cyccommute 

Colorado's vehicle code is similar in that a reflector is required (per the UVC prior to about 2000) and a red facing rear light is permitted (per the UVC after 2000). Frankly, I'd like to see the reflector requirement dropped in favor of requiring active rear lighting with the reflector as optional.

Thankfully, Colorado doesn't have a bell requirement. You only have to give an audible signal when passing pedestrians. "On your left" is perfectly legal here.

rekmeyata

My voice is far louder than any bell, I've seen Electra riders ding their cute little bells and got no response from walkers, and a bell doesn't say what side of the path you're going to be on so walkers start to move in all directions making the situation worse! BUT I guess if your voice is weak a bell might be the better option, or better yet this: AirZound - Bike Horn which can be found on Amazon for $30.

scott967

Hawaii also the rear red reflector of size 4 square inch or larger is mandatory day or night. Other lamps (color not specified) are permitted but do not replace the reflector requirement. Side reflectors are required at night, (color not specified) but a lamp may be used "in lieu of" them. All have performance requirements.

Many rear red lights / flashers I see have included reflector elements but offhand I don't think they all would meet the 4 sq in requirement and are probably illegal if there is no other reflector.

BITD the reflector was on the rear fender or rack or brake caliber. Seat post mounted reflector is relatively new innovation.

scott s.
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Milton Keynes

A bit too bulky and likely way too loud for the morning walkers around town. I just want to alert them to my presence, not see how high they can jump! And I usually can find a way around them, if they're walking out in the middle of the street I ring my bell far enough behind them for them to get to one side or the other.

rekmeyata

I've actually found it safer to try to pass fast without any warning, because all warnings, be it bell or voice, or voice saying on the left makes people move to the left, to the middle, the right then back to the left and then sometimes back to the right, or they don't hear a thing due to earbuds which is becoming increasingly more the issue. I've actually seen cyclists crash or get run off the road because some moron who can't tell what side of a path they should walk on (you would think they would just follow the pattern that cars use and all walk on the right side of the path, but noooooooo), then when told someone is coming up on their left they move left into the cyclist path! So I don't say anything if there is room to pass as I approach either on the right or left, I just put the hammer down and pass. The only time I don't do that is if the entire path is taken up by walkers than I slow down and shout on the left then pass once the morons figure out which way is right and actually all go right.

Milton Keynes

I ding my bell about 30 feet behind the walkers or even more if I'm going faster. Normally if they just stay on a straight course I can pass them no problem. Where the bell helps is when the walkers are in the middle of the street and it would be dangerous for me to pass by quickly. And one of the walkers said she was glad I got the bell because before I had it I had scared her so many times passing her without warning.

rekmeyata

I know I scared quite a few, but guess what? I don't care, I've found it safer most of the time not to warn people because like I said in my last post they'll go left, left then right, left, right, then left again. People are stupid, just walk like you drive your car and you'll all would be fine, but apparently when people are walking or running all thought processing goes out the window.

What I can't figure out in our city, and it's getting worse as time goes by, is that people are walking down the middle of the street! I would understand that if there were no sidewalks except these streets have two sidewalks on each side of the street! If a car comes they just keep walking down the street as if they own it while the car owner is honking to get them to move.

Milton Keynes

Well, I do care because many of the people I meet walking early in the morning are customers at my business. Not only that, it's a small town and everybody knows me. The last thing I want to do is foment some ill will toward myself and toward cyclists/cycling in general.

And when they hear the bell they're very good at getting over to one side or the other instead of running around like a herd of cats.

rekmeyata

Ok, in a small town like where you live you may have point, but I live in a larger city very, very few people would know me if I buzzed by. Again, I don't do this to be a bad boy, I do it because I end up with less conflicts in the long run; I don't have to barrel race around people!

PaulRivers

Just wanted to say I live in a big city and have had the same issue. Ring a bell or say something, you have no idea where they're going to go. I give people at least a body-width of space when passing them (usually more but that's the minimum) and just go around them after a few people tried to jump into my path when I said "on your left". Now I don't say anything, I'm not sure if it's more startling but it's definitely less accident prone - no one has ever thrown themselves into my path when I don't say anything and pass them. Their mental process when hearing something is to scatter any which way, their mental process when they see me on their left is never to go to their left.

You really need to give them enough space when passing so that if they move their's still space between you. For for courtesy, and because some people are wearing headphones that you can't see until you're past them and they can't hear any noise anyways.

When I'm winter biking with studded tires on dry pavement, the tires make a "rice crispies with milk poured in" sound, I wish I could find a device that would make a similar low level pleasant sound so that people paying attention to their hearing could hear me coming up behind them, without any of the issues involved with saying on your left of ringing a bell.

noglider 

In his book Just Ride, Grant Petersen suggests sewing jungle bells on a loop strap and hanging it on the handlebars. It will ring passively most of the time. When you actively jiggle it, it will ring louder. I like the idea and have bought the supplies to make this but haven't gotten around to it yet. I have a bike with a Chinese urban bell on it, and it works that way.

rekmeyata

That's been my exact experience riding in large cities, and now it's getting worse with earbud and phones and or music. I see people yakking on their phones with buds on and flinging their arms about as they weave down the path. I almost wish law enforcement would simply ban walkers and runners off of bike paths. Today I saw a cyclist crash because a walker was being erratic, and when the cyclists yelled on his left the guy either didn't hear him or turned left instead of right and the cyclist had to run off the path and lost control of his bike and it slid out from under him, most of this was due to poor bike handling skills but still; anyway he wasn't hurt nor damaged the bike but he was pissed at the walker so they exchanged pleasantries.

01 CAt Man Do

Tom I couldn't stopped laughing when I first read this. Not because I don't believe you, but because when I visualize a cop writing a ticket for "not having a bell on a bike"...well...it would be like being written up for tearing the tags off of a mattress. If something like that happened to me I think I would tell the cop I was going to take the issue to court and that if he/she didn't show up I was going to make sure ever other cop in the court room knew who wrote me a ticket for not having a bell and how proud they were to do such a thing....then after I said all this I would not show up for the court date....LOL!

BTW, I didn't own a bell until just after I read your post. I'm now a proud owner of a bell app so now I'm good to go. ( actually, it's pretty loud...makes me giggle just to hear it. Can't wait to try it out in places where I have to wait in line to get waited on. )

rekmeyata

requiring a bell is just insane, Indiana requires it but the only bikes I see in stores that have them already fastened on before you buy the bike are kids bikes, but none on adult bikes, but the law says it's required on all bikes. Fortunately where I live the law enforcement don't care about it.

But the bigger question is, what are bells suppose to do? it can never warn a motorist of our presence because they'll never hear it with their windows rolled up not alone music playing or earbuds on, and another cyclist or pedestrian will rarely hear it because most of them today wear earbuds. So what is the bell for? I'll tell you what it's for, it's for grandkids to ding like crazy and drive a grandfather nuts! LOL!! I bought my grandson last week a Giant XTC that came with a bell, and yup, he's driving me nuts with that dang thing.

unterhausen

bell laws are to allow law enforcement to harass people if they want. There was a case a while back where a person got off on a bell violation because they could shout a lot louder than a bell. I think I would probably do that. One of my bikes has a bell on it, I never use it. I have shouted at motorists, it's amazing how far away they can hear you. Shouted at a guy for running a stop sign at speed, mostly just to see if he could hear me. Yup. People don't like it, but they don't like horns either.

I will reiterate that attaching a rear light to clothing or bags is a really bad idea. I think it would be legitimately considered to be against the law because it often isn't visible. In fact, I don't think I have ever seen such an installation that was effective even a majority of the time. As a backup, I suppose it doesn't hurt anything. OTOH, many states require pedal reflectors, which is an impossibility with clipless pedals. I use ankle bands, which work really well in my experience. Reflective wear is also really effective. It's just that lights are too directional. If someone comes up with a light that isn't directional, then that would be different.

PaulRivers

A lot of times that's one of the big reasons, another reason is it allows companies who sell bells to sell more of them. Imagine how many more bells you're going to sell when bikes are required by law to come with them.

01 CAt Man Do

I agree to a point. I've seen people attaching blinkies to backpacks and such. Not the perfect solution obviously but it's better than not having any rear light at all.

My bike shoes have reflective bits on back of the shoe. This should provide the same up/down motion if viewed from the rear. I plan to upgrade this by adding some reflective DOT 2 reflective tape over the original OEM reflective stuff. DOT 2 is FAR more reflective than the typical 3M stuff.

andr0id

Actually upward and downward pointed light lose a lot of visibility in just a few dozen yards.

I don't ride at night, so I'm not using my light to illuminate the street.
I aim my head light so the bright spot on a wall is the same height as the light from down a long hallway.
I've checked it outside and it is very visible from a 100 yards. It's one of those Urban lights that mounts on a GoPro mount.

Back light is looped around my seatpost and might tilt up a bit, but I try to get it as level a possible also. It is less adjustable. I need to make a Sugru wedge to get it at the right angle.

rekmeyata

Last night I saw my first backpack with that weird orb shape thing sewin into the back of the backpack...all I can say is don't waste your money, the brightness of that thing was so bad I barely noticed it even when I was pretty close to the rider, in fact I saw the rider before I even noticed the glowing orb! My headlights completely washed it out.

01 CAt Man Do

Well, maybe you forgot something; protocol. Passing without warning, while it may seem to make sense to you, could have legal repercussions if indeed you happened to run into someone OR if someone runs into you. If you call out "on your left" or ring a bell and the people do something stupid like jump in front of you...Hey, then it's on them...to a degree. I say to a degree because when passing you still have a responsibility to control your bike. That means you have to pass, "safely", even if that means slowing to a crawl. Now if you don't give audible warning when passing you can still have people suddenly move into your path, it can happen. That's how commuter paths are and why the rules state you MUST give warning when passing. If you give no audible warning you risk danger to yourself and others. If the people don't hear your warning that doesn't give you the right to ignore potential danger. You still have the responsibility to pass safely even if that means riding by realllllllly slow. When I pass on commuter paths I give a warning at about fifty feet. If I see no response I slow and repeat when I'm at about 10ft. As I see it you are ignoring safety rules simply because you find it inconvenient to safely control the bike. I've walked commuter paths before and I know what it's like to get buzzed by a cyclist. That said, it's one of the reasons why I hate to ride commuter paths when they are busy.

Yeah, walkers are a PITA because they are often distracted. Keep in mind it works the other way as well. Some months ago I almost ran into a jogger on a commuter path because I was looking at my GPS map........Stupid Me!....Taught me a lesson though, " I will never mess with an app again while riding on a commuter path"!

njkayaker

No one is arguing it's not better than "not having any rear light at all".

The problem is that, while such lights might be "better", they are often much worse than properly installed lights, which aren't really much harder to use than crappy lights.

njkayaker

It's not surprising that no one really does this.

Most people use bells infrequently. Why would they want to hear gratuitous noise for all of time they don't need a bell? And I listen for other things (which having noise makers would hinder).

njkayaker

Another way to say "mostly useless" (as I said).

noglider 

You're probably right that it will annoy me. As for what use it offers, think of bear bells.

Athens80

Where do you see these rules? Are these local MUP rules -- surely they're not common among traffic laws -- is anyone required to give a warning when passing on roads?

If that's the rule the community decided on for a MUP, well it's a rule, but I'm sceptical that such a rule is a net improvement.