Traffic Riding Mojo
May 18th, 2009 by Leo
Did you know there’s a traffic mojo? Maybe you feel like cars are cutting you off, trying to pass you, creeping into your lane – that’s when you ain’t got no mojo. Because when you’ve got it, people see you, they don’t seem to mind standing behind you, and don’t mind when you cut in. In fact, you often find them making room for you and letting you pass. So what’s the deal?
We at CityBikerBlog have conducted extensive research in our labs to distill this mojo to sell on our blog. Unfortunately we can’t seem to get it into liquid form just yet, so until then you’ll just have to download the ingredients into your riding manually. The essence of traffic riding mojo seems to be: speed + predictability + some courtesy.
SPEED
The first key ingredient to traffic mojo is speed: If you’re going slow, even if you’re keeping up with the pace of traffic, cars will want to get around you. They see the lane you’re occupying as clear open space and they want to edge in there; also they can see ahead of you and because that’s where they’re looking, they’ll try to get there by crowing you or passing you. But…when your mojo is running, cars won’t mind being stuck behind you because they know you’ll be gone in a flash. In fact, they’ll see how much quicker you are and want to stay out of your way.
Secret ingredient #1, Move at a brisk pace, don’t take your time getting to 40 mph if no one is ahead of you.
PREDICTABILITY
The second part that’s very important is to ride in a predictable manner. In keeping a brisk pace, you don’t want to turn and brake and accelerate quickly in a way that will get you run over. Signal your intentions. If you’re going straight, it should be obvious you’re going straight. If you’re coming up to a turn it should be obvious that you’re coming up to a turn. Use your blinkers, but more than that use your body language and lane position to make it clear what you’re going to do.
I remember a day when I was low on mojo, I was tired, it was cold and drizzling and there I was on the BQE in bumper to bumper traffic coming from Brooklyn. I lane split a little when I could, but I wasn’t feeling it. Then there came one of these Harley guys driving at 20mph right between two lanes. Cars were pulling out of the way to let him pass…
Now some people think it was the loud Harley pipes… But I couldn’t hear him until he was right next to me so I’m assuming the cars couldn’t hear him either until he was right next to them…besides I had stinkin loud pipes too (at the time). So that can’t be it. Other people think it might have had something to do with his attitude and the Hell’s Angels patch on his jacket… But you can’t see that until after he passes, and it’s difficult for drivers to even tell what kind of bike it was from their rear view mirrors. All they saw was a motorcycle and headlight. So why were the drivers so accomodating?
It was the combination of speed (he was going faster than the cars just inching along – but not so fast that people would freak out at his speed), and predictability. “Here he comes, are you going to be the jerk to get in the way?” Under the right circumstances, people don’t want to be the one to hold you back if you can go quickly. But you have to be predictable. This guy was going straight between the left and center lane – his intent was clear, and it made people want to move.
Secret Ingredient #2, Make your intentions easy to see so that drivers are able to cooperate with you…
COURTESY
So you need to be fast enough that cars know you won’t get in their way, and predictable enough that they’ll know how not to get in YOUR way…but also mojo requires you to be courteous enough that people won’t feel threatened or insulted by you. That means slowing for pedestrians sometimes, or letting cars cross our lane or merge ahead of you, and it means using hand (or head) signals sometimes. Mojo means you’re connecting socially to the drivers around you.
Secret Ingredient #3, Be courteous to other drivers, and it will make it easy for them to be courteous toward you – esp. given your brisk pace and clear intentions.
So there you have it. Get your mojo back in three easy steps. Of course in order for this to work you have to be comfortable and in control of your machine… It’s easy to lose your traffic mojo when your riding skills are rusty or there’s something about the bike that’s distracting you from the road. Fix those things first, then you should be all set.
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+1
the converse goes for #2 and #3. i see speed idiots on crotch rockets splitting on the BQE while in my car and it makes me want to narrow the gap just a little bit more.
Here in Cali, lane sharing/filtering/splitting is permissible under law with some “subjective guidelines” per the CA DMV handbook. That said, I don’t pretend that just because it’s allowed that every cager is either aware or respectful of the law. My suggestions:
1. If you’re gonna make a move (filter, pass etc.) do it quick and confidently, get out of there and out of the way of everyone else ASAP
2. Only filter to the front if you’ve got enough time and/or bike to beat everyone off the line when the light turns green, getting out of there and out of the way of everyone else ASAP
3. Like your #3, just don’t be dick.
RE: comment #2, I think that’s advisable in areas where cars are dominant and fast, other cities than NY and suburbs. That kind of riding is what cagers loath (see comment #1) and confidence is sometimes confused with cockiness.