Staying Visible At Night
It’s a fact of life that the majority of cycling done in the UK is on roads without dedicated cycle ways. This means that cars and cyclists must share the same space. They need to be aware of each other and respectful of each other. This is not the place to get in to a political argument over the car v cyclist debate but what we will do here is show you some ways to be more visible when you’re out on the bike which will hopefully prevent an accident from happening in the first place.
Lights
Pretty obvious this one – the more you have and the brighter they are the more chance you have of being seen. The law as it currently stands demands that cyclists have a white front facing light and a red rear facing light during the hours of darkness. They can be flashing if you want, but must have a minimum 1100 field of view. We would recommend two of each, one steady and one flashing. If you are riding in the dark then you will need a steady front light to see by anyway.
Lights come in all manner of brightness’s, sizes, styles, colours, etc. We suggest you do plenty of research and talk to other users to get the right ones for you. Beware though of using lights for off-road riding on the road, these tend to throw a very bright, and very wide beam potentially dazzling car drivers and causing the accident you are trying to avoid!
Clothing
Hot on the heels of good lighting is bright reflective clothing. It’s obvious that black clothing worn at night is going to make you less visible to other road users than brightly coloured clothing. If you’re looking to buy something for darker conditions also look out for clothing that has reflective details sewn in as part of the construction. There are some really good highly reflective jackets available these days that will make you stand out. Pro-viz is a favourite of ours and is reviewed here.
Reflectors
Along with reflective clothing adding some reflective detail to your bike in the dark, especially on the moving parts will help to make you stand out. In fact, in the UK it’s the law that all cycles sold should have orange reflectors on the pedals although in practice this isn’t always the case. But just the simple addition of a couple of spoke reflectors will make you more visible to other road traffic. In the absence of reflective pedals, a good alternative is to wear a reflective flexible strap on each ankle. These will catch the light pretty well, and are visible from 360° making them very eye-catching.
If you’re riding in the dark with a rucksack, consider a reflective cover that catches the light as you move.
The Road
Where you can, stick to using roads that are well-lit, wide, and quiet. We appreciate that getting all three at the same time is pretty much impossible in the UK. However, so long as the road is well-lit lit then you can deal with the rest. If you can utilise roads that have cycle paths then that’s even better.
Also in the dark, you probably want to think about positioning yourself more in the centre of the road where you will be visible to road traffic. This also has the advantage of keeping you away from potholes and puddles that tend to be in the gutter.
Ride As A Group
If you can, ride with one or more other people. The more of you there are (taking the precautions above) the more visible you will be to other road users. A group of lit and well reflected cyclists is going to be pretty hard to miss.
Final Thought
This post is particularly applicable in the winter when the nights are long and the days are gloomy. However the advice here is actually useful all year round. We are big advocates of having ‘running lights’ on during the day with a flasher front and back. Brightly coloured clothing is another obvious essential. We have to share the road with other users so let’s do our bit to help them see us.
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