Please don't ride your bike on busy streets after dark

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Reflective gear is super important, but it gets dark at 5 PM now and some of us actually use bikes for transportation. "Stop doing your daily commute/errands" is not a reasonable ask any more than telling you not to drive after dark if you don't feel confident that you can see cyclists. We should wear brighter gear and more lights, and you should drive carefully and expect to share the road.

You can blame other people all you want (and we know cyclists love to blame everyone else for everything). But you'll be the person who's dead if a driver doesn't see you.

And you are the person with the $50 ticket and lifelong guilt.

Oh please, they won't get a ticket.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Seriously? Don't bike after dark?

Drive more carefully.

PP, you are a MORON. Where exactly do you think you are? This is a major metropolitan city and you think biking after dark is a good idea?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please don't drive your car on busy , multi-use streets after dark if your vision has declined to where it is difficult to see bicyclists or pedestrians. It is an accident waiting to happen when you cannot see someone legally using a crosswalk at 5:30pm after work, or a bicyclist in the bike lane at 5:30pm after work. This is actually not meant to be snarky- many of us, as we age, suffer from reduced ability to see our surroundings in the dark and if this is you, you need to take some responsibility for yourself and not drive a 2 thousand pound vehicle at 30mph through intersections where you cannot see clearly. Use public transport, or walk.

Wrong thread. This is about pedestrians and cyclists making sure they are visible at night. It’s very simple and has absolutely nothing to do with driver’s eyesight. It is difficult for a person with 20/20 vision to see a dark object against a dark background.

Not the wrong thread at all. If your car has working headlights, shining ahead as you drive, you can 10000% a person or a cyclist without reflective gear in your path. If you cannot- no shade- then you should not be driving at night or you need better glasses. Truly.

This is just silly. Go drive around at 6pm and tell us how easy it is to see people. It can be quite difficult no matter how careful you are.

It IS quite difficult which is why you need to slow down, drive a smaller car that can stop more quickly, or preferably both. This isn’t suburbia, you can’t drive your Suburban around at 45 or even 35MPH and expect everyone to wear a beacon for your convenience of tearing through their neighborhood.

This little hissy fit from cyclists is very tiresome. Do more to make yourself visible to drivers -- or don't! It's totally up to you. I'm just telling you that what bicyclists are doing now to make themselves seen in the dark, generally speaking, isn't working. You'll pay the price for that, not me.

You'll sit in jail for vehicular manslaughter and have to live with the fact that you killed someone biking legally in the bike lane because you were too proud to admit you could no longer see in the dark, or you refused to pay proper attention to your surroundings, or both

Not really. Shockingly few drivers are prosecuted for accidentally killing people.

Oh good, now we're moving on from threatening to casually murder someone to gloating about being able to get away with it.

People like you are the problem with society.

Not gloating. I'm neither a driver nor a biker. I walk or take the subway. I'm just saying that in my neighborhood little kids have been hit and killed, and literally nothing has happened to the drivers. It's weird.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Seriously? Don't bike after dark?

Drive more carefully.

I am mostly a biker and a walker, and as a result I am an extremely cautious driver.

It’s next to impossible to see a biker at night.

Don’t be an idiot.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Seriously? Don't bike after dark?

Drive more carefully.

I am mostly a biker and a walker, and as a result I am an extremely cautious driver.

It’s next to impossible to see a biker at night.

Don’t be an idiot.

A lot of people do it seeing normal lights/reflectors. If you have a hard time seeing lights and reflectors then please get your eyes checked to see if you have a condition. It's not normal.

I'm not taking about people who have no lights or reflectors.

WABA recommends using as much reflective material as possible when cycling at night in order to increase visibility beyond what is mandated by law, including reflective vests, wheel reflectors, tires with reflective strips, reflective ankle band, backpacks, stickers and decals. Not sure why you don’t want to take professional safety advice.

“recommends” isn’t a force of law. And that’s what’s needed now. Laws. Leaving it up to individual riders to do the right thing isn’t working. There needs to be bike safety laws, with enforcement.

Doing this will save lives.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please don't drive your car on busy , multi-use streets after dark if your vision has declined to where it is difficult to see bicyclists or pedestrians. It is an accident waiting to happen when you cannot see someone legally using a crosswalk at 5:30pm after work, or a bicyclist in the bike lane at 5:30pm after work. This is actually not meant to be snarky- many of us, as we age, suffer from reduced ability to see our surroundings in the dark and if this is you, you need to take some responsibility for yourself and not drive a 2 thousand pound vehicle at 30mph through intersections where you cannot see clearly. Use public transport, or walk.

Wrong thread. This is about pedestrians and cyclists making sure they are visible at night. It’s very simple and has absolutely nothing to do with driver’s eyesight. It is difficult for a person with 20/20 vision to see a dark object against a dark background.

Not the wrong thread at all. If your car has working headlights, shining ahead as you drive, you can 10000% a person or a cyclist without reflective gear in your path. If you cannot- no shade- then you should not be driving at night or you need better glasses. Truly.

This is just silly. Go drive around at 6pm and tell us how easy it is to see people. It can be quite difficult no matter how careful you are.

It IS quite difficult which is why you need to slow down, drive a smaller car that can stop more quickly, or preferably both. This isn’t suburbia, you can’t drive your Suburban around at 45 or even 35MPH and expect everyone to wear a beacon for your convenience of tearing through their neighborhood.

This little hissy fit from cyclists is very tiresome. Do more to make yourself visible to drivers -- or don't! It's totally up to you. I'm just telling you that what bicyclists are doing now to make themselves seen in the dark, generally speaking, isn't working. You'll pay the price for that, not me.

You'll sit in jail for vehicular manslaughter and have to live with the fact that you killed someone biking legally in the bike lane because you were too proud to admit you could no longer see in the dark, or you refused to pay proper attention to your surroundings, or both

How often do drivers actually get charged? I’m not saying it’s right, just saying jail is unlikely.

Because we don’t charge people who aren’t at-fault.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you people ever get tired of talking about your stupid bikes?

Pretty sure a driver started this thread. Y’all ever get tired of destroying the earth?

Never. And I look forward to a day when we can begin driving on other planets and moons, too.



(I felt a question as stupid as yours deserved an equally stupid answer)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hey - if you are a cyclist or pedestrian who wants to increase your visibility, I highly recommend these jackets: https://www.bikelaneuprising.com/product-page/reflective-windbreaker

I drive and cycle, and cyclists who bike at night w/o lights are a real hazard to themselves and others. LED lighting is very cheap now. For riding at dusk and beyond, I have a front headlight, a back red flashing light, and a flashing string of LED lights wrapped around my bike frame. The Brightz brand makes all manner of bike lighting.

And that’s awesome that you do that. You’re being responsible. The problem is other riders aren’t.


But there’s no standardized lighting requirement, and no law enforcement to ensure that riders comply. And that’s what needs to change. We need laws, and enforcement to ticket violators. Obviously this doesn’t affect you because you’re already acting in a safe manner. But we need to require all riders to do what you’re already doing.

I really don’t understand the resistance that some cyclists here are putting up against registering/tagging and annual safety inspections of bikes to make sure they have safe lights. I don’t get it. Why oppose this?

We require cars to be registered, tagged and safety inspected every year to make sure their lights work. I cannot fathom why bike riders would be opposed to this. Dumbfounded.

Umm...I drive and bike. The difference is that my car's lights are part of my car. My bike lights are not part of my bike. They need to be removed very regularly to recharge. They are not installed at all, they are basically held on with rubber straps. Spoke lights are more part of the bike, and awesome and high visibility, but less standard. Why even inspect the bike itself in that case?

The purpose of an annual inspection is to verify you have safety equipment like lights. If you choose not to use them, that’s what ticketing and enforcement will be for. And registration, to ensure that your inspection paperwork is verified.

The process would be almost identical to cars.

Bikes use the roads, they need to be registered and road-legal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Seriously? Don't bike after dark?

Drive more carefully.

The most careful driver in the world will hit an object in the road that is not visible. Reflective clothing was invented for a reason.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Reflective gear is super important, but it gets dark at 5 PM now and some of us actually use bikes for transportation. "Stop doing your daily commute/errands" is not a reasonable ask any more than telling you not to drive after dark if you don't feel confident that you can see cyclists. We should wear brighter gear and more lights, and you should drive carefully and expect to share the road.

You can blame other people all you want (and we know cyclists love to blame everyone else for everything). But you'll be the person who's dead if a driver doesn't see you.

Right, but the OP says that cyclists seem to "pop up out of nowhere" which means she has a vision problem and shouldn't be driving at night. The fact that the person would be dead doesn't mean that no cyclists should ever ride at night ever or nobody should ever walk anywhere at night. Removing every other user that you don't want to slow down for from the transportation system is not the answer, even if you could technically kill them and probably get away with it.

When I’ve stopped at a stop sign to allow another car to proceed and then pull away from the stop sign and get T-boned by a cyclist who blew through the other stop sign - they ARE indeed popping up out of nowhere.

Because that vey thing happened to me at 37th and Warren st NW.

A cyclist ran into me as I was leaving a stop sign and hit the right front fender of my car. It was at night, they didn’t stop, and she ran into me in the intersection. It caused $3,700 damage to my car, and she had serious injuries and went to the hospital. Then she didn’t even offer to pay my deductible for the damage.


So yes, cyclists DO “come out of nowhere”. All the time.

That cyclist was biking illegally and not following traffic laws, which has nothing to do with their reflective clothing or lack thereof. No one expects you to necessarily anticipate someone blowing through a stopsign. That's not what this thread is about.

If that rider who blew through the stop sign had lights, a driver would’ve at least been able to see them out of their peripheral vision and possibly avoid them.
If bicycle riders wanna act like a-holes, they should at least light themselves up so we can see them coming before they zoom through a red light or stop sign.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Seriously? Don't bike after dark?

Drive more carefully.

The most careful driver in the world will hit an object in the road that is not visible. Reflective clothing was invented for a reason.

Bikers don't want to be required to do anything at all. They want to do something that is very dangerous but it's everyone else's job to make sure they don't get killed doing it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please don't drive your car on busy , multi-use streets after dark if your vision has declined to where it is difficult to see bicyclists or pedestrians. It is an accident waiting to happen when you cannot see someone legally using a crosswalk at 5:30pm after work, or a bicyclist in the bike lane at 5:30pm after work. This is actually not meant to be snarky- many of us, as we age, suffer from reduced ability to see our surroundings in the dark and if this is you, you need to take some responsibility for yourself and not drive a 2 thousand pound vehicle at 30mph through intersections where you cannot see clearly. Use public transport, or walk.

Wrong thread. This is about pedestrians and cyclists making sure they are visible at night. It’s very simple and has absolutely nothing to do with driver’s eyesight. It is difficult for a person with 20/20 vision to see a dark object against a dark background.

Not the wrong thread at all. If your car has working headlights, shining ahead as you drive, you can 10000% a person or a cyclist without reflective gear in your path. If you cannot- no shade- then you should not be driving at night or you need better glasses. Truly.

This is just silly. Go drive around at 6pm and tell us how easy it is to see people. It can be quite difficult no matter how careful you are.

It IS quite difficult which is why you need to slow down, drive a smaller car that can stop more quickly, or preferably both. This isn’t suburbia, you can’t drive your Suburban around at 45 or even 35MPH and expect everyone to wear a beacon for your convenience of tearing through their neighborhood.

This little hissy fit from cyclists is very tiresome. Do more to make yourself visible to drivers -- or don't! It's totally up to you. I'm just telling you that what bicyclists are doing now to make themselves seen in the dark, generally speaking, isn't working. You'll pay the price for that, not me.

You'll sit in jail for vehicular manslaughter and have to live with the fact that you killed someone biking legally in the bike lane because you were too proud to admit you could no longer see in the dark, or you refused to pay proper attention to your surroundings, or both

Not really. Shockingly few drivers are prosecuted for accidentally killing people.

Oh good, now we're moving on from threatening to casually murder someone to gloating about being able to get away with it.

People like you are the problem with society.

Not gloating. I'm neither a driver nor a biker. I walk or take the subway. I'm just saying that in my neighborhood little kids have been hit and killed, and literally nothing has happened to the drivers. It's weird.

It's not weird when the driver isn't at fault. Even if the driver did everything correctly, an an accident can still happen due to circumstances outside of their control, like a person in dark clothing on a dark rainy night darting out of the shadows inches from a car moving slower than the speed limit. It doesn't even need to be that extreme. Twilight is the most difficult time of night to be able to see while driving.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please don't drive your car on busy , multi-use streets after dark if your vision has declined to where it is difficult to see bicyclists or pedestrians. It is an accident waiting to happen when you cannot see someone legally using a crosswalk at 5:30pm after work, or a bicyclist in the bike lane at 5:30pm after work. This is actually not meant to be snarky- many of us, as we age, suffer from reduced ability to see our surroundings in the dark and if this is you, you need to take some responsibility for yourself and not drive a 2 thousand pound vehicle at 30mph through intersections where you cannot see clearly. Use public transport, or walk.

Wrong thread. This is about pedestrians and cyclists making sure they are visible at night. It’s very simple and has absolutely nothing to do with driver’s eyesight. It is difficult for a person with 20/20 vision to see a dark object against a dark background.

Not the wrong thread at all. If your car has working headlights, shining ahead as you drive, you can 10000% a person or a cyclist without reflective gear in your path. If you cannot- no shade- then you should not be driving at night or you need better glasses. Truly.

This is just silly. Go drive around at 6pm and tell us how easy it is to see people. It can be quite difficult no matter how careful you are.

It IS quite difficult which is why you need to slow down, drive a smaller car that can stop more quickly, or preferably both. This isn’t suburbia, you can’t drive your Suburban around at 45 or even 35MPH and expect everyone to wear a beacon for your convenience of tearing through their neighborhood.

This little hissy fit from cyclists is very tiresome. Do more to make yourself visible to drivers -- or don't! It's totally up to you. I'm just telling you that what bicyclists are doing now to make themselves seen in the dark, generally speaking, isn't working. You'll pay the price for that, not me.

Right! Everyone is telling you cyclist that you are not as visible as you believe you are or should be. Be safer for everyone! Instead of arguing with the truth they are telling you, light it up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Seriously? Don't bike after dark?

Drive more carefully.

The most careful driver in the world will hit an object in the road that is not visible. Reflective clothing was invented for a reason.

Bikers don't want to be required to do anything at all. They want to do something that is very dangerous but it's everyone else's job to make sure they don't get killed doing it.

Exactly. They want license to behave totally recklessly with the onus of their safety on everyone else. That mentality is what gives us things like the ridiculous Idaho stop law.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please don't drive your car on busy , multi-use streets after dark if your vision has declined to where it is difficult to see bicyclists or pedestrians. It is an accident waiting to happen when you cannot see someone legally using a crosswalk at 5:30pm after work, or a bicyclist in the bike lane at 5:30pm after work. This is actually not meant to be snarky- many of us, as we age, suffer from reduced ability to see our surroundings in the dark and if this is you, you need to take some responsibility for yourself and not drive a 2 thousand pound vehicle at 30mph through intersections where you cannot see clearly. Use public transport, or walk.

Wrong thread. This is about pedestrians and cyclists making sure they are visible at night. It’s very simple and has absolutely nothing to do with driver’s eyesight. It is difficult for a person with 20/20 vision to see a dark object against a dark background.

Not the wrong thread at all. If your car has working headlights, shining ahead as you drive, you can 10000% a person or a cyclist without reflective gear in your path. If you cannot- no shade- then you should not be driving at night or you need better glasses. Truly.

This is just silly. Go drive around at 6pm and tell us how easy it is to see people. It can be quite difficult no matter how careful you are.

It IS quite difficult which is why you need to slow down, drive a smaller car that can stop more quickly, or preferably both. This isn’t suburbia, you can’t drive your Suburban around at 45 or even 35MPH and expect everyone to wear a beacon for your convenience of tearing through their neighborhood.

This little hissy fit from cyclists is very tiresome. Do more to make yourself visible to drivers -- or don't! It's totally up to you. I'm just telling you that what bicyclists are doing now to make themselves seen in the dark, generally speaking, isn't working. You'll pay the price for that, not me.

You'll sit in jail for vehicular manslaughter and have to live with the fact that you killed someone biking legally in the bike lane because you were too proud to admit you could no longer see in the dark, or you refused to pay proper attention to your surroundings, or both

Not really. Shockingly few drivers are prosecuted for accidentally killing people.

Oh good, now we're moving on from threatening to casually murder someone to gloating about being able to get away with it.

People like you are the problem with society.

Not gloating. I'm neither a driver nor a biker. I walk or take the subway. I'm just saying that in my neighborhood little kids have been hit and killed, and literally nothing has happened to the drivers. It's weird.

It's not weird when the driver isn't at fault. Even if the driver did everything correctly, an an accident can still happen due to circumstances outside of their control, like a person in dark clothing on a dark rainy night darting out of the shadows inches from a car moving slower than the speed limit. It doesn't even need to be that extreme. Twilight is the most difficult time of night to be able to see while driving.

If you hit a person who is walking in a crosswalk you are at fault and the resulting injury or death was completely in your control. Pedestrians walk into the intersection, they don’t “dart.” If you don’t have time to stop before hitting a pedestrian who walks into the crosswalk then you are driving too fast.