Originally Posted by
Tombaatar
The weather has gotten cooler in Houston and the number of riders on the shared use trails has increased exponentially. This morning i saw three cyclists, two of them commuting, and one getting exercise with no lights or reflectors. Another with no tail light and a front light of about 10 lumen.
Aside from the fact that they are putting their own lives at risk at intersections they are also endangering pedestrians and other cyclists.
Boggles the mind. Why?
I saw the same situation a month ago driving down Washington Ave. (4 lane street) to a downtown customer at 6:30am. It was dark out.
One guy on a road bike in road gear with only a rear red light. He was invisible from the front. He was riding in the left inbound lane for many blocks. I don't know what he had against riding in the right inbound lane, which caused traffic to pass him on the right.
Another guy on a MTB commuter with no lights whatsoever. He was invisible in all directions.
Both were going toward downtown. An HPD SUV passed both without even mentioning a thing to them, and that cruiser had a full size rear window graphic stating/showing the safe passing distance law for cars passing bicycles on the roadway.
And what I mean by invisible is you don't see the bicyclist until you are right on top of them in your 3500 to 5500 pound vehicle. Especially invisible because your eyes are being blasted by car head lights and your night vision is blown.