Proper Rules for Riding a Motorcycle on the Highway

Most serious motorcycle accidents occur on highways. Many people get used to riding bikes at low speeds on urban streets and in traffic. Due to lack of experience or carelessness, several mistakes can happen while riding a motorcycle on the highway, leading to accidents. Many, after riding at low speeds in traffic, speed up on open roads without understanding the situation, which can lead to accidents. Therefore, it is essential to know the rules for riding a motorcycle on the highway well.

Correct Rules for Motorcycle Riding on Highways

To make bike riding safe on highways, the highway police offer 6 important tips. These include: using a helmet, controlling speed, riding carefully on bridges, cautious overtaking and cornering, and being aware of speed breakers. There are also some related issues that experienced bike riders know. It is very important to bring these issues to your attention as well. Let's learn the rules for motorcycle riding on highways:

Things to Keep in Mind While Riding on Highways

1) Mental preparation: Before starting a journey on a highway, the first thing to remember is that riding a bike on urban roads and riding a motorcycle on highways are two completely different things. One must ride with a calm mind and prepared for highway conditions. 2) Bike Servicing and Tuning: To avoid any mechanical faults with the bike on the highway, it is best to get the bike serviced or tuned beforehand. It's best if you can tune your bike yourself. If not, get it checked at a good servicing center before hitting the road. 3) Safety Gears: There is no substitute for careful bike riding. But before that, thinking about your own safety is definitely a wise decision. So, always use a good quality helmet. You can also use body armor or a bike riding jacket. These accessories also look great and provide extra safety. Keeping hand and leg guards will be beneficial. Even if an accident occurs, you will be largely protected from serious injuries. Good quality riding shoes or boots and hand gloves will give you a good grip. All in all, having these basic safety gears will give you confidence to ride on the highway. However, even if others are not possible, you must wear a helmet while riding on the highway. Riding a bike without a helmet is a punishable offense, and riding on a highway without a helmet is out of the question.

Expert Opinions on Using Helmets on Highways

• Many people say that wearing a helmet makes it difficult to breathe or to see road signs properly on the highway. This is actually a matter of habit. Make sure your helmet fitting is correct and doesn't shift during riding, causing problems. Initially, you should get used to riding slowly on the highway. Once it becomes a habit, wearing a helmet will feel as normal as daily tasks.
• When wearing a helmet, you don't feel the rush of wind on your face. So, even if the bike is at high speed, it might feel like the speed is not that high, and there might be a tendency to unnecessarily increase speed. Be cautious about this.
• Sound also reaches the ears less when wearing a helmet, but there is no need to be worried about it. It is expected that you will gradually and easily understand the sound of other bikes' horns and your own bike's sound if you ride regularly.
• Keep the helmet's visor clean. Ensure your vision is not obstructed.

4) When crossing bridges: While crossing bridges, excessive pressure and wind are felt on the bike. Such strong gusts can cause the bike to lose balance. If a large vehicle like a car, bus, or truck passes by at high speed, its gust can also create imbalance. This needs to be observed. Keep your lane on the bridge and maintain a safe distance from large vehicles. 5) Rearview Mirror: It is crucial to maintain the bike's position on the highway by understanding the condition of vehicles behind you. Therefore, always use rearview mirrors. Removing rearview mirrors is not a matter of style. Traffic laws also prohibit riding without rearview mirrors. So, always pay attention to your rearview mirrors on the highway. This way, you can ride a motorcycle on the highway as a conscious biker. 6) Visibility: Keeping yourself visible on the highway is very important. Its importance is even greater at night or in cloudy weather. You should always ride a bike wearing light-colored clothes. You can also wear a reflective vest. This will allow nearby large vehicles to easily see you and give way. 7) Turning and Cornering: Extra caution is essential during turning and cornering. Nearby large vehicles or buses/trucks often do not notice bike riders. Therefore, turn or corner your bike while maintaining as much distance as possible from these vehicles. Reduce your bike's speed when taking a turn. When making blind turns, always use indicators, pass lights, and horns. Additionally, pay separate attention to three things during turning and cornering: 1. Is the road for turning uneven or broken? 2. Is the curve of the road wide enough for cornering? 3. Is the road muddy or slippery? If the answer to the above questions is yes, then cornering or turning can be dangerous. In such cases, you must be extra careful and proceed slowly. 8) Overtaking: Most accidents on highways occur due to overtaking. A major reason for this is the incorrect use of indicators, pass lights, and horns. Therefore, use indicators, pass lights, and horns when necessary for overtaking, and avoid forcefully overtaking through gaps between other vehicles. However, experience is even more important when it comes to overtaking. If two fast-moving large buses or trucks are moving both in front and behind you, it is very natural that one bus might try to overtake you and go ahead. And most highways in Bangladesh are not wide enough for two buses and a bike to travel in the same lane. Since large buses or cars are often oblivious if a bike is not in their line of sight, to avoid an accident, let the large vehicle behind you go first, or increase your speed and get in front of these two vehicles. This way, you will be safe. 9) Using Indicators: It should be specifically stated that when riding on the highway, always use indicators correctly. This will make your turning and cornering safer. If you take a turn using an indicator, the vehicle behind you will understand your movement and slow down or give way. If you don't, your bike might be hit due to misunderstanding. So, use indicators correctly. 10) Speeding: Many people have a mentality of speeding as much as they want on highways out of excitement. In this case, first, it must be remembered that a highway is not a race track. Additionally, riding a bike at excessive speed can cause surrounding vehicles to appear blurry due to tunnel vision. That's when the likelihood of an accident increases. Therefore, you must speed on highway roads according to the situation and necessity. This is a characteristic of a perfect biker. 11) Braking: When braking on the highway, you should brake according to your speed. Sudden braking increases the chance of an accident. Your motorcycle might lose balance without proper braking, or the vehicle behind might not understand sudden braking and collide. Using engine brake without pressing the clutch is also a good option in this regard. 12) In Rain or on Wet Roads: If it rains or the road is wet, the road situation changes completely. Tires don't get good grip, brakes have problems, and overall bike control changes. Ordinary tires grip much less on wet roads, so they can skid even when braking. And since you cannot change your bike's tires repeatedly in the rain like on a race track, it is definitely better not to ride on wet roads, or if you do, ride very slowly and carefully. 13) When riding at night: When riding at night, always keep your bike's headlight on. Keeping headlights on is also very important when riding in a group. It is important to check if the headlight reflector and front cover are clear and clean. Otherwise, even if the headlight bulb is good, you will not get good light. If other riders or drivers cannot see you easily, that is a safety issue. Auto headlight on and DRL systems are used in bikes so that you are easily detectable to the bikes in front and behind you. So, be conscious about using headlights. Also, make sure your bike's taillight is working correctly. 14) Speed Breakers: Speed bumps may appear occasionally on highway roads to control speed. It is normal to lose the bike's balance if you speed over them without noticing. Usually, speed breakers have long white lines. However, if these are absent or worn out for some reason and the bike rider doesn't see them, problems can arise. So, be alert by noticing distant speed breakers beforehand, and even if there are no lines, slow down carefully at speed breakers by using your headlamp's light. 15) Not riding while sleepy/listening to loud music: Among the rules for riding a motorcycle on the highway, one of the most important is not to ride when tired or sleepy. Fatigue can set in at night, during the day, or after riding for a long time continuously due to lack of sleep. If you lose control of the bike at this time, it becomes difficult to prevent an accident. Also, sometimes people ride listening to loud music on earphones, which causes them not to hear horns or surrounding sounds on the highway. Earpods or earbuds inherently prevent outside sounds from reaching your ears. In such a situation, not being able to hear horns or signals can also be very dangerous.

Conclusion

Overall, the main things a bike rider needs on the highway are alertness, caution, and experience. Experience will come gradually as you ride. But before that, you must be aware of your bike's condition, the surrounding road conditions, turning, overtaking, speeding, and braking techniques. Otherwise, a major accident can occur. So, keep all these things in mind. Obey traffic laws. May your highway journey and bike riding be pleasant.

Frequently Asked Questions about Highway Bike Riding

1. How important is mental preparation for riding a bike on the highway? - Before starting a journey on a highway, the first thing to remember is that riding a bike on urban roads and riding a motorcycle on highways are two completely different things. One must ride with a calm mind and prepared for highway conditions. 2. How important is bike servicing and tuning before riding on the highway? - To avoid any mechanical faults with the bike on the highway, it is best to get the bike serviced or tuned beforehand. 3. Can one ride on the highway without safety gears? - It is best not to ride a bike on the highway without safety gears. Therefore, considering your own safety, one should definitely ride with proper safety gears. 4. How important are rearview mirrors for highway riding? - It is crucial to maintain the bike's position on the highway by understanding the condition of vehicles behind you. Therefore, always use rearview mirrors. Removing rearview mirrors is not a matter of style. 5. Should indicators be used while overtaking? - Most accidents on highways occur due to overtaking. A major reason for this is the incorrect use of indicators, pass lights, and horns. Therefore, use indicators, pass lights, and horns when necessary for overtaking, and avoid forcefully overtaking through gaps between other vehicles.