visibility at night

I read of two cyclist deaths today. One in southern illinois, near st louis, and the other in south carolina. Both were riding at night. So what do you do to be more visible at night?

I wear one of these vests with blinking leds. Yes I look like a dork, but I think this is a great way to be visible.

http://www.ledtronics.com/products/ProductsDetails.aspx?WP=C352K648

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Permalink Reply by Gary Gilbert on June 22, 2009 at 3:03pm
I haven't worn it much in the winter but haven't had a problem in the rain. I think I've had this one for about 5 years. I bought one which is larger than I need so I can wear it over a variety of clothing.

BK said:
First of all, no you don't look like a dork. A cyclist should be more worried about their comfort and safety than how they are perceived by others. Trust me, in the winter I look pretty funny too with my moose mitts and goggles but I'm warm and that's pretty important when it's -15. I'm sure you look much better in your vest than you would after being road-killed by a car.

I like that vest actually and I'm glad you included the link. I may have to get myself one. I always wear a reflective vest in the dark and most times during the day too. I also have front and rear blinkies. I usually also wear blinking ankle straps to help with my side visibility when it is dark.

If you search "loud lightning" you should see an interesting past discussion from Vando concerning some lighting issues and there are good pictures and links there too.

How does the vest hold up to snow and rain?
Permalink Reply by Gary Gilbert on June 22, 2009 at 3:11pm
The two guys who were hit are in these articles.

One was hit at 1AM by a drunk driver in southern IL.

http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/jun/22/bn22gafney082633...

The other at midnight with no lights in SC.

http://www.wmbfnews.com/Global/story.asp?S=10570185

The issue for me is what can I do to be visible. Riding at midnight or 1AM is not something I do in the 'burbs very often --- I think cyclists are less expected at that time of the night where they roll up the sidewalks at 8pm. :)
Permalink Reply by Gary Gilbert on June 22, 2009 at 3:18pm
thanks for the link to the story. I used to live in that part of CA. The deputy was remorseful and I wouldn't put him in the same class as others who have killed cyclists. As I recall earlier stories, he fell asleep at the wheel near the end of a 12 hour shift. A tragedy for sure.

h3 said:
This one got under my skin as well . . . very well written piece.
http://www.contracostatimes.com/california/ci_12660510
I never ride with less than two blinkies (on my helmet) but there is supposed research that keeps getting brought up in lighting discussions that drivers will actually drive toward blinking lights.
Anyways, Gary, do we know what the riders in the deaths you mentioned may have done to to be visible? (I know that level of detail is a longshot but sometimes things like that do get mentioned in articles).
Permalink Reply by Reddog (Cliff) on June 22, 2009 at 3:43pm
I have a headlight, and a tail light. and a heck of a lot of reflective tape.
I got some of the Uber reflective 3M kind. I have it on my frame, my spokes, my cargo rack, and the back of my helmet.
Permalink Reply by Chucko on June 22, 2009 at 3:45pm
Depends on where I'm riding. In the city, just a blinky on front and back, since street lights make visibility less of a problem. When I ride up into the burbs where I work I use a bigger rear blinky (Planet Bike Superflash- almost impossible to ignore) and a full on headlight (Nightrider Minewt) that's almost as bright as a car headlight.

The key though in my opinion is defensive riding. I always assume people in cars can't see me. Obviously that won't prevent every possible accident scenario, but it definitely helps.
Permalink Reply by Chucko on June 23, 2009 at 12:15am
Actually, Mark, I finally started doing it. There's a sidewalk the whole way which no one ever uses, so I've just been riding on that. It's apparently the way many cyclists go to get down Dundee since it's basically four lane superhighway. I just couldn't stand doing it on the fixie since all those curbs at street crossings killed me. But the Long Haul Trucker doesn't mind a bit. Makes my commute a cool 40 mile round trip. But I'm always on the lookout for a good street route that doesn't take me to Deerfield or Northfield.

M.A.R.K. said:
Still not riding Dundee Rd. Chucko from the train to work? That always kind of shocked me, and to this day I still am looking for an alternate route. I have found a bunch but they ad some serious milage to the commute.

Chucko said:
Depends on where I'm riding. In the city, just a blinky on front and back, since street lights make visibility less of a problem. When I ride up into the burbs where I work I use a bigger rear blinky (Planet Bike Superflash- almost impossible to ignore) and a full on headlight (Nightrider Minewt) that's almost as bright as a car headlight.

The key though in my opinion is defensive riding. I always assume people in cars can't see me. Obviously that won't prevent every possible accident scenario, but it definitely helps.
Permalink Reply by Greg Coleman on June 23, 2009 at 2:04am
I currently use two lights blinking on my handlebars and two blinkys for the rear, one on my helmet and one on my bike. I use Planet Bikes for all, Super Flash in the rear and the .5 watt Flash for the front ones. I enjoy being well lit as it makes me be noticed. I've had fewer incidents at night than in the daytime due to this set up. Last fall, I had a guy in a taxi cab try to be funny and asked me if I ever been hit riding with all those lights. When I told him it was only a month since the last time I got clipped, he tone immediately changed and he was apologetic and a little dumbfounded.

When I used to ride to Northbrook for work, I had another headlight on steady the entire ride, aimed at the first few feet in front of my bike. Not only did this increase my visibility along the unlit portions of my routes, but it also allowed me not to have to switch light modes while riding so I could have more optimal viewing of the road.

As for suburban riding on sidewalks, I used to ride along a few roads that had signs posted that cyclists should use the sidewalks. The roads were narrower and drivers were actually sometimes very aggressive towards cyclists. While some of these sidewalk-lanes were okay, there were others that were flat out dangerous due to the high hedges by driveways; drivers would pull their car out far enough to see car traffic, slow enough that someone walking within a few feet could stop, but fast enough that a cyclist could easily collide with them. Those sidewalks I would avoid at all costs during the daytime, but were actually okay at night because you could see even lights through the hedges.

M.A.R.K.: Thanks for the BIG article!
Permalink Reply by Gary Gilbert on June 23, 2009 at 5:04am
I have no problem talking about lighting and sidewalks; lighting and not sidewalks; or sidewalks and not lighting :)

I used to commute to Schaumburg from Arlington Heights. I would transition from the forest preserve path into or from Woodfield road. Sidewalks, even wide sidewalks intended for cyclists are invisible to drivers. They are busy looking at the road and not the sidewalk and simply don't see pedestrians or cyclists. I think sidewalks are ok for cyclists up to about 6 or maybe 8 mph. I used the sidewalk / bike path heading west since there was no convenient / safe place to cross Woodfield road and get into a west bound lane. I used the road exclusively heading east since I was in the right place. There were rarely pedestrians on the sidewalk. There were often other cyclists and it was a bit narrow to pass in opposite directions but since these were other commuters -- we often acknowledged on another.

For the past few years I have been a telecommuter and don't ride to work in a car or by bicycle. I simply walk across the hall into my office!

h3 said:
Kristian M Zoerhoff said:
M.A.R.K. said:
I am not familiar with that expression, sorry for the confusion..

As far as sidewalk riders, Do bikes not belong on/in the streets? Isn't it in most places, if not all, illegal to ride on sidewalks even if it goes unenforced? My question still remains, how do we get them from the sidewalks to the streets? Were talking suburban life here, not city life. I pass more people on the sidewalks(even on neighborhood vs. arterial streets)then I do in/on the streets going unnoticed im sure by most. And the sidewalk can be a very dangerous place since people aren't paying attention to faster moving traffic on sidewalks.. If there was more of a presence in the streets maybe we could push for better streets.

It depends on the 'burb; most that I'm familiar with only ban sidewalk riding in business districts, and at least one (Schaumburg?) mandates sidewalk riding if the sidewalk is a bike path.

Coming back to the visibility angle, the least visible riders I've ever encountered are the unlit sidewalk riders that are so prevalent in Elgin. Being on the sidewalk, they're completely out of the reach of most headlight beams, and having no lights, they're like ghosts when they roll up to intersections. I sometimes consider whether I should carry my old CatEye lights with me to give out to folks like this, but I'd run out the first night.

Well, it seems this thread is now about lighting and sidewalk riding (Gary was the one who said "sidewalk" after all :-)

On the Schaumburg thing-- they're got this bicycling mayor, and this german connection, and that's how they ended up with west germany-style bikeways (e.g. integrated into a hopefully widened sidewalk).
I got into cycling when I lived in germany and appreciated these sort of paths greatly for getting around town, running errands, basically laid-back riding. I could see how they would be seen as a hindrance for someone trying to get through a leg of a 15-mile commute. We often forget that there are different kinds of cycling . . .
Permalink Reply by Pippy Duchamp on June 23, 2009 at 7:33am
3M reflecty tape is the awesomest. I have it mostly on my helmet.
Its great because you can use it to make whatever kind of pattern you want, and cover any surface on your bike or your person. And it comes in all kinds of colors so you can get all crazy with it.
I also have reflecty stuff on my messanger bag, and I have blinkies for my bike.
The thing is, sadly, there is no amount of visibility that will protect you from a drunk driver. Or a stupid driver or an angry or distracted driver. Of course its important to be visible for all the non-impaired drivers out there (there are a few) but I'm just saying.


Reddog said:
I have a headlight, and a tail light. and a heck of a lot of reflective tape.
I got some of the Uber reflective 3M kind. I have it on my frame, my spokes, my cargo rack, and the back of my helmet.
Permalink Reply by Brian Bird on July 5, 2009 at 7:21am
What to do? Two things. Be visible and ride defensively.

To be visible when I ride at night, I have two working front headlights for redundancy - one a 5 LED Cateye light mounted on the handlebars, the other a 6 volt headlamp mounted above the front wheel powered by a wheelhub generator (courtesy of Peter White Cycles). I use the Cateye to illuminate the road signs on the right - the hub light shines on the pavement 2-3 yards in front of my bike so I can see any road hazards (potholes, roadkill, et al.). I also have two rear-mounted LED blinky lights - one on the seatpost, the other affixed to the back of my helmet. I wear a florescent safety bib over my white/yellow cycling jersey and have three velcro florescent strips wrapped around my lower left leg above the ankle.

In riding defensively, I always assume the person driving the car doesn't know where I am. I never try to beat a car to an intersection and will wait until the intersection clears - fully expecting any driver to blow through the stopsign/yield sign w/o so much as tapping the brake. That philosophy has kept me from getting hit by clueless drivers at least twice in the last year.

Night riding is lots of fun . . . but you must use caution and care when doing it. Safe travel to all!
Permalink Reply by Mario Perez on July 5, 2009 at 10:54am
1. I find that I sometimes forget to pack my lights, or am out after dark unexpectedly and didn't think to pack lights. But, I never forget my helmet. So I copied Howard's example and rigged a white light to the front of my helmet and a red blinking one to the back. So I always have that at a minimum.

2. I also use at least one flashing light on either the rear of my bike or backpack. I carry a reflective vest with my bike tools and patch kit which are almost always with me, but I find I rarely take the time to put it on mostly because it doesn't fit over my shoulderbag/backpack very well. I really should use it at night though.

3. When I have occasion to be in a car at night, I find that reflective tape on a biker really stands out. Though in fairness, I don't yet have reflective tape on my bike or helmet, (besides last seasons BikeWinter sticker).

In terms of "dorkiness," I guess my desire for survival trumps my vanity. And besides, even without lights I'm pretty dorky anyway. A few light aren't going to change that much. :-)

In all seriousness, while I can comprehend the vanity associated with wanting to be cool, I don't think it's really worthwhile to attempt an argument seeking to justify a lack of attention to personal safety in favor of looking cool. Lighting, helmets and good gear can help you prevent injury.
Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on December 26, 2011 at 2:51pm

Good tips, Mario.  I also place desire for survival over vanity.


I've been seeing an ad recently that takes bike visibility to another level.  Does anyone know how they lit up the bikes in this ad?  I don't care about the product.  I just like the bike ride scene.

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