My number one concern when riding my bike on the trails and roads around White Rock Lake, as well as all the other connecting trails, is my safety, and the safety of all users.
Just a little background about me. I am 73 years old and am a competitive cyclist in my age group. I ride approximately 200 miles a week.
There are several easy things we can do to improve the safety of everyone using Dallas trails:
- First, all cyclist should announce “passing on left” when passing runners, walkers, strollers or other cyclists.
- Second, cyclist should always signal when changing direction or slowing down. There have been may instances where cyclists will turn left in front of others without signaling and have caused many near misses. Please be courteous when riding.
- Third, ALL cyclists, regardless of age, should wear a helmet. Being out on the trials, I have noticed the number of cyclists around the lake has increased dramatically. By law, children under the age of 18 must wear a helmet; but very few of the new cyclists, especially the young adults, are wearing helmets. The brain is extremely important, why would you not want to protect it? One thing I have learned from years of cycling is that eventually you will fall. It may be wet roads, a pothole, loose gravel, a dog not on leash or car pulling out in front of you, so please make sure that you are wearing protective equipment, especially a helmet, for when an accident does happen, if hopefully avoids it becoming very serious.
- Finally, as a last Safety component, I believe that having a light on the front and back of the bike makes one more visible especially to cars coming behind the bike or coming toward the bike and planning to turn.
Again, please be courteous to others and always be aware of your surroundings when out enjoying the trails.
