your torso should be covered in bright colors as should your head. There is a trend right now with helmet manufacturers towards a chic black in helmets. Don't make this fashion mistake. White is the new black! Not only does white go with as many colors as black, but white stands out. No need for those geeky, orange safety vests, but dress brightly.
Now sometimes there's no stopping a crashing. It was just ordained by fate. There are some tricks to minimizing the consequences of a crash. First of all, the forces generated by riding at speed are greater than your upper body strength. Never try to catch yourself or throw out a hand to break your fall. You're very likely to break your hand or arm doing this. Instead, keep your hands center, ball your body up and roll with it. This isn't always possible owing to the posture of bike riding, but you're still better off just going with a fall once it happens. Martial arts like Aikido have institutionalized the go with the flow philosophy of falls and have created rolling techniques designed to mitigate any fall. If you know a student proficient in throwing arts such as Jujitsu, Aikido or Judo, have them instruct you in these techniques and practice them. When you go over the handlebars of your bike, knowing how to do a good forward roll can be the difference between scrapes and broken bones. Even so, if you go down hard on a pavement while riding at speed, you will probably get hurt. However, these tricks may well minimize your injuries. I myself have studied Aikido quite a bit and the falling techniques I learned have helped. Unfortunately, when I crashed my racing bike, I still broke me collar bone. So, really, you're better off avoiding a crash.
Once you've fallen it is important to get up fast. I mean “Get up out of the street right now!" Don't lay there! If you fall in the street, it is imperative you get out of traffic instantly. Even if you have broken something you need to get out of the street or whatever car may be behind you will do even more grievous harm to your body. With broken bones, you don't feel the pain right away. You go into shock first. You have up to a minute before your body realizes how badly it's been hurt. Use that minute to assert your mind's supremacy over the body. Get to safety! Do not even think about your bike. If it's history, better it than you. You can always get a better bike, but we're decades way from workable cybernetics, so there's no getting a better you. Once you're safely out of harm's way, don't be macho. Collapse if you need to. Don't try to walk it off or some such. The big problem with shock is that you're body has disconnected a lot of it's internal sensors and you may have to rely on other people to tell you how badly you're hurt as I did when I broke my collarbone. If you hurt right away, then the injury is not so bad. You may still need Emergency Medical attention, but you'll be back on the road in no time. If you're scraped up, you can often just get back on your bike and ride home. The bleeding will actually help clean your wound. Once you get home, get some good disinfectant soap and clean the wound properly. This will hurt more than any expletive I can type, but you don't want infections to set in. Road rash heals relatively quickly and seldom leaves a scar.