As you probably now know, either from your computer or by showing up to work an hour before everyone else this morning, Daylight Savings Time ended for the year on Sunday. Besides being darker and colder earlier in the evenings, another side effect is that bicyclists will be harder to see on their rides home from work. Since we only take up about four square feet of road space to begin with, the challenge is in making cyclists more visible at night to keep everyone safe on the road.
The most obvious safe option for this is to use a bright front white and rear red light. There are dozens of varieties on the market, easily found in your local bike shop or online through a retailer like Amazon. I'd recommend going in person with your bike to a shop if you can, though, so you can make sure the light will fit your bike's bars. BikeArlington was on hand at the Columbia Pike and W&OD trail intersection on Thursday evening to remind cyclists about the time change and install lights on bikes that did not have any. Fifteen more cyclists are now fully visible on the road from both the front and back!
Another simple solution is to purchase reflective adhesive tape, such as that made by 3M, and attach it to any conceivable location on your bike or its accessories to make you stand out at night. It comes in a ton of colors, so you can coordinate it with your bike's paint color. For those who don't want to tape anything directly to their bike, adding the tape to a commonly used messenger bag or your bike's fenders is a good option. Make fun designs with it! The more unusual it is, the more likely it is to catch a motorist's attention.
The less obvious options to make yourself more visible to cars are some extremely low-tech to ingenious-but-complicated DIY solutions I've found online.
Chic Cyclist in Boston came across a gentleman who had a simple solution for his spokes: old CDs, face in. Vehicles' headlights will reflect in the silvered undersides, lighting him up like a Christmas tree. Brilliant!
Handsome-Ryan at Instructables.com offers a cheap way to mount lights on your front fork to avoid cluttering up your handlebars.
Engineerable.com shows how to make and attach an LED light to a backpack, for those of you who enjoy wiring things up. This is good if you have more than one bike, or if you are often using someone else's (like a DC SmartBike).
Here's another one for the engineering-oriented. Leah Buechley, an e-textile entrepeneur, came up with a fairly complex
solution to put turn signals behind her -- literally. Her turn signal jacket
lets her control the flashing arrows with buttons on the hoodie's wrist
cuff. For greater visibility in the dark, this idea can be used to
leave both lights on or set to flash.
Lastly, in contrast to the example above, here's a quick low-tech solution when you find yourself stuck somewhere at night without a bike light. Wrap a rubber band once around a cheap flashlight; place the flashlight under your handlebar and pull the rubber band up and over the bar; loop the rubber band around the back end of the flashlight. Result? An upside U-shape of a rubber band that will let your flashlight hang without too much swinging or slipping. Thicker rubber bands work best for this, but I always keep a few small ones on my handlebars (since they're easier to come by) and a couple thin bands will work just as well as a thick one if the flashlight is light enough. This method is great for holding all manner of items, really.
Think you've got a better idea than all of these? Share it in the comments section, and then upload it to Instructables; they're offering up three pairs of Cordarounds (which we were hip to way back when)to those with the best ideas. Their deadline for entry is November 15th.
Remember, DC, Maryland, and Virginia all require at minimum a white front light and rear red reflector for every cyclist after dark, but it's always safer to go above and beyond to stand out from the crowd. If drivers are staring at whatever visibility enhancers you add to your ensemble, they're not running into you.
Be safe out there!
Melissa Esposito is the Car-Sharing and Bike-Sharing Program Coordinator for Arlington County and likes the low-tech solutions best.
