I certainly feel like it has for me. I heard many years ago riding a motorcycle did the same for friends that rode them because you’re more vulnerable and have to look out more but feel cycling has done same for me.
For example I don’t take off from red lights turning green off the bat I look both ways. I also have a sixth sense for what other cars will do even unpredictably from driving outside the USA but riding a bicycle has sharpened that intuition. I feel like I look into driveways or side streets more and am less surprised or alarmed by being cut off because again I have better learned to anticipate when this can happen.
Has cycling improved and sharpened your motor vehicle driving experience?
Getting better at being constantly aware of your surroundings and calling out potential incidents before they happen. A bit more of a defensive driving
Absolutely, the defensive mindset carries over big time - once you've had a few close calls on a bike you start reading traffic patterns way differently in a car
Absolutely. 1000%. I feel like I’m playing chess when driving bc I’m analyzing lights and traffic flow ahead and adjusting accordingly.
Yeah, after riding and seeing people unsafely speed up to a red light, only to slam on their brakes, I can't help but drive more gradually and safely
Yes because it's given me the perspective of a vulnerable road user.
Many studies show that people who cycle cause fewer collisions when behind the wheel of a motor vehicle than those who never cycle. It makes sense and we have the science to prove it.
Not just that. It’s seen in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, France, and Spain; all countries with higher numbers of people who cycle for transport than places like the UK, US, Canada, Australia, and NZ.
Being aware of how bad driving feels to them makes them better drivers. If even half those countries require cycling as part of the driving test, or even close pass stimulation, driving standards would be significantly higher.
As I always say, they’re not necessarily better at driving. They just have more context than just being behind the wheel.
Riding gives you a greater appreciation for how shit the roads are and what cyclists face just riding. So many bumps, holes, glass, nails, leaves, rocks etc. so sometimes a cyclist might look erratic but they are just avoiding the carnage beneath them
I wish more drivers knew this. I've seen drivers complain online about cyclists swerving a little or going in/out of a bike lane.
Yes, I do this sometimes. I'm trying not to hit debris or get a flat.
I think I'm definitely a better/safer driver now.
But also one of the weirdest side effects cycling has had on my driving is when I'm driving somewhere that's part of a regular bike route for me and I still like brace/look out for the potholes and weird bumps and stuff in the road that I've come to know intimately but don't actually make a difference in the car. But I'm still thinking "here's that weird spot in the road. Better get ready to maneuver around it... oh wait I don't have to do that"
Definitely think its made me notice how stupidly impatient you can be behind the wheel and I try to be less stupid in that way
cause it doesn't fucking matter, someone is going the speed limit in front of you? good for them, take a breath, your whole drive will take 6-8min and maybe now its 7-9 it makes 0 difference to your life even if you're busy and have shit to do we're talking like 30s max if not less
but its weird how annoying it is, especially when we're ok to sit in line at a drive through or for a cashier or something else where if you started freaking out at people for being delayed 20-30s you'd look like an insane person but somehow its tolerated with driving to such a large extent
It's the reverse with me as I'm Dutch. As with most dutchies, we can basically ride before we can walk. And as with most dutchies: they become better (more attentive) cyclists once they learn how to drive a car. 9/10 times it leads to more predictive cycling behavior on the road and you can see immediately which cyclists do not have a driver's license and which do not
This is quite a good point. Cycling makes me a better driver, but driving also makes me a better cyclist. For example, driving around a northern city in the rain at night in the winter makes me very aware of how invisible cyclists often are, especially if they’re dumb enough to not bother with lights and reflective materials.
Gives me the perspective of not just technically being safe but make the cyclist/walker comfortable room so they don't feel nervous.
yes
Riding forces you to pay attention all the time
If nothing else, it underscores the importance of the passenger-side mirror.
The opposite….driving means I have to remember to stop at red lights and stop signs.
While I have become a more attentive driver I must say since I ride more miles than drive I’ve started to be lax in terms of stops and red lights especially if visibility is good and traffic low!
From years of cycling I now know where all the cops can and do hide too… 🤭
Yeah… the speed trap sightings are pretty cool. If I drive up a hill I usually ride I still do the huh, huh, huh like I’m breathing hard.
I have the memory of an elephant for those things too. For some reason hills seem steeper and harder and longer when I drive them but in the bike it’s like ok I’m here it’s not a big deal. I think having no choice preconditions you to accept it.
Haha! Totally agree, most of us have more horsepower than my Honda fit (jazz) anyway.
That car handles sweet though like a go kart. The fun of driving it is totally out of proportion to its numbers.
Right on! Between cycling and my switch 2….im in trouble
Cycling convinced me than 90% of drivers are completely retarded cretins and half of them are on the phone when driving. Now as a driver I am driving waaaay slower than I used to. I just assume everyone on road is retarded.
🤭
It's hard to say, because it's been 13 years since I got my license, and I feel like my driving's been steadily improving the entire time. I got serious about cycling like 3 years ago, but used to ride my bike on the street as a kid so I feel like I hate an innate sense for some of these things before I even got behind the wheel. I also did a few big road trips once out of college, and just that sheer amount of time on the road helps build up practice too.
I’m 50 and I plateaued in my mid 20s. Another boon happened when I did high performance driving and track/autocross in my early to mid 30s. Been riding a bike since my early 40s as adult that was another wave of positive change. This time though I feel my driving keeps improving.
Cycling (and runnjng/walking near roads) demonstrates in high resolution the dynamics of heavy objects hurtling by under dubious control.
Drivers live in a world that invites detachment from the Newtonian Physics of that activity.
So, yes. Cyclists/walkers/runners are generally better tuned into the reality of the road.
Yes, I am much more aware of cyclists while driving. I always give them the room and courtesy.
Opposite. Driving cars fast on racetracks changes the way you think about momentum, braking, approaching turns while riding. Especially mountain biking.
This also helped for me a decade ago. Driving fast requires very little gas if you pick the line where you can apply throttle the soonest unwinding wheel as you do it. Presto changeo under steer magically disappears even in FWD cars. You can be fast while barely driving with this approach. If you know you know.
Absolutely, I am far more aware of other drivers. For example, I learned on a bike not to enter an intersection just because the light turned green. To check first for red-light runners. That has spilled into my driving as well. (Always did that since I turned 16, but do it more due to biking) <---just one of many examples
Oh absolutely!! I take turns like I pick a line on my bike. I countersteer like a F1 driver. I was 15, taking drivers ed and racing criteriums. My ex-wife always would complain “you’re not in a peloton”. Maybe you’re not, but I am. My daughter took up racing when she was in high school. After a few weeks of practice, she quips “I always knew you drove differently, now I get it”.
Driving in track and learning HPDE has also immensely improved my driving as well. I quit over a decade ago because of cost and not just money but time and bearing in your car like that and always having problems. Not an efficient way to spend the day if you’re out all weekend for a handful of run groups. I’m wealthy and even if had 100x the money I would run away screaming because of the time and aggravation.
Cycling was different because 99 percent of the time spent in the sport is actually riding and fitness related I bike commute and can do it almost every day from anywhere. I have a whole collection of bicycles including in different locations and countries too and in 2 years of HPDE I haven’t spent what I spent on 7-8 years of bicycle.
Scared to countersteer in a bike though. I don’t like speed in two wheels. Live in hilly area so plenty of chance tk go hard and not go fast when climbing I’ll keep it at that. After all these years still afraid to fall I’m old and fragile at 50.
Plenty flat here on the third coast. Nearest hills are up north. 50 and fragile? I’m 58. Racing is something from long ago. But it’s just in my DNA at this point. I have a fastish car. Because if I drove a fast car I’d lose my license.
I find myself driving slower and with my window open to listen to my surroundings. I feel cut-off inside a car now especially in urban traffic. And I overtake cyclists way farther aside than I used to.
I also find myself looking ahed and coasting up to stoplights.
I found my cycling skills really helped me when I was learning to drive
Especially learning to use my gears in the car at first
Absolutely. It’s taught me that speeding is pointless and dangerous, and patience is king. It’s insane how infuriating patience can be to impatient drivers.
I no longer try to run cyclists over
😂 me too!
No doubt it’s the reason I always get better mpg than the automaker says I should.
Yes. You learn to conserve momentum and to "read" the terrain to take advantage of it.
Right, and why burn energy to speed up just to sit at a red light?
I rarely drive as I don't own a vehicle but when I'm riding along w my friends it's been pointed out to me I say stuff like don't use the bike lane to pass. Or watch out for that bike he doesn't have lights and the bike is black (at night). I'm constantly vigilant even as a passenger.
100% both bicycles and motorcycles will make you a sharper driver. You have to be sharper on two wheels and it spills over to driving a car.. I notice things like pavement surface and grip just by looking at them. And the predictive awareness that I use on the bikes carries over to driving. I was once told by an MSF instructor to ride my motorcycle like I was invisible ( assume nobody sees me) and then you will never put yourself in a dumb spot where you could be a victim.. I use it in the car too..
In that I no longer drive at all, yes, it has made me the best sort of driver.
Not biking but motorcycling.
Several years ago I spent a summer riding motorcycles with a friend. I became far more aware of bikers and cyclists due to that experience.
I'd like to see this rolled into drivers ed classes.
I cycle so I don't have to drive.
I’m also a car guy and love driving but I’ve been cycling since before I can drive so no it hasn’t really made me a better driver. I have always gave cyclists lots of room, and do all the thing I would appreciate from a cyclists perspective.
I agree though, the more vehicles you drive it makes you a better driver overall. It gives you some perspective being in those other vehicles and more experience on the road all together. I’ve driven motorcycles, pulled trailers, cars, trucks, bicycles and large vehicles like busses, etc. all of that experience changes the way I drive.
Also things like racing (not street racing, legal racing) helps you be a better driver. I’ve done some of that too. Oh and driving in other countries (left hand drive, right hand drive), good conditions, poor conditions etc. it all adds up as more experience.
Same here. I could write a book….
I'm not sure that it's made my driving any better because I was a cyclist before I was a driver so was always 'sympathetic' when I was driving. However many of my family and friends have said that knowing / being related to a cyclist has made them much more aware of cyclists when on the road and giving them a bit more room and / or time.
HAHA, I was racing bicycles before I got a driver's license. I had to unlearn swerving out and diving into corners, plus relax my aggressiveness, particularly when it involved breaking the rules like stop signs.
Since I now mostly cycle and rarely drive, I've adjusted my expectations for travel time, and drive slower than I used to as a result.
I get the feeling of moving fast from going at 20mph on my bike, so I don't need to chase that feeling when driving
There are a lot of habits that have carried over.
Like OP I've started looking both ways before crossing an intersection even on green.
Looking through the windows of the car in front of me to see what the car ahead of it is doing.
Watching the front wheels of the car and the driver's eyes to see where the car is going to go next.
Listening to the traffic. On the bike I could hear the brakes drag, the engine rev, and even sometimes even the turn signal clicking.
I also have a real aversion to speeding up or slowing down quickly. I do a lot of coasting.
Not only safer, but more efficient. Almost every motorist blindly drives the speed limit towards a red light until they have to hit the brakes. Obviously on a bike this would leave you gassed for no reason. I don’t ride for red lights, and it’s trained me to coast up to red lights regardless of the vehicle I’m using that day.
Riding has sharply honed my sense of light timing too.
Some people don’t get it though, they want to hurry up and wait, and spend more money on gas while they’re at it.
I train with power so I ride up to red lights and then turn right without stopping and then do a U turn if the light was red when I needed to turn left or straight but I get it. My goal is for an X minute training ride I am pedaling every moment from start to finish allowing lactate to build up and you get the best effect on adaptation with your muscles. But understand what you’re saying
I don’t believe training like that is effective in town, gotta get out to the boonies for the uninterrupted stretches. But yeah riding to ride vs riding to get from A to B is a valid distinction
I do both but it’s suburbs one more rural one is close to city but not quite.
When driving I always stop at the stop line at lights and stop signs and I come to a complete stop. As a cyclist I've seen drivers who roll through stop signs and didn't see me as I was in their blind spot behind the A pillar of their car
No. Cyclocross has taught me the importance of sprinting off the line, how to see the racing line through segments, to turn without braking, how to take space through entry and exit points, and that crashes are a fact of life.
I brake for most turns. I never crash. But I don’t race 😆
Riding a motorcycle did. I'm 55 and have commuted by bike for so long I don't remember if taking up cycling changed how I drove a car.
On a motorcycle I'm at much higher speed and fully in the traffic. Paying attention much more to the clueless drivers and thinking about what my escape plan will be.
I am now an infinitely safe driver: I sold my car and do not drive. Only bicycle.
Yes, and taking proper lines is another aspect. On the downside, I sometimes forget I am in a car and catch myself doing Idaho stops.
I live in a country where most people have been in the role of a kid riding or walking to school, and a considerable proportion of adults bike-commute, but especially my years of life in a tiny semi-rural town have made me appreciate reflective elements and lights so much I never ride my bike without a solid set of stuff that makes me extra visible. Giving enough room when passing cyclists and pedestrians is a no-brainer here, and I would never have gotten my motorcycle or car licenses had I shown disrespect for my fellow cyclists or pedestrians during the driving license tests.
I started riding a race bike on the road at the age of 13. I believe it made it easier for me to pass the driving exams, but I don't think it made me a better driver in the long run.
For sure. I'm hyper vigilant when I'm riding, and it definitely has seeped into my driving.
Racing made me 100x better at conserving energy and taking corners in a car
I now stop and check the path before I creep into it to check the road. Damn thats annoying on a bike to deal with but something I knew do without thinking
Yes. I pretty much don't drive any more.
I never drove a car, but cycling made me want a motorcycle eventually, and having plenty of experience riding in traffic I found the transition pretty smooth
I now call out and point to potholes and other road hazards so my fellow motorists can avoid them.
😆
Funny that I just posted about this in another thread. Yes, I think it also has been a big help maintaining my comfort and skill at driving even though I rarely do it (generally less than a week per year, and I've never had a 5-day-a-week commute by car). The first year I was at college without a car I came home for a couple weeks and felt very awkward behind the wheel. Then I got a bike and was biking to campus in traffic every day, and after a few months I went back home again and felt not the least bit awkward behind the wheel. My theory is that biking in traffic keeps you in the habit of watching and anticipating how cars behave on the road, and that is like 75% of driving skill, and most of what you need to know outside of handling the car which is mostly muscle memory.
I delivered pizza in college and learned then that speeding and otherwise driving like an idiot doesn't actually help you get anywhere any faster but after starting to ride bikes a few years ago I've definitely gotten a lot more careful around intersections and consciously check my door zone when getting out after parking on the side of the street.
Riding a bicycle made me a terrible driver. When I got on my bike and starting riding across the country for 80 days, I found that driving after nearly 3 months of not, took my skills down quite a bit for a few hours. :)
I drive a lot more conservatively where possible. In general I pay a hell of a lot more attention to pedestrians/cyclist crossings and take care to pass cyclists at a safe distance
Very much so...but I just have to remember to drive the car and not ride it...
It can go both ways, I guess...I like the sliding in a car in snow or rain...the handling of all that in control, and also all that on a bicycle.
I'm not so sure it hasn't made it worse, honestly. Sure I'm more mindful of cyclists, maybe I hsve a bit of Premium Rush Vision that carries over... But I sometimes miss turns because I'm going the way I'd go by bike, I sometimes have to stop myself from treating stop signs as.yield signs, sometimes I almost signal turns with my arms... and I now find descending mountain roads scarier in the car than on a bike because I have no room to maneuver and am passing so close to oncoming traffic. Obviously I'm more vulnerable on a bike but I also feel more nimble and like I have more options. Last time I drove through the mountains it was so nerve-wracking having trucks behind me pushing me to break 55 at all times that I was pulled over on the other side for the first time in decades, I guess because I was going so slow the deputy suspected I was drunk.
On the one hand, it makes me forget to stop completely at 4-way stops.
On the other, I check my right side mirror more before I make a right on red.
Ask Dave Mirra
It's hard to say categorically because I was riding a long time before I passed test, but I'm sure that it has made me a better driver- especially around cyclists.
I was riding a bicycle for years before I could drive.
Yeah, I can now draft 5 inches off the guy in front of me
It has made me more aware of cyclists around me and how not to run them off the road. Others have made that point though.
My contribution is that riding a bike has made me know my local roads much better. I see more just by virtue of moving slower and having better visibility. And plotting out a route ahead of time gets me on the side roads I might never explore in a car.
Well, I've been riding bikes since I was like 7, then had my licence for 15 years now, but yeah, I've never been a driver who didn't cycle. So I wouldn't know.
Most people I know were cycling from childhood, so that came before driving. How would we know if we drive differently?
If I am honest with myself, not really. If I’m on my bike I get annoyed at cars, and when I am driving I still get annoyed at cyclists.
I get annoyed at cyclists that aren’t riding like they’re supposed to. Like, dude, you’re supposed to ride with traffic.
That said, i definitely notice cyclists all the time when I’m driving, and I assume it’s because I’m more aware that they actual exist and are real humans
I certainly notice cyclists a lot more than I used to, probably because I am checking out their kit. But I still myself annoyed when they blow through red lights and stop signs when I am driving.
I hate pedestrians and cyclists when I drive, I hate pedestrians and drivers when I cycle, and I hate drivers and cyclists when I walk.
It's true, I hate to say it. After switching to bike commuting, I became much more judgemental about both cyclists and drivers when either is "doing it wrong".