Ideas for safer night commute
 

Hi, I work nights and only started 7 miles cycling to work in the last few weeks. I have the usual helmet, high Vis vest and lights but still shocked that some other road users still fail to see me. I enjoy cycling, but this is slightly off-putting. Any thoughts on other ways of staying safe.

Use neighborhood streets where you can. Avoid stroads.

As SkinGriz notes, route selection should be at the top of your list.

A flashing helmet light often (but not always) can be used to get driver's attention. Make sure your other lights are bright, charged, or have fresh batteries.

How you ride is important. You're riding with the traffic, correct? Right in the U.S., left in the U.K., etc. Ride a straight course, at least a foot or two away from the curb or fog line. Do not swerve in and out around parked cars; nobody can see you before you pop out on the back side of a minivan. You're better off riding steadily in the right tire track (for U.S. riders) than swerving in and out.

Something I have noticed is that the less expensive bikes with the reflectors in the wheel spokes and reflectors attached to the back of the pedals are much more easy to spot as a bicycle due to the movement of the reflectors. Even a bright pulsing light might be mistaken as a hazard light and not a bicyle with a person pedaling.

I would get pedals that allow for attaching reflectors and adding the wheel reflectors to your wheels. I would also try to avoid busy streets with parked cars along the road even if it means taking an additional 10 minutes to get to work or your home.

Avoid arteries

Serious lighting, flashing an uneven pattern

No salmoning

High vis colors are fluorescent in sunlight but do nothing in the dark. Lots of reflective stuff. Yes even the dorky ones on the pedals and wheels. Marathons and probably some other similar commuter tires have a reflective stripe on the sidewall. Reflective clothes and bags too. You can imagine a backpack blocking your reflective clothes. The ones that have reflective piping are more of a feel-good than effective.

Keep warm - maybe not this month in this hemisphere in this year!

Tangent about colors.

Did you know the F117 was originally supposed to be painted in a camouflage pattern of pastels? Because those wavelengths disappear faster in low light and would have been better than black in regards to contrast against cloud cover.

But real men don’t fly pink airplanes. So it was painted black.

Thanks all for the useful advice. My commute has roughly 50% cycle lane in London, but you get a lot of the deliveroo cyclist riding on the wrong side, or the odd motorist on the cycle lane especially at night. Sometimes I get into work very stressed from the near misses.

I've seen that story about various airplanes I think. The prototype Have Blue had a crazy quilt scheme and there was a later Nighthawk painted gray.

Nighthawks are still flying though it's on the hush hush. See Wikipedia for sightings

Still flying? Crazy.

The empire always comes home.

just googling the phrase it appears to come from a story about the X-15. Although it comes across on the peach-orange side for me

Vintage Air: Real Men Don't Fly Pink Airplanes

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...a5ae3998ef.png

I've seen glow rides publicized by my local bike project but there's lots of cheap ideas out there that are similar to glow lights. One guy near me wears a flashing multicolor glow light of sorts wrapped around his waist, which is effective. Also there's some small glowing circles (spoke lights) you put on a few wheel spokes and they are very eye-catching from the side. I haven't tried them yet but here's a picture.
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...3e68e209f6.jpg
spoke lights

If the roads are straight, at the point they're failing to see you, and if your lighting and reflective gear is sufficiently bright and attention-getting ... IMO it's hard to imagine they don't actually see you. Reasonably likely they are ignoring you. Which might suggest the routes you're selection (or forced to take) are well-populated with such people. Not a lot that can be done about that, aside from avoiding such routes as much as you can.

In my area, I have two or three such roads, where the rear-ending problem is frequent, and mostly due to vehicle drivers simply not given a damn about the deadly threat they're presenting. I won't go on those roads, as they're death traps. Not enough places with proper bike lanes, in my area. And so, it's high-viz gear and only going on particular roads at particular times. Aren't many other choices.

My own preference, which have seemed to greatly increase my visibility and the amount of space yielded to me by vehicle drivers:

• Tail light -- CygoLite HyperShot 350 -- on a random flash pattern, sometimes on a steady pattern
• Tail light -- CygoLite HyperShot 350 -- yes, a second one, on a different flash pattern than the first
• Head light -- CygoLite Metro Pro 1100 USB -- primary headlight
• Head light -- CygoLite Metro Pro 1100 USB -- a second one, helmet-mounted, on a flash pattern
• Helmet -- with very reflective "conspicuity" tape in all the right places; with a tail light and head light mounted
• Vest -- very reflective DayGlo type color
• Pedals -- with reflectors, such as the Velo-Orange Grand Cru Sabot
• Conspicuity (highly reflective) Tape -- can wrap around seat stays, chain stays, down tube, top tube, forks, for visibility from headlights from all angles

Could also add a tall flag ... you know, the sort that kids often have on their bikes when they're little and extreme visibility is required in their neighborhoods as they begin exploring.

https://www.identi-tape.com/3M-conspicuity.htm

https://cygolite.com/product/hypershot-350-usb/

https://cygolite.com/product/metro-pro-1100-usb/

Here's what I do, although have more bikes now, all with lights, just not spoke lights.

The other major safety devices I use are a take-a-look glasses mount mirror and all 5 of my bikes get AirZound airhorns.

I get positive comments on the LED shoes, but any lights that are in motion would help.

All great suggestions. Thanks all.

Include a rear-view mirror, and use it.

If you have the disposable income, Arclight pedals. The cool part is, no matter which way you spin them, the front is always white and the back is always red.

If you're like me and can't see the video, go to Quote and the link will show.

My experience is that it's safer to ride after dark, than around sunset/dusk time. Sunset/dusk maybe the golden hour for photography, but it's the death hour for cyclists.
In the winter time I would either ride home early when it's still bright, or I would sit in the office until after dark, before I ride home.

I agree with this observation. The weeks leading up to the change back to standard time are usually the worst for me. Starting off after it's really dark, my lights are seen better by cagers, to the point that I rarely have the close passes that were increasingly common before the time change.

Add lighting and maybe reflective gear. Observe your headlight and taillight from a distance, or have someone do it for you. Some people think their lights are bring and attention-getting but they’re not.

It’s good to use supplements, too. Maybe use two headlights, perhaps one flashing and one steady. You can also use two taillights, and they can flash at different intervals. I often ride with supplements such as a light in my rear wheel or a lit-up trouser band. I’ve received expressions of gratitude from those two things. I also put reflective tape on both front and back sides of my pedals. The unfortunate thing about safety gear is that you never really know if it works. You only know if it doesn’t work. I’d rather not give a reason for people not to see me, but the fact is, they’re not all looking for people like me, so I have to grab their attentions somehow. I don’t want to be obnoxious and flash eye-injuring lights, but I don’t think it’s necessary. A well-focused beam can seem bright when it really isn’t.

A light on your leg does something nothing else out there does. Moves up and down. People notice. The main reason I no longer use one is that my body no longer likes the strap carrying a battery light around my skinny legs. But I did it for many years. I now live in Portland which is pretty bike aware. Use the usual stuff. Tail light, vest, headlight and I put flashers just forward of the corners of my hips on the vest waist band to shine at left turning vehicles and those coming out of side streets. Drivers appear to see them.

Edit: A fun thing I did with my workhorse winter/rain/city fix gear after I had it painted with stock sky blue powdercoat. Went on line and searched 3M reflecting tape. Well, an industrial site had a wide variety of colors so I bought a roll of one that looked close. Upon arrival - score! Very, very close to identical other than a little pattern to it. Bike now wears the entire roll. It's blue so not super bright but there is a lot! And 3m tape is very good. Both for stick and reflecting.

As I posted in another thread:
The Jogalite wide leg band is very comfortable, and extremely reflective, all 360 degrees. I had two of them when I rode a lot at night. On cycle club night rides, when a cyclist even got a few hundred yards ahead of the group, our headlights really lit up the leg bands and the motion instantly showed "cyclist!".

I commute to work at 4 AM. Not much traffic, but that in itself is a problem because the few cars that pass may be paying less attention than usual (scary when you think how distracted drivers are usually).

I use two rechargeable blinkers in the rear, one on the helmet and one on the bikes rack, an 1100 lumen headlight (bright!), and tires that are called "Reflex" by Schwalbe meaning that they have a reflective ring around them. These reflective rings around the tires work... I took a flash picture of the bike at night once, and the rings around the tires washed out most of the picture!

That's a great feature for any road-going bike tire. On routes with lots of cross-streets and driveways, it's invaluable.

Have had them on a couple of bikes.

I have a friend that has a pool noodle that sticks 1-2 feet into the lane and he says he gets a lot more room.
His is like this- https://qz.com/1620913/the-best-cycl...-a-pool-noodle
Lights definitely help in my experience, most drivers are oblivious, but do not wan tto actually hit a cyclist.
Tom Palmer
Twin Lake, MI

retroreflective tape on the bike. If you don't want to adhere the tape to the bike for fear of ruining the paint, then first apply electrical tape, then retroreflective tape to that.