Night Cycling - Be Safe
In one of the previous blogs we stated that cycling at night or in bad weather is not very safe thing to do. However, there might be situations that you need to use you bike where visibility is weak or you just enjoy it.
The only thing you can do is to make sure YOU are well visible to the other commuters.
The most obvious factor is putting lights on your bike. But you need to remember where to put them as adding a couple of lights in front and in the rear won’t make you safe.
1. Use a combination of steady and blinky lights (in wet conditions blinky lights are confusing). In the front, wear a white blinky light on your helmet and have a steady white headlight on your handlebars. In the rear, wear a blinky light on your helmet and have a steady red light on the back of your seat.
The advantage of a combination of steady and blinky gets the attention of motorists and provides them with enough visual information to judge where you are at all times.
2. Light yourself in an eye-catching way, but make sure motorists can tell you are a cyclist. This might include a fluorescent green down tube, a waistband and the spokes of a front wheel strung with blue-green LEDs.
3. Change the batteries of your lighting system frequently or frequently recharge rechargeable batteries for your lighting setup. Make sure your bike is brightly lit at all times.
Once you’re well lit and visible, have fun and take the most of your night cycling.
