Road Cycling Etiquette 101: What do you need to know?

Cycling etiquette is an extremely important part of riding - whether you're on a shared path or on the road, this guide is designed to help you navigate some basic cycling etiquette and tips to get you rolling with a smile on your (and the people around you!) face.

#1 Learn the Hand Signals

If you're new to cycling, or just never learned how to do all of the hand signals that everyone else just seems to know - you're not alone! It can be very daunting and confusing when you're a newbie, and especially if you're going to be joining a group ride for the first time.

One of the easiest ways to be courteous to others on the road or bike path is to ride predictably and communicate your intentions. In a lot of ways, it's not dissimilar to how you drive on the road.

Check out a few of the key hand signals from the GCN crew here. These hand signals are fairly universal, so what works in the UK will work in Australia and the USA as well.

#2 Use your bell (and common sense)

If you have ever used a shared path to get where you need to go, you'll probably have encountered pedestrians either walking in the same or opposite direction as you. Conversely, you may have been a pedestrian and felt the jolt of a cyclist fly by you with little or no warning.

Whichever side of the aisle you're on, good etiquette (and common sense) dictates that you be courteous when passing pedestrians, especially if they are in front of you.

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Use your bell, but always assume they have headphones in and can't hear you. If they are all the way to the correct side of the path (that would be the left in Australia), chances are they are used to sharing the path with bike riders and you can ring your bell and go around slowly and safely.

If the walker is in the middle of the path - or the wrong side of the path (that would be the right in Australia) - you need to exercise caution, as the walker may become frightened and inadvertently jump into your path if you don't give enough warning. Though this can be frustrating, etiquette is to yield to the slower moving path or road user, so do your best to be heard, wait for the walker to move to the correct side of the path, and then go around safely.

#3 Passing People

Chances are you’re going to catch up with riders that are slower than you at some point, and how you deal with this says a lot about you as a person. They might be less experienced than you or riding with a child or a heavy load, and it can be nerve-wracking when you hear someone faster ride up behind you.

The best way to approach this (particularly if the cyclist is with a child on a strider or pedal bike) is to use your bell and call out in a friendly way that you’d like to pass.

Ensure you slow down (letting people behind you know this is what you're going to do either with the hand signal, or your voice). Allow them time to pull over to the side safely, then say thank you when they let you go by.

Simple!

#4 Letting People Past You

The other side to the coin is to be gracious and happy to let people go past you. A skill you'll develop as you get more experienced is to learn how to listen out for riders behind you so as not to panic or get a fright if they fly past. 

If you are riding two abreast on a bike path or narrower road, it is courteous to move to a single file line when you hear someone behind you call out to let you know they will be passing. This is especially important if you're on a two-way thoroughfare where someone could be riding in the opposite direction - a head on collision is to be avoided at all costs.

To decide who should drop back and who should move forward, the person on the inside (closest to the centre of the path or road) should make the call and verbally communicate this to their ride buddy, e.g. "Someone's coming up behind, I'll move in front of you".

#5 The Big Ticket Item

With all that said and done, probably the most important part of cycling etiquette is saying 'Thank You'. Whether it's with a quick head nod of acknowledgement, a friendly wave, or yelling out the words as you fly by, a little patience and gratitude goes a long way!