I always need instructors. I can help you to certified to teach. I need all areas of expertise and interests. The most common interest is teaching new cyclists how to balance and ride around town.

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Would you like to be a safety expert? It’s a sacred privilege to give life and death advice. Everything you’ll say in a class is because you’ve read the study/law/theory behind it. I’ll guide you through reading this material.

DATA. The foundation of understanding safety. What to focus on, and why. It’s best to have the most recent and local data.

• Portland causes of cyclist crashes. National data of cyclist deaths. If interested in pedestrian safety, Portland causes of pedestrian deaths and Corvallis (most recent/closest) causes of pedestrian crashes.
• American literature review of causes of crashes and deaths for cyclist and pedestrians. Understand causes in other locations. How are they similar? What are trends?
• What causes “right hooks” (top cause of driver/cyclist crashes)? How do we know 2/3rds of drivers don’t check the bike line before turning through? This study explains.
• Know speed vs death. This is the seminal literature review. Know this inside out. Pop article with interactive graphs
• Literature review on barriers to biking. Top barrier is “fear of motorist aggression”. We address this in classes!

THEORY. Based on data, what are safe practices?  What are the hazard avoidance maneuvers that prevent the top causes of crashes and fatalities?  We’re traffic instructors, so we focus on this.  Safe practices are universal and timeless.

• Oregon Drivers Manual. You can’t understand traffic without reading this. If you don’t read this, you’ll be confused at what you see and experience in traffic. This is also Oregon’s greatest bicycle rights document, as it describes drivers’ responsibilities to yield.
• How bicycles operate in traffic. And watch the imbedded 4:55 minute Vimeo video.  https://cyclingsavvy.org/road-cycling/
• Understanding Cyclists’ Position on the Roadway: https://vimeo.com/272643165.  11:05 minutes.
• When cyclists should release: https://cyclingsavvy.org/2021/07/control-and-release-with-ian-whiting/ and https://cyclingsavvy.org/2020/11/control-release-for-safe-passing/
• ODOT report on “right hooks”, the top cause of driver/cyclist crash.  Skim this, to get a sense of the problem.  It contains many solutions, mostly infrastructure.  A behavioral takeaway is that 2/3 of drivers never look to see if the bike lane is clear before driving through.
• Hazard from turning trucks: https://cyclingsavvy.org/what-cyclists-need-to-know-about-trucks/
• How far to ride from parked cars.  Two videos of the League’s Education Director teaching this module: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyKFtMNgT34 and https://www.facebook.com/bob.shanteau.3/videos/107920732553063. Similar teaching by the ABEA: https://cyclingsavvy.org/2018/08/bike-lanes-dooring/
• How to conduct a pass.  Created by Honda for motorcycle safety.  Applies to all small and slow traffic.

LAWS. Now that you know data and theory, do Oregon laws align with safety theory? Some do, some don’t. Laws change over time and location. Laws are a low bar for safety. Instructors should know every local law, have opinions on how good every law is, and teach accordingly.

• Oregon bicycle laws, arranged by topic.
• Pedal Power, written by our attorneys. This is how Oregon courts interpret laws in common scenarios. Our attorneys say that courts work against cyclists. Even if a cyclist has a legal right, courts will ignore it. But courts will add responsibilities onto cyclists that aren’t in the laws. We must understand these complexities, in order to teach the laws.
• Attorney explains Basic Rule when the sun is in your eyes.