Riding your bike at night in Los Angeles when the sun goes down poses safety concerns for cyclists and motorists alike, and there is even a state law on the books to require that riders be visible.
The Los Angeles County Bike Coalition launched "Operation Firefly" last fall to ensure Angelenos riding bicycles have front and rear lights, but one of its organizers says they are running out and need donations to continue the light purchases.
"It's tough enough as it is to make a motorist see you riding during the day, let alone at night," said Colin Bogart, education director of LACBC. "I found myself ridng behind a kid the other night who nearly got hit by a driver turning left, because he didn’t have a light. Our goal is to get people to have a light, particularly that front light. I have seen police pull over bicyclists and citing them. Those can be, from what I understand, pretty expensive."
Drivers in L.A. kill pedestrians and bicyclists at a significantly higher rate than drivers nationally, according to a federal study cited in a recent Los Angeles Times story, Bogart added.
"We're doing street distribution of lights around town, focusing on lower income communities and most likely people riding without lights who need them," he said.
"Operation Firefly" started with 500 sets of lights and in December had already given out more than 300 sets. LACBC also has the lights for sale.
"We've recooped about one third of our initial investment," he said, "but we could really use community's help for donations and light purchases. Eventually, we're going to run out and I'd like to keep this program going throughout the winter months until [Daylight Savings] time changes again."
Bogart said they've done four street distributions and in each case, they went through 40 to 50 lights in about 90 minutes.
In addition to front and rear lights, LACBC is distributing "Operation Firefly" spoke cards in English and Spanish, which will provide a summary of the California Vehicle Code requirements while riding at night, along with additional tips for enhanced visibility when it's dark.
Bogart added that LACBC is working with bike co-ops spread throughout L.A. to help distribute the lights, spoke card and its message. Some of those co-ops include:
- Santa Monica Spoke
- The Bikerowave in West L.A.
- The Bicycle Kitchen in Silver Lake
- The Bike Oven in the Mount Washington-Highland Park area
- Valley Bikery in San Fernando Valley
- The HUB Community Bike Center in Long Beach
For more information on LACBC's "Operation Firefly" program, click here.
The point is... There will always be a few bad cyclists and bad drivers. A few bad apples don't spoil the whole bunch. Bike riding takes cars off the road. And as a whole, I think we all see a lot more bad drivers who endanger others. Bad cyclists are a danger, mostly, to themselves, and most avid cyclists obey laws just like the rest of us.
It may seem counterintuitive, but riding a bike in the middle of a traffic lane isn't as dangerous as it sounds. Drivers are perfectly capable of noticing and avoiding slow-moving vehicles directly in front of them, and if we stipulate that the lane is too narrow for a bike and a car side-by-side, bicyclists are actually easier to see and avoid the farther out into the lane they are, because a driver approaching from behind knows right away they need to make a lane change and can plan ahead. Rear-end car-on-bike collisions actually aren't all that common; hooks and sideswipes due to overly close passing within the same lane are actually a greater risk.
Seriously, it's pretty hard to miss something directly in front of you. Even drunk and distracted drivers routinely pick up vehicles directly ahead, because that's where their vision focuses. There are perception studies that prove this.
I need to emphasize that bicyclists stay away from the gutter for their own safety, and not out of any sense of entitlement beyond a basic right to use the public roads their taxes pay for. Here's a good illustration of the many hazards you expose yourself to by riding too far to the right: http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/animations/lane-control/
If motorcyclists really pretended they were invisible, they wouldn't ride the center of a lane for improved visibility and lane control.