Now that warm weather is finally here (fingers crossed), bike riders are suddenly all over the place. I’ve been doing more driving than normal lately and I’ve been seeing what looked to me like less than safe riding behaviors.

Two mornings in a row, I have seen elementary school age children riding to school on their bikes, heavy-looking backpacks on their backs. Not too scary unless you add in the traffic, the fact that most people are going at least 10 miles over the speed limit, and the very soft shoulder of the road.

My first thought was, of course, “if that were my child…” Then there was the woman riding her bike down the white line dividing two lanes of heavy traffic. Both lanes were going in the same direction, across the bridge from Nashua into Hudson, but at 5:00pm, there are a lot of cars and not every driver is on his or her best behavior. I started wondering if that was where she was supposed to be riding, and I started thinking about bicycle safety. .

The New Hampshire Department of Transportation (DOT) has a bicycle/pedestrian information center which gives helpful hints for bicyclists. It also provides the bicycle “rules of the road” citing the New Hampshire RSA where each rule can be found. All of this information is in one downloadable bicycle safety brochure titled “Don’t be a road warrior”. The second page of this brochure “Don’t be a road hog” gives drivers good advice for sharing the road with bicyclists.   I discovered that the lady on the bridge riding down the center line was doing exactly the right thing. Bicyclists are advised that “You may occupy any part of a lane when your safety warrants it”. Drivers are warned that “Bicyclists may occupy any part of a traffic lane when their safety warrants it.”

The DOT bicycle/pedestrian information center also provides downloadable, printable bike maps for the different regions in NH. The map on one side contains the various bike routes in that region; the map on the other side provides useful information about the region. The difficulty of the terrain is included, as is the traffic and the services which will be found in that region. This site also includes links to a number of bicycle associations and organizations including bicycling for people with disabilities, recreational bicycling clubs, and New England regional bike coalitions.

Another good online source for safe bike riding information is kidshealth.org Lots of important information for kids, written for kids. Helmets, rules of the road, hand signals, and how to tell if your bike is the right size for you are among the topics discussed. The website lets kids listen to this information as well as read it.

Wear your helmet is the first rule of bicycle safety. A close second is keep your bike in good repair. Nashua Public Library has some books to help you choose and repair your bike:

Simple bicycle repair: fixing your bike made easy
Bike repair manual
Every woman’s guide to cycling
and for kids: Bicycles by Kristin Petrie.

SO…Put on your helmet and your bright orange shirt, check your brakes and your water bottle, and put that granola bar in your pocket. Away you go!

Posted in Books, Library Materials, Recreation, Websites