We just read this on our local cycling group’s Yahoo Group, and I thought it was both enlightening and worth sharing. Please pass along the link to anyone you know that commutes by bike and isn’t en-light-ened:
It appears a fair few people have made a New Year’s Resolution to commute by bike. On Monday evening I saw four people on bikes commuting. Except for one guy on Old Battleground, none of them had a head light. One had a tail light on the bike, another had a tail light on the helmet and one had no lights at all.
The guy with no lights appeared to be the brightest of the bunch though. He was walking his bike off the edge of Holden Rd.
The guy with tail light on the bike was the one that spooked me the most though–I encountered him shortly after pulling onto Lake Brandt Rd. I noticed him as I pulled level with him going in the opposite direction. Had he been faster I might have pulled out in his path because he was invisible from the front.
Helmet light guy was a similar situation (just about the same location except I was approaching from behind this time). The light mounted up high like that with no passive (reflectors) or active lighting on the bike made it appear he was around 200 yards further up the road than he actually was when he was in the black holes between street lights.
My point–If you need to ride when the sun doesn’t shine, get a head light and a frame mounted tail light. The head light to reduce cut-offs by pull-outs and left-crosses and so people can find you in their mirror when they merge into your lane; a frame mounted tail light so you are recognizable as an SMV at the expected range. The vehicle code is written with safety paramount–flaunting it does no one any good.
Thanks to Michael for the tip!
