Bike Safety
Check out this page to learn more about Bicycle Safety Tips!
Insider's Guide to Riding Your Bike
Learn more about when your child is ready to ride, how to prepare your beginner or intermediate rider, and pro tips about how to navigate the crowded school area. Our active Bicycle Safety Committee has created a comprehensive guide to support you!
📥 Download the Insider's Guide🚲 Essential Riding Tips
🛡️ Gear & Prep
- Wear a HELMET: If you are under 18 years old, you must wear a helmet, it’s the law. Parents, please be role models and wear yours too!
- Be Visible: Wear bright colored clothes and closed-toe shoes to protect your feet.
- Don't Rush: Leave home in plenty of time. Practice your route on weekends when traffic is low to build confidence.
- Lock It Up: Always lock your bicycle in the designated bike racks.
🚦 Intersections & Traffic
- Cross Safely: Always stop and check traffic in both directions when leaving a driveway, alley, or curb.
- Use Crosswalks: Walk your bike across busy intersections, following traffic signals. Do not pull out between parked cars where drivers can’t see you.
- Stop Signs: Stop at all stop signs and obey red lights just as cars do. Make eye contact with drivers before proceeding.
🛣️ On the Road
- Ride on the Right: Travel in the same direction as cars. Never ride against traffic. Use bike lanes whenever possible.
- Avoid the "Door Zone": Don’t ride too close to parked cars (especially on Oak Knoll Lane and White Oak). Doors open suddenly!
- Passing: Ride single file. When passing others, pass on their left side and call out “On your left!”
- Hands On: Always ride with your hands on the handlebars.
🛑 Rules of the Road
🧭 Lane Positioning
- Ride on the Right: Ride with the flow of traffic (not on sidewalks) and allow room to maneuver around hazards.
- Directional Positioning: Position yourself in the rightmost lane that goes to your destination. Ride in the right third of the lane to avoid being overtaken in narrow spaces.
- Speed Positioning: Position yourself relative to the speed of traffic. The leftmost lane is for fastest moving traffic; yield to faster vehicles by staying to the right.
- Yielding: Roads with higher traffic volumes should be given right-of-way. Traffic in your destination lane has the right of way.
👋 Hand Signals
Hand signals are like turn signals and brake lights for bikers. They help cars and trucks know what you will do next. Always use signals to indicate your intentions to switch lanes, and make your lane change early.
👨👩👧 Parents & Preparation
📏 Proper Helmet Fit
A helmet should be level on the head (not tilted up, back, or sideways), with the straps properly adjusted and fastened securely. If you wear it correctly every time, you will protect your brain!
- Size & Position: Start with the smallest size that fits. It should cover the majority of your forehead so you can see the front edge. There should be little movement when you shake your head.
- Pads & Straps: Put in the foam pads or adjust the back strap for a snug fit. It should not fall off when you bend over.
- The "V" Shape: Each ear strap should meet directly below your ear lobe with no loose play.
- Chin Strap: Adjust the chinstrap last. It should be tight enough that the helmet moves when you open your mouth widely.
🚴 Teaching Kids to Ride Safely
Children usually have sufficient basic motor skills to operate a bicycle by around age 5 (balancing, starting, stopping). However, they don't yet understand traffic rules. Parents should ensure children learn how to safely enter a roadway (stop, look left, right, left again).
By age 10, children with sufficient training should be able to ride safely on their own in residential neighborhoods. Please continue to monitor their skills and emphasize that bicyclists must follow the rules of the road just like cars.