Should you use bicycle lights both day and night?
Pop Quiz: what time of day do you think is the most common for accidents involving bicycles? If you answered night time you are incorrect. Many more accidents happen during the day time than at night.
Hopefully cyclists know the turning hand signals, but drivers may not know the signals or be paying attention to a cyclist while they are turning. A bright rear, red light day or night will catch someone’s eye. A car’s brake lights and turn signals operate day and night. It is much safer for a bicycle to have lights operating both during the day and at night.
Much better bicycle lights are now more available and have quickly become much more affordable at Denton Bicycle Center. Similar to the larger sized gigabyte flash drives that have become more affordable; brighter, more powerful lights are much more affordable than they were even 5 years ago.
In a recent talk on YouTube, John Burke, the president of Trek Bicycles said that because of safety and engineering innovations, “the statistics [show that], cycling is safer than ever but social media allows the news of the tragedies to be spread so wide. One person dying on a bike is too many. We need to be more interested in saving lives than selling products and there’s an incredible opportunity to cut cycling fatalities in the US in half over the next few years.”
Bontager has developed a bicycle light that can be seen 1.25 miles (2 km) away. It is just as bright as car lights if not brighter. The key is safety and being seen. Any bicycle light will help to keep you safe, as long as it means you can be seen by motorists during the day or the night. This will achieve the goal of reducing cycling fatalities by half.
The days are getting shorter and the nights are getting longer. Regardless of the time of day, however, it is a good idea to have lights on the front and rear of your bike. Increased visibility will increase rider’s safety and reduce the cycling fatalities. We have a large selection of lights at Denton Bicycle Center. Stop by today so you can keep riding safely both day and night!
