Traffic is the part that puts people off riding, and most of the fear comes from not having a plan.
The good news is that the risky situations are surprisingly few and surprisingly repeatable. Learn the three that account for most collisions, ride predictably, and the whole thing gets a lot calmer.
Stop hugging the kerb
The instinct is to get as far right as possible and make yourself small. It's the wrong instinct, and it's the single biggest thing new riders get backwards.
Riding in the gutter does three bad things: it puts you in the debris and the drain covers, it invites drivers to squeeze past you inside the same lane, and it makes you less visible because you're outside where drivers are looking.
Ride about where a car's right-hand tyre would be. Far enough out that you're clearly part of traffic, with room to move right if you need to. This should be your default position.
Take the lane when you need to
Move to the centre of the lane — properly, unambiguously — when:
- The lane is too narrow for a car to pass you safely (most urban lanes)
- You're approaching a junction, so nobody can squeeze past you into it
- You're going as fast as the traffic, which on a Class 3 e-bike in town is often
- Visibility is poor, or the surface at the edge is bad
Taking the lane feels rude the first few times. It isn't. It's the position that prevents the dangerous overtake, and drivers overwhelmingly just wait a moment and go round properly.
The three that actually get people
The door zone
Parked cars. Somebody opens a door without looking. You have no time and nowhere to go.
Ride at least a full door's width from parked cars — about three to four feet — even when that puts you further into the lane. Do it consistently for the whole length of the parked row rather than weaving in and out of the gaps, because weaving makes you unpredictable and hides you.
The right hook
A car overtakes you, then turns right across your path. Or you come up the inside of a vehicle that's about to turn.
Never filter up the right-hand side of a large vehicle near a junction. Ever. If you're approaching a junction alongside traffic, either get clearly ahead where the driver can see you, or hold back behind. The space beside a truck's front wheel at a junction is the worst place on the road.
The left cross
A car coming the other way turns left across you, usually because the driver looked, saw a gap, and didn't register a bicycle.
Cover your brakes at junctions. Look at the driver's front wheel — it starts moving before the car does, and it tells you what they're actually going to do far earlier than eye contact does. Assume you haven't been seen until you have real evidence.
Signal properly
- Left turn: left arm straight out.
- Right turn: right arm straight out. (Left arm bent up at the elbow means the same thing and is still recognised, but the straight right arm is clearer to everyone.)
- Slowing or stopping: left arm out and down, palm back.
- Hazards, in a group: point at it. Call it out. Everyone behind you is blind.
Signal early, then get both hands back on the bars before you turn. An e-bike is heavy and you want two hands on it during the actual manoeuvre.
Be boring
Predictability is the whole skill. Every driver near you is building a mental model of what you're about to do, and your job is to make that model correct.
Hold a straight line. Don't weave between parked cars. Don't swap between road and sidewalk. Don't jump a light and then expect the driver you surprised to give you room thirty seconds later. Look over your shoulder before you move sideways — the act of looking back is itself a signal, and drivers read it.
The e-bike-specific parts
Being faster than drivers expect is a real hazard, and it's specific to you.
A driver judging a gap has decades of experience with what speed a bicycle approaches at. On an e-bike at 25 mph you arrive earlier than their instinct says. That mismatch causes pull-outs and turns across you, and no amount of you being in the right helps at the moment of impact.
So: scrub speed at junctions, even when you have priority. And remember that you're heavier and take longer to stop than a regular bike, particularly in the wet — riding in rain covers what that does to braking distance.
Also, that instant torque from a standing start is great for clearing a junction quickly. Use it for that, not for racing away from lights next to a car that's also accelerating.
When it goes wrong anyway
If a driver does something dangerous, the win condition is that you go home, not that you win the argument. Get out of the situation first. Roadside confrontations escalate fast and nobody has ever been made safer by one.
If something genuinely serious happens, get the plate, get any witnesses' details, photograph everything, and report it. And if there's an ongoing hazard other riders should know about, put it on the map so the next person gets a heads-up.
It does get easier
The first few weeks of riding in traffic feel like a lot. Then the patterns become automatic — you start reading junctions without thinking about it, you learn which roads are worth avoiding, and the whole thing quietly turns into transport.
If you're not there yet, build up on quieter roads first, and ride with people. A group is more visible than a solo rider, and there's usually someone who knows the good route through the bad bit.