Blog post

Cycling at night? Don't forget your lights

Lights are an essential component of cyclist safety

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Toronto’s plan to curb pedestrian and cyclist fatalities at the hands of motorists, Vision Zero, is a collective effort that requires greater awareness on everyone’s part. However, it seems the dominant narrative focuses on the responsibility of drivers, with little reminder to cyclists and pedestrians of their responsibilities. It’s not just about getting drivers to slow down and be more attentive, but cyclists and pedestrians as well. As a cyclist, I don’t want to be hit and as a driver, I don’t want to hit someone!

Image via Getty Images

Before I had a car, I was an avid cyclist. I’d start riding around March or April, through to October or November. Even after I got a car, I was the weird person who rode her bike 10 km each way to her job selling cars. I learned about the importance of wearing a helmet the hard way – by going headfirst into the side of a car and landing in the emergency room. There’s a significant uptick in the reports of cyclists being hit when daylight savings ends, so that’s usually when I stopped riding in the evening.

Driving more frequently has given me new awareness of safety considerations when I’m cycling and as a pedestrian. Simply put: in the dark, drivers can’t see us. People who don’t drive regularly may not realize this. I’d always had lights because they are a legal requirement, but when it came to buy new ones, I paid a lot more attention to the brightness of the ones I was buying.

This is not to say that some drivers aren’t careless and distracted. Even if they’re not, there’s a dozen things on Toronto’s busy streets demanding their attention at any given moment. It’s one thing to expect drivers to pay attention to others on the road. It is an entirely different thing to ask them to look out for cyclists who, dressed in dark colours, have made no effort to make themselves visible.

Image via Amazon.ca

As cyclists, we need to do our best to make ourselves visible and take some responsibility for our own safety. If you’re doing a lot of riding at night, at least get lights. They’re not expensive and you don’t even need to go out of your way to buy them. There’s plenty of options available for delivery right to your door from Amazon for under $30. What excuse could there be to not have this basic safety equipment?

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