Dull safety lecture
I got home last night and realized I didn't have a thing worth eating in the house. So I went ahead and changed clothes and rode the trainer for a half hour to get that out of the way. Then I jumped into the car and headed back into town to buy some dinner. It was dark out but not totally nighttime.
Heading up Hwy 86 and coming into the corner at New Hope Creek, I saw an oncoming minivan swerve into my lane. Oops. So I hit the brakes and eased over a bit myself to give them as much room as possible. I figured it was just another Minivan Moron yapping on his/her cellphone or fiddling with the radio.
After they went past, in the headlights of another oncoming vehicle, I saw what caused them to swerve - a cyclist. One wearing black tights and a dark cycling jacket. At least his helmet was a light color. The bicycle was a dark color, too. After I went past him and before the next oncoming car had blocked my view, I looked into the mirror and confirmed what I suspected - no blinkie light. And sure enough, that car had to swerve left to avoid the cyclist. It's was easy to see way - the drivers were dealing with the headlights of oncoming cars like mine. A cyclist wearing dark clothes wouldn't be seen until the last seconds.
I see this all the time in the Triangle. Cyclists in dangerous situations (semi-rural roads, narrow and curvy, considerable traffic, hazy or dark skies) wearing dark clothing and not using lights. I wonder if these people have a death wish or are just stupid.
Let's get the legal stuff out of the way first: if you are on a road at night in NC, you have to have a light. Since laws seem to have little effect on peoples' behavior, let's consider the other aspects of this question:
1. Lights are cheap, they don't weigh much, and are easy to attach to the bike. No mechanic needed. And unless you are training (as in, with a coach, on a team, with corporate sponsorship) you don't need to be sweating the 3 oz light anyway.
2. Wearing bright-colored clothing when out & about at night is one of those things I thought everyone learned in 3rd grade. I sure did. If you chance getting caught by sundown, one of the things that belongs in your cycling bag is a bright-colored nylon vest of the sort sold in cycling shops as a wind vest. If that's too expensive, the same article is available in running shops at half the price. You can even buy them in WalMart in the hunting section for $1.99 - I have one rolled up in my cycling bag. I doubt it weighs more than an ounce.
3. And if all of the above fails, blinkie lights are a necessity. Just get one. If you fear it being stolen, all of the quality light makers (Cat-eye, Nite-Eyez, etc) have models with quick-release mounts so you can remove the light and stick it in your pocket. I tend to turn mine on when I am riding in the late afternoon and dodging in and out of the shadows of trees. I've noticed that when I have the light on, cars notice me much sooner judging from the fact that I see them move over to pass sooner than if I don't have a light.
If my appeals to your self-preservation have no weight, think of this: people dislike being startled. And driving home after work, coming around a curve to find a nearly-invisible cyclist in your path so that you have to slam on brakes or swerve into the other lane certainly startles most drivers. And in that respect, you are no better than the jerks on bicycles who run stop signs or ride on sidewalks. You are just contributing to the ill-will toward cyclists that a lot of people seem to harbor.
Heading up Hwy 86 and coming into the corner at New Hope Creek, I saw an oncoming minivan swerve into my lane. Oops. So I hit the brakes and eased over a bit myself to give them as much room as possible. I figured it was just another Minivan Moron yapping on his/her cellphone or fiddling with the radio.
After they went past, in the headlights of another oncoming vehicle, I saw what caused them to swerve - a cyclist. One wearing black tights and a dark cycling jacket. At least his helmet was a light color. The bicycle was a dark color, too. After I went past him and before the next oncoming car had blocked my view, I looked into the mirror and confirmed what I suspected - no blinkie light. And sure enough, that car had to swerve left to avoid the cyclist. It's was easy to see way - the drivers were dealing with the headlights of oncoming cars like mine. A cyclist wearing dark clothes wouldn't be seen until the last seconds.
I see this all the time in the Triangle. Cyclists in dangerous situations (semi-rural roads, narrow and curvy, considerable traffic, hazy or dark skies) wearing dark clothing and not using lights. I wonder if these people have a death wish or are just stupid.
Let's get the legal stuff out of the way first: if you are on a road at night in NC, you have to have a light. Since laws seem to have little effect on peoples' behavior, let's consider the other aspects of this question:
1. Lights are cheap, they don't weigh much, and are easy to attach to the bike. No mechanic needed. And unless you are training (as in, with a coach, on a team, with corporate sponsorship) you don't need to be sweating the 3 oz light anyway.
2. Wearing bright-colored clothing when out & about at night is one of those things I thought everyone learned in 3rd grade. I sure did. If you chance getting caught by sundown, one of the things that belongs in your cycling bag is a bright-colored nylon vest of the sort sold in cycling shops as a wind vest. If that's too expensive, the same article is available in running shops at half the price. You can even buy them in WalMart in the hunting section for $1.99 - I have one rolled up in my cycling bag. I doubt it weighs more than an ounce.
3. And if all of the above fails, blinkie lights are a necessity. Just get one. If you fear it being stolen, all of the quality light makers (Cat-eye, Nite-Eyez, etc) have models with quick-release mounts so you can remove the light and stick it in your pocket. I tend to turn mine on when I am riding in the late afternoon and dodging in and out of the shadows of trees. I've noticed that when I have the light on, cars notice me much sooner judging from the fact that I see them move over to pass sooner than if I don't have a light.
If my appeals to your self-preservation have no weight, think of this: people dislike being startled. And driving home after work, coming around a curve to find a nearly-invisible cyclist in your path so that you have to slam on brakes or swerve into the other lane certainly startles most drivers. And in that respect, you are no better than the jerks on bicycles who run stop signs or ride on sidewalks. You are just contributing to the ill-will toward cyclists that a lot of people seem to harbor.
posted by Strayhorn at 4:30 PM
1 Comments:
Well said Thomas. Our people need to hear this over and over to get it across. The "ill will toward cyclists" is exacerbated by jerk cyclists. The sport and the desire to commute by bike will not ever proliferate until drivers want to be part of the identifiable, other road using group. How we behave on the road has to engender respect not contempt. Keep riding.
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