Bicycle safety – Using signals

Bicycle safety is very important, and if you take your bicycle on the road with other vehicles, you need to know how to stay safe on your bicycle. Even if you’re the one driving the car, you should still be aware of these important hand signals used by cyclists. It could save a life, including your own!

These can also be used if your car’s turn signal lights have stopped working. Learn these signals and remember, when driving a car, always keep at least a car’s space between you and the bicyclist. For the bicyclist, you can’t control what the vehicles around you do, but remember to keep alert and watch out for cars. Remember to look behind you before you begin to turn, to look for oncoming traffic, just as you would in a car.

• Left turns: When turning left or changing lanes on a bicycle, the proper way to signal left is to hold your left arm straight out, pointing toward the left.
• Right turns: The proper way to signal a right turn is to hold out your left arm, elbow bent up at a right angle. A clearer way to indicate, however, is to hold out your right arm, pointing to the right. For better safety for either turn, hold your arm down at an angle, near your side, pointing at the road.
• Stopping: Bicycles don’t have brake lights, so to indicate stopping, hold your left hand down, with the palm open.