Moped Highway Placement
Whether you have done your CBT, or if you have a full license acquired through a direct access course, the chances are you’ve been taught to get familiar with riding in the middle of the road. Most people who ride scooters too will tend to ride near to the kerb side of the road as they feel that they can’t keep up with the traffic. This is simply not the best place to be!

To cover off 50cc scooters first, whilst you may feel annoying holding up the traffic on quicker roads, sitting over to the left really encourages people to overtake in potentially hazardous situations where they might think they are able to ‘squeeze’ through, what this means is they’re usually very close to you and would possibly not leave enough room should anything sudden happen. Riding in the appropriate position on the road can certainly make the driver overtake only when it is 100% safe and sound to do so as they will likely need to overtake on the opposite side of the road and will certainly not desire a head on impact. Your safety is paramount over the car behind arriving at his or her desired destination promptly.

So how do you have to place yourself on the road as motorcyclists / scooter riders? The answer to that is all over it, you need to place yourself in the position that enable you to see the most and be seen the most. Say as an example you are approaching a left hand bend, the best place to be is actually over on the right hand side of your lane in about a ? position, you will be able to see further around the bend should there be any dangers halfway around, cars coming towards you will spot you sooner, and whilst they shouldn’t be on your side of the road it is good for them to know you are there. It will also stop drivers overtaking you precariously when they’re blind as to what is coming around the corner in front of you. The same applies for right hand bends but visa versa, you ought to be over on the left side of the road so you can see further around to the right.

This riding technique can feel strange to start with and quite a few riders begin to turn in too early, however, you should not turn in before you can easily see fully round the bend. Preparing in advance is the key to making this work and you should always be looking well ahead up the road and planning the next bends whilst always searching for dangers, as opposed to watching the bumper of the vehicle in front. Doing this, it will be easy to get yourself in the appropriate position before you even reach the bend and it will all just be one smooth motion.

There are exceptions to this rule however, the concept of riding safely and swiftly is to develop a protective ‘bubble’ around you, and you don’t want anyone entering that bubble, which means you look well ahead to place your bubble in a position which will make sure people see you and you see them, avoiding them from entering it. Say for example you are coming to a right hand bend and there’s a T-Junction just before to your left, obstructed by hedges, cars will tend to poke themselves out a touch to see the road better because they have a large bonnet in front of them. So where you may normally be over to the left in anticipation of your right hand turn, it could be the better choice to stay more towards the right of the road to avoid the car that might pull out of the junction. 9 times out of 10, there will be no car, but planning for there to be one means when there is, you are in a suitable position to see it and more importantly for them to see you and keep them out of your bubble. Road conditions are another exemption, if there is mud or ice on a patch of road, possibly loose gravel from a resurfaced road, then it makes sense to avoid it and stay on the clear patches of road.