Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Safe Cycling II: Lighting the way

I have said before that I think cyclists have two obligations: not to harm another vulnerable road user, and not to die on a ride ourselves if we can avoid it. One practical and legal consequence: we ought not to ride on sidewalks. Another: we ought to ride with lights at night.

Any light beats no light at all. When I ride, I carry a couple of spares that I can offer to cyclists I encounter who don't have lights on. I personally carry two lights on my front handlebars, and a tail light. I also carry a small bag under my saddle with spare batteries. I have one flashing light on my handlebars, and one steady light. I cycle this way because I believe
strobing lights make it difficult to track and predict my speed. My flashing front light indicates my presence very clearly, but I think having only a flashing light would make it harder for other road users to see where I'm going or how quickly.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Welcome! Thank you for taking the time to comment.

We welcome comments from everyone, and we especially welcome feedback from people who don't agree with what we have written.

We insist on only three things in the comments you leave:

1 Avoid profanity

2 Show reasonable civility

3 Do NOT post spam

We review comments with iffy language and product links on a case by case basis.