25 Tips for safe riding in heavy traffic

We all are aware and familiar about the scenario of traffic and congestion on our Indian roads. Our conditions are such that nobody wants to recall his daily office commutes, and wants to fulfill his biking satisfaction on weekends around the countryside roads. Sure, those office commutes can be interesting, but the humongous number of vehicles around you, surrounding you from all sides and prohibit you from riding as free as you want. Some of the nuisance-creating creatures unnecessarily try to drive in an uncivilized way, showing they have got no road manners to show. Adding to it, studying the traffic lights and road signals too is a job you have to cover up patiently. At last, not forgetting some of the pedestrians, who add to the trouble as they make us feel that they have no idea what a zebra crossing is! The children fulfilling their desires of becoming Sachin Tendulkar on streets and those ear-tearing plonking of horns are also not easy situations to deal with. All these tedious circumstances end up in a turmoil of ‘interesting’ situations, don’t they? Jokes apart, in today’s century, riding in traffic is not less than a nightmare, and you also know that the above examples are not going to improve any time soon. Dodging the traffic can also be proclaimed as an art on our roads. Following are the top best strategies which can help you in dealing with the traffic-flooded streets and crowd around you, which can reduce your amount of sweat at the end of the day:-

Be ready – keep your mind, your body and your bike set:-

Before judging the circumstances around you, first and foremost, just make sure that are you able to judge them in a proper way? Usually, there are three ways through which a rider should be able to prepare himself before starting off his journey.

First comes is your mental readiness. Before taking your motorcycle out of the house gates, you must make sure that your mind is free off all the stresses. You must be in your conscience in order to focus each and everything on the road ahead you. So, consumption of drugs and alcohols during this is a big no.

Then comes the factor of how your body is prepared physically to cater the situations. You must be fully armored in order to prevent yourself from any mishap or damage to yourself after facing an accident. The protective gear must include the basic essentials such as a straight-fit helmet, riding jacket, riding boots and gloves and protection pads. Your safety on the road is doubled-up if your riding gear is bright-colored, so that it is much more visible to other people, especially in night riding conditions. The adorning of riding gear ensures you the comfort factor throughout your ride.

The last factor comes is the proper condition of your bike, ensure that your ride is as healthy as you are. You must practice a preliminary check procedure on your motorcycle, which includes checking of any oil leakage, properly adjusted brakes and drive chain, healthy illumination of lighting system of your bike, tyre pressure and sufficient amount of fuel in the tank. Fix any of the problems if you find it, immediately.

Be smooth:-

Slow and steady wins the race! I know, it’s an old idiom, but it straightly applies on your riding skills by a great scale. The smooth way of riding surely requires plenty kilograms of concentration, but at the end of the day, you feel satisfied that you arrived your home without any breakage of bones or got scraped your bike somewhere on the streets. Apart from keeping you safe and energetic, it also oozes the health factor of the bike, as the fuel economy figures improve by a fair margin and you are less responsible to deteriorate the life of your motorcycle by avoiding the rash over-throttling. Be aware of the gear ratios of your bike, and perform the upshift and downshift actions in a spot-on way. Apply the brakes firmly, but gently as and when required. Applying unnecessary pressure on tires, suspension and handlebars should also be avoided so that your bike manages to maintain that wide grin on your face.



Watch other driver’s head and mirrors:-

You must be aware of how the other riders are riding on the same road as you. Just be aware of the head movements of other riders, both riding in front and behind you. And then, here comes the use of rear-view mirrors, to judge what’s going behind you. I hope you haven’t detached those mirrors from your bike, and if you had, kindly place them again.



Know where you are:-

Studying the skills of the rider doesn't end up in studying their head and tire movements. You should be able to develop the ‘sixth-sense’ of how the other rider is going to change the pace and direction of the movements. Sure, it is not at all an easy task, but if you are able to pay that extra special attention, all you may end up with is the utilization of the space around you to a much larger extent. Practice those quick lane changes, only if you are fully ensured about the conformity of the space ahead of you.



Never get between rider and a divider:-

Normally in the Indian conditions, we ride on the left side of the road, while traveling northwards. So, in that case, overtaking should be cautiously done, without tying to gush yourselves in between the rider and the street divider. The rider ahead you may wish to exit the street at the last moment, so it’s better to ride left to him, so that you may not provide any kind of hindrance to him while he makes any exit to the street and takes a U-turn in the opposite direction.



Use your head to look where you’re going:-

This is one of the most communicating ways to tell the other riders where you wish to make your move on the street. As you wish to make a turn, keep your eyes on the streets with your head up, tilted in the direction in which you want to make a turn. This gives a pre-signal to the riders behind you and may not rush into the direction of your turn. And remember, head should not be the signal, turn on the directional indicator too.



Cover your brakes:-

Usually when you ride in the traffic, you are not aware of the condition when the vehicle moving ahead and besides you, is going to make a halt. And what you may end up with, is the scene of yourself banged to the rear bonnet of the car or rear mudguard of the bike ahead you. For the prevention of such a condition, you need to improve your braking skills. Sure, frequent braking is all you need in our traffic circumstances, so it’s better to cover both the brakes of the motorcycle, by keeping a finger close to the front brake lever and foot over the rear brake lever. This may help you in instant braking capabilities, especially in such conditions when an unaware idiot talking on his cellphone comes in the street in the middle of your way.



Reduce your speed in tight and dangerous conditions:-

It’s sometimes good to keep your racing spirit and DNA’s in control, especially if you are one amongst the crowd at traffic signals and riding in a bad weather condition. Just keep this equation in mind – less speed = more reaction = safer riding. Who knows, a big rock falls ahead you, rolling down the hill slopes. You must be ready for such conditions too, shouldn't you?



Be ready with the power:-

You must be aware of the power of how many horses your bike can make out of its engine and its pulling capacity too. It is advisable to ride in the lower gears during crawling in traffic, so that your bike makes the most of the power and torque figures it’s able to generate. By doing so, the sufficient amount of bottom end grunt helps you to squeeze through the traffic without any jerkiness and make your passers-by aware of the sound of the revs off the engine.



Check in all directions:-

Even if you are blasting through the straight road, enjoying the lean angles around twisties or crawling slowly in a traffic-fed street, you must be able to know from which direction a hazard may come from. And by hazard, I mean the instantaneous oncoming of other vehicle on the road. In that condition, you should check all the directions frequently while riding, starting from the left side, and that’s because, this is the lane of traffic with the most congestion, as everybody wants to overtake the rider ahead as soon as possible. After checking the left, you should follow a clock-wise pattern to check all the directions around you. Use the rear view mirrors for checking the situations behind, rather than turning your heads at an angle between 90 to 180 degrees.



Traffic slowing? Stay in a single direction:-

You already start getting the signs much before, when the traffic ahead you is going to decrease its pace. In that case, stay to the left or right of the vehicle moving ahead you. This gives you a chance to make a quick escape in the sufficient gap visible ahead you, if possible. Keep your pace with that of the moving traffic, don’t try to over-speed your bike. If you stop due to the stationary traffic, continue keeping your eyes on the mirror, your hands on the palm grips of handlebar, feet on the gear and brake levers and be ready to clutch-in, so as to make a quick start whenever the traffic comes back in motion.



Check your rear view mirror:-

It’s too often that we are not completely able to check whatever things going around you in a single step. Also, while making a turn or stopping your motorcycle, you should be aware of the vehicle behind you. In both these totally different conditions, your rear-view mirrors play a very vital role in easing out your job. These mirrors ensure you the best possible happenings what’s going or coming behind you. So, thus, you should check these mirrors every 10 to 15 seconds, in order to make the most precise change to your riding style. Also, positioning of the mirrors should be spot-on in order to make the most spread out view visible, behind you.



Keep a 2-4 second following distance:-

Maintaining a proper distance behind the vehicle moving in front of you is very important factor, avoiding of which may lead to crashing of both the vehicles one behind the other. While traveling in a bright daylight, the minimum distance which you should keep from the vehicle ahead you should be minimum 2-4 seconds on the road, whereas during the night-time, thanks to the reduced visibility as compared to the day time, the distance should be increased to 4 to 6 seconds. This helps you to study the dynamic movements of the vehicle to the most. To study this distance-time relationship to the precision, pick up a noticeable signboard or tree, watch the vehicle moving ahead of that sign and count the number of seconds you take to cross that point. The number of seconds equals to the required following distance.



Study the surface:-

You all know that this is India, and the roads here are typically spiced up with potholes, gutter openings, water, oil and even milk splashes and stones and gravels on the surface. It’s impossible to find a butter smooth road everywhere around, not even in some of the highways. So, keep your senses aware in such conditions. Ride with both the eyes and nostrils open always, so that you may be able to see and smell such stuffs.



Ride with a great attitude:-

Usually, most of us ride on our own, without any boundation. So, in that case, we must fulfill the duty to be responsible enough to the public around you, so that we may set a benchmark of example for them with that finesse, that whenever they see us, they should teach themselves as other to ride as good as us. Always follow the road laws, street rules, speed limits and riding manners, everywhere. This helps in giving you a good image among others as wells as your fellow riders.



Ride in open zones:-

It’s too tedious to crawl in the tights between two vehicles, while stacked in traffic. All you need to do is find the open zones in the traffic, and brisk your motorcycle in that gap with agility. This gives the additional room among the other vehicles surrounding you and gives you the chance to vary your speed and make the use of most of the power available from your motorcycle. Always try to maintain a constant motion, so that your presence is felt by the passers-by always.



Use the turn indicators:-

The blinkers attached to the front fairing and rear body panels of your motorcycle are not just for show and aiding personality to your bike, they indeed are fitted their for a purpose. Always make the use of turn indicators or blinkers whenever you want to make a directional change towards left or right. It’s much easier to flick that indicator switch with a finger, rather than extending your whole hand for changing the lane.



Don’t be a red-light jumper:-

It’s good to be a law abiding biker, and this trait is more visible when you respect those three lights on the pole after the zebra crossing. It’s good to be patient for you as well as others, if you stop at the red light and sprint off at the green light, only. A red light jumper puts his life as well as that of the others at risk, along with breaking the law. That’s not a good thing in the books of a good rider. Remember, there are no gold medals to be won for not following the traffic lights.



Watch out for the vehicle ahead:-

You don’t know at all, what’s going in the mind of the driver ahead of you, when he is going to stop the vehicle, when he is going to open the doors, when he is going to make the instantaneous U-turn, etc. So, always be ensured that you maintain a perfect amount of gap between all the other vehicles around you, especially the one ahead you. The best way to judge the other vehicles is to study the movement of the tyres. Study the pace, direction of rotation and lane changes through the tyres of the vehicle ahead. If the tyres are headed towards your lane, then possibly he is going to hamper your path. So, just try to free up some space, so as to avoid any kind of collision and misjudgment.



Don’t push it past the stationary traffic:-

It always requires a precise judgment to study the traffic. If the traffic is in a stationary mode, you always are pushed up by your mind to open the throttle and get to the front of the traffic queue as soon as possible. But let me tell you, same is the mentality of other drivers too. In order to reach their destination in the shortest time possible, the vehicle drivers don’t leave any kind of gap between themselves and the vehicle in front of them. It’s not advisable to wind your racing pedigree in town roads. Always keep the throttle in the most tamed position, so that you may not distract others as well as create a hazardous condition for yourselves. Manage to keep the revs below or similar to the rest of the traffic.



Never get between a vehicle and a turning:-

This is one of the most danger prone scenarios you may get stuck within. Although it may seem that there is a sufficient enough gap between the vehicle taking the turn and the edge of the two streets joining or a corner, it’s advisable to not to make a squeeze through that gap so as to avoid any kind of sideways collision. There are many drivers on the roads, who forget to switch off the indicators after making a turn. So, keep an eye on such vehicles and judge how they are about to take the corner. Also, never try to indulge between two vehicles, especially when one of the vehicle is about to make a left turn.



Avoid blind spots:-

Usually, while riding on the road, there are some positions and places where you are not able to see the other driver in the mirror. You should be visible in the rear view mirrors of the vehicle ahead you, and if you are not visible there, you just simply don’t exist on the road behind, for the driver ahead you. Such spots are called blind spots. Always try to maintain the pace of your motorcycle by continuously accelerating and decelerating your motorcycle, in order to be visible in the mirrors ahead.



Be defensive as well as aggressive:-

While riding a motorcycle, you should not be single-minded. Riding too slowly may give other riders a chance to compress you always, while riding too hasty may end up hurting yourselves as well as damaging your motorcycle. A combination of defensive skills and aggressive manners may help you to create a pace which helps you to make the moves as brisk and safe as possible. In defensive mode, you should be aware of the space where you are riding and about to squeeze into in the surrounding traffic, whereas the aggressive mode should be switched on occasionally when you want to quickly overtake a vehicle or to increase your average speed sufficiently.



Make room for other’s mistakes:-

The mental ability and intelligence levels of each and every rider on the road are not similar. Thus, you should be sensible enough on your own, so as to make a positive impact on the other riders around you. Also, you won’t be affected at all by the mistakes of any foolish rider. Once you make room for yourselves and the mistakes of the others, you are totally not responsible to the mishap faced by other riders around you.



Practice your riding skills:-

Practice makes a man perfect, always. The more time you spend on the saddle, taming your motorcycle, the more you get used to its capabilities and performance. Also, try to grab all the above mentioned habits gradually in your mind. That doesn’t mean that you spend an hour only for practicing these habits. Try to indulge these tips in your day to day riding commutes and long jaunts as well.