Safe Driving and Hazard Perception
Seeing and being seen
A moped rider is small and easily overlooked. Ride where you can be seen - not in a lorry's blind spot, not hugging the kerb where you disappear behind parked cars. Use dipped headlights at all times. Look far ahead, scan the road surface for gravel, wet paint, tram rails and drain covers, and plan an escape route. The two-second following rule becomes three or four seconds in rain, and much more on wet cobbles or fallen leaves.
Reading hazards
Hazard perception means anticipating what other road users will do before they do it. A ball rolling into the road predicts a child; brake lights ahead predict a queue; a parked van with its door ajar predicts a door opening. Junctions, bus stops, school gates and pedestrian crossings are the classic hazard clusters. In Bulgaria, watch for horse-drawn carts and agricultural vehicles in rural areas, and for pedestrians stepping out between parked cars in towns.
Speed and space
Ride at a speed from which you can stop within the distance you can see to be clear. Enter bends slower than you think necessary - a moped's small wheels and limited grip punish late braking. Keep a margin from the kerb and from the centre line; do not weave between lanes.
Traps
Questions offer an obviously "safe" answer and a tempting "assert your right" answer. The law may give you priority, but safety answers favour yielding to avoid a collision. Also beware of questions where the correct response is to slow down and wait, not to sound the horn or swerve.
Rule of thumb
If a hazard is close enough that you are asking "what if?", cover the brakes and reduce speed now - not when it happens.