The Chainlink

     I ride quite a bit at night, mainly on the south side (Pilsen, Bridgeport, McKinley Park, Brighton Park).  Riding and driving, I note that the vast majority of bikers I see (sometimes just barely) at night have no front headlight.  Many don't even have a rear reflector, much less a light or blinkie.  For example, look at the video for the Monday Night Ride on this website.  Many if not most of the riders, who I am sure are great people, have no form of illumination whatsoever.  I have a few questions for you ninjas:

     1.  Why?  Is it so hard to purchase some small light, per the Chicago ordinance, so that people can see and avoid you?  There are plenty of inexpensive lights that will do the job.  Is this some kind of aesthetic issue, an attempt at rebelliousness, or just plain laziness?;

     2.  Do you understand the danger that you place yourselves and others in?;  

     3.  Do you understand that bikers like you make people resent bikers in general, thus hurting the cause of us all?  Or is it your actual purpose to antagonize?;

     4.  Is this more of a south side problem, or is it relatively uniform throughout the city?  I do know from experience that Wicker Park isn't any better than where I live.;  

     5.  Do you drive cars without headlights?  Do you think that would be OK?

      When I see photos of an accident scene involving a biker who was hit at night, I always try to discern if they had lights.  From what I can tell, almost always did not. 

     I know I sound crotchety here, but I just don't understand the point of risking death or serious injury because of refusal to do something as simple as make yourself visible to other people on the roadway.  

     And yes, my own bike is almost as illuminated as Snoopy's doghouse in the Charlie Brown Christmas special.  

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I'm alright. It was completely my fault. I was on California going south near Peterson. There was a dip in the road and I fell over. Had I be paying more attention and had a stronger light I would have seen that sneaky bugger.


Tandemonium said:

Oh noes! I hope you are alright. If I recall correctly you commute over in our area and there are some major road hazards around Wilson/Francisco. Where about did this happen?

Ifi Susana said:

Yeah just got into a crash yesterday because I could not see a huge dip in the road with my little light. I usually don't ride at night and if I am, I am not usually going more than 16mph. Of course that night I was and my little blinking light did not help. Lesson learned. 

Yo, dude! Why no lights?! Cuz it ain't COOL !
Lights/flectors on my ride, no way !
Ruins the look man ! Duhh ! !
Ninja say, "see ya, not me!"

"no lights" are the new "no brakes"

Forgot-- my perception is that attention-getting front lights may make you more of a target for street people in questionable areas.

Ah, context makes a big difference in understanding where you're coming from.

h' 1.0 said:

Forgot-- my perception is that attention-getting front lights may make you more of a target for street people in questionable areas.

I think that's more true of this type of discussion than one might expect. Maybe as important as knowing whether someone has a one or 12 mile sommute when talking about dressing for winter commuting.

I would say the majority of my riding is on secondary and residential streets, and per mile ridden I'd guess at least 60% is after midnight. I rarely encounter any stretch that's not well lit, and on many of my rides I have next to no interactions with motor vehicles. Example-- I ended up Divvying from Andersonville to Little Village around 2 AM Sunday night (had been planning to take the Western bus from Leland but I got duped by an almost full dock with 2 broken slots that were showing as empty on Cyclefinder.)
 

I swear I didn't encounter 5 cars the whole trip.... it was great.


Anne Alt said:

Ah, context makes a big difference in understanding where you're coming from.

h' 1.0 said:

Forgot-- my perception is that attention-getting front lights may make you more of a target for street people in questionable areas.

And on that note-- the Divvy only has a flashing front light.  Would most here consider them unsafe for night usage because of that?

Mine is an odd mix. Night riding is mostly in/near downtown or in/near my neighborhood - mostly quiet residential streets with little or no traffic where some drivers are very aware of cyclists and some are clueless. Daytime riding could be almost anywhere in the city on all kinds of streets, some with viaducts where I appreciate having lights for visibility.

h' 1.0 said:

I think that's more true of this type of discussion than one might expect. Maybe as important as knowing whether someone has a one or 12 mile sommute when talking about dressing for winter commuting.

I would like to add wearing cycling apparels with reflective material(shirt, shorts, shoes, bike gloves, etc) help greatly.  I have seen some people use reflective tape on their bike if they don't have reflectors.

I'm sure Darwinism will eventually weed these people and keep them from reproducing offsprings with the same mentality.
 
Serge Lubomudrov said:

I have started the discussion about lights about a year or so ago, with almost the same set of questions. I can't explain this phenomenon, except by a general and, though not exclusively, very American trait of individualism: I do what I like and if you don't like it, go fuck yourself. Nothing can change it, neither law (which is not being enforced, anyway), nor high probability of injury or even death.

The beauty of the bicycle is that one can just get on it and ride to places one would not typically be able to reach on foot.  I am not eager to see anyone killed while bicycling no matter what sort of choices they might make, but I understand that a lot of people relissh that thought.


 
Fai Mok said:

I'm sure Darwinism will eventually weed these people and keep them from reproducing offsprings with the same mentality.
 
Serge Lubomudrov said:

I have started the discussion about lights about a year or so ago, with almost the same set of questions. I can't explain this phenomenon, except by a general and, though not exclusively, very American trait of individualism: I do what I like and if you don't like it, go fuck yourself. Nothing can change it, neither law (which is not being enforced, anyway), nor high probability of injury or even death.

What are you talking about, they have flashing rears integrated into the triangle?
https://www.divvybikes.com/faq


h' 1.0 said:

And on that note-- the Divvy only has a flashing front light.  Would most here consider them unsafe for night usage because of that?

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