Traffic Training Rides: Relevant and Realistic?
by Kirby Beck, PCI #002T/EMSCI #017T
Coon Rapids (MN) Police Department (ret.)
Since its inception, IPMBA’s public safety cyclist courses have been, first and foremost, about teaching students how to cycle safely, comfortably and legally in traffic. The Police Cyclist Course, launched at the 1993 IPMBA Conference in Fort Lauderdale, was based upon Effective Cycling, created by the late John Forester. It was taught and coordinated through what is now known as the League of American Bicyclists (the League) when IPMBA was still one of the League’s programs. It was essentially a driver’s training course for cyclists. As many readers will recognize, the basic tenet of Effective Cycling is “Cyclists fare best when they act and are treated as drivers of vehicles.” That tenet is as true today as ever. This type of riding is also known as “Vehicular Cycling.”
Vehicular cycling was not – and in many instances is still not – instinctive to many bicyclists. Cyclists were unaccustomed to the idea of sharing a lane with motorists. They’d been conditioned to see themselves as inferior to motorized traffic and therefore had to ride far enough to the right of the traffic lane to make room for cars to pass them. Many of us were taught by our parents and teachers to make pedestrian-type turns at intersections with crosswalks and to stay on the sidewalk if traffic was too fast or too busy. We were conditioned to believe that riding on the road near traffic was just plain dangerous. When we were taught to ride on the roads, we were (and many still are) told to ride against, rather than with, the flow of traffic.
The goal of IPMBA training has always been to get students comfortable riding as part of traffic, because that is often the safest and most expedient way to respond to calls for service or reach anywhere else they need to go. Downtown areas with heavy traffic are some of the areas in most need of police and other public safety services. Officers in police cars often cannot get through traffic as quickly as police cyclists can. That is one of the many reasons police mountain bikes became such a valuable patrol option.
Learning to be comfortable riding visibly, predictably, and relevantly, while communicating clearly with other drivers, is essential for cycling in traffic. It starts in the classroom with definitions, explanations, examples, and diagrams that illustrate correct lane position for riding in traffic. We discuss what is known as the “rule of thirds”, what “as far to the right as practicable” really means, and other lane use principles. Students are taught how traffic and traffic laws work together with other components of traffic – both motorized and non-motorized. Prior to entering “hard-core” traffic, basic skills such as regular and maximum braking, instant turns, rear scans, and shifting are taught in a parking lot. All of these skills are essential for competence and safety.
The most important traffic skills are those taught and practiced while actually riding in complex traffic. This is where students learn that the techniques and principles they have been taught in the classroom and parking lots really do work. They learn to overcome some of the stereotypes and ideas they may have had since childhood. Most of all they learn that they can ride, survive, and even thrive in an urban traffic environment.
During IPMBA Courses, students are taught a unit of instruction entitled “Group Riding”. The purpose, primarily, is to teach students how to ride together in a group so they can get safely and efficiently to and from various training venues. They are taught how to ride both single- and double-file, and transition between the two. They do so to shorten groups at intersections, narrow the group when necessary, and ride predictably in traffic.
These groups are often used while doing “road rides” for traffic cycling training and practice. Here groups of 10 to 20 or more cyclists – many wearing uniforms saying POLICE across their backs – ride clustered together through traffic, “simulating” what it is like to cycle in traffic. These groups can be intimidating and overwhelming to surrounding drivers, causing them to behave much differently than they would if there wasn’t a platoon of uniformed public safety bicyclists controlling traffic. In addition, these group rides are often escorted by patrol cars or motorcyclists, sometimes even blocking intersections.
It is imperative, however, that students be trained to function in the manner they will be riding most often: either solo or with a partner. Unless that public safety cyclist is a member of a large bike patrol unit or Bicycle Response Team, they may never ride as a part of large group again, unless it is part of another training or a recreational group road ride.
Practicing traffic riding skills only in a large group will not prepare public safety cyclists to think for themselves, to observe and anticipate traffic features, to make decisions, or to be comfortable riding on their own. They need to be trained how to function outside of the safety “bubble” created by a group of uniformed riders surrounding them. They must be trained to observe for themselves, to think for themselves, and to succeed for themselves. If all or most of our students’ “traffic cycling” training is conducted using group rides, they will not receive the most realistic and relevant training. I will admit to having done it this way many times myself, because it is much faster and much easier, especially for the instructor(s).
The job of the instructor includes planning and becoming intimately familiar with training venues, including the public streets and roadways upon which their rides will be conducted. Instead of just going for a ride and making haphazard or convenient lane changes or turns, the instructor really should have a distinct route, planned in advance.
If the instructor works or lives in the community where the training is being conducted, they have an advantage. If the instructor is providing training in an unfamiliar venue, their job will be harder. Fortunately, using satellite resources like Google Earth, they can look for features such as complex intersections, specialized lanes, and unique street designs when planning their training routes. They should plan out the lane changes, turns, merges, and diverges they want their students to perform or experience. They need to go out and ride the route prior to the class. Closures, road construction, or other unexpected problems could all cause uncomfortable surprises. Instructors must understand, going into each feature, the interaction students should have with other roadways users, through lane position and communication. A pre-ride will help with that, too.
There is certainly nothing wrong with riding from the area of one feature to the next in a group, but several blocks before reaching that specific feature, the instructor should pull the group off to the side, out of traffic, to discuss the upcoming feature and how best to approach it.
Some cycling instructors I’ve seen carry sidewalk chalk and have the talent to diagram each feature on the sidewalk, using them to inform the discussion of the upcoming maneuver and how best to perform it. Others carry a small dry erase board or a roll of dry erase material to accomplish the same thing. I imagine that carrying quality printouts of satellite images would work, too. These visual aids help clarify what is expected. Instructors may need to use a pannier to carry some of these training aids.
The instructor then leaves the group and rides to a position near the feature where the students’ cycling behavior can be observed and critiqued. The instructor also designates a location to which all of the students ride to regroup after completing the feature.
How the instructor communicates to the group for an individual or pair to begin riding depends on the communication devices available to everyone. Even something as simple as a mobile phone call or text to a co-instructor, a helper, or the last member of the group can work. That person will be the “starter” for the others. Let your imagination and available technology be your guide when it comes to communication. Regardless, the goal of these exercises is to enable the individual students, or pairs of student cyclists, to perform these maneuvers in real traffic using the techniques and principles they’ve been taught. It requires more much awareness of the traffic and the roadway on their part. It also builds greater confidence and experience than riding in a large group ever would.
Ideally the instructor should try to design their training route to include simpler features first, and then build up to more complex, unique, or difficult ones later. The route should include single lane and multiple lane roadways with differing speed limits. It should include single and multiple turn lane scenarios. If a diagonal railroad track is located nearby, that should be ridden, too. If possible, it should include one-way streets in addition to specialized bike facilities.
Admittedly, this will likely require more time built into the schedule for traffic cycling, or road ride training, than is typical. However, based on the goals and priorities of a “cycling class”, it makes sense that practicing traffic cycling skills and building competence should be allocated sufficient time.
It is always a good idea to try to involve the students in a discussion before having them navigate unfamiliar traffic features. Ask things like: 1) What is the best lane position? 2) What hazards do we need to watch out for? 3) What does the law require? 4) What are the options, and what are advantages and disadvantages of each?
These are merely some ideas and suggestions for providing personalized and individualized training. I’m betting there are more and probably even better ideas for accomplishing these goals among the IPMBA instructor cadre. This is where your skills and creativity as an IPMBA Instructor can really shine. If you come up with some, please share them with everyone in an IPMBA News article, a blog or Facebook post, or let Maureen or the IPMBA Education Coordinator know that you’ve found something that works well.
IPMBA has always strived to offer state-of-the-art in training for public safety cyclists. If we want to make IPMBA training even more relevant and realistic for students, we must ensure our training reflects the type of riding they will be actually doing when they complete the class, whether their cycling is on-duty or just for fun. In other words, make it the “Three R’s”: realistic, relevant, and recent.
Kirby retired after 28 years with Coon Rapids (MN) Police Department. He has 14 years of police bike patrol experience. He has taught bicycle safety and traffic cycling to children and adults for more than 25 years. As a training consultant, he co- taught the Bicycle Safety and Accommodation Course for the National Highway Institute, sponsored by NHTSA and FHWA. A founding member and past President of IPMBA, he was co-creator of the IPMBA Police Cyclist Course and Instructor Course. He contributed to both the Complete Guide to Police Cycling and the Complete Guide to Public Safety Cycling. He can be reached at kirby@kbeckconsulting.com.
Images courtesy CyclingSavvy.org.
(c) 2020 IPMBA. This article appeared in the 2020 Conference Retrospective issue of IPMBA News.