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Proviz at nightPolice around the country hand out free bike lights and reflectives to keep cyclists safe
Cyclists in York have been handed free bike lights and safety gear to make sure they comply with the law and stay safe over winter.
Police outside York St John University handed out LED lights and reflective backpack covers to those without their own last week.
Sergeant Colin Sutherland, of York Safer Neighbourhood Team, told York Press: "The nights are getting much darker now and it is really important that cyclists take their safety on the roads seriously.
"Having lights on your bike which are in good working order is essential to ensure that other road users can see
you and make sure they make allowances for you.
“We have a number of lights available which City of York Council have provided, which we are giving out to people who need them to help them stay safe. The lights we have given out so far have been greatly appreciated by the recipients and the parents of young people we have given them to."
Councillor Tracey Simpson-Laing said: "Having lights on your bike can save lives. So, we fully support this campaign.”
Oxford has a famous annual crackdown by police that targets cyclists riding without lights.
The cyclists are issued £50 fixed penalty notices for riding without lights will avoid having to pay the fine if they can produce a receipt at a police station showing that they have bought lights for their bike.
The York initiative follows on from one in Worcester where 40 cyclists were handed free high-visibility vests and rucksack covers, flashing armbands and silicone lights earlier this month.
Police officers and staff from the Safer Roads Partnership waited on the A38 at The Tything educating riders on safety measures.
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39 comments
I wait for the day the authorities wake up and start tackling the real issue & causes of incidents. I agree that as cyclists we should be visible and adhere to the rules of the road. However so should other road users and little if anything is being done to address this. I have seen the Police & Think banging on about Drink driving over the holiday period on social media Yet there was hardly a peep about National Road Safety Week a couple of weeks before, of which the theme was 'Look out for others'. I don't say this as a cyclist but as a driver & pedestrian. Our NPT was blowing it's own trumpet over fining 11 cyclists in the town for riding on the pavement, yet does nothing about the poor driving standards in the town. In fact one day I was nearly run over on a zebra crossing by a driver, on a straight road, with clear visibilty & right outside the Police Station
i do enjoy these debates. With lights, even during the day, i find cars react and slow down, passing me more slowly, and even waiting for me to pass on single track lanes. So i feel safer.
If a car hits me it might be their fault, but that doesnt help me.
Obviously the world is full of really scary people, some on bike some in cars.
Cars run into ditches, hit trees and lamp posts, kill deer, run out of control in streets. So why is it such a suprise that they hit cyclists? Nothing you do will prevent your being killed by these type of drivers, but you might help the better ones look out for you.
"Two car headlights shining at a red rear reflector is going to throw back a lot more light than an LED light from the pound-shop surely, no batteries are required, and they are very cheap."
Have you tried the lights from the pound shop? They are brighter than the branded lights I purchased 2 years ago. Don't knock it unless you have tried it.
Yes I have.
Yes I have.
Yes I have.
Where do I sign up for my free lights? Can I claim a set for the wife too?
Anyone got references to studies which indicate to what extent having lights on your bicycle prevents accidents in urban areas?
Are the lights and reflectives being passed out ones that meet any particular standards?
If the resources dedicated to this initiative were redirected towards controlling the motorised traffic which causes most of our accidents what would the return be?
I am highly skeptical of these campaigns.
A study showing lights preventing accidents would be quiute difficult to design!
Here is a link to one which shows the proportion of bike/car accidents caused be lack of lights, at least as assessed by the police attending.
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2009/dec/15/cycling-bike-acciden...
"A tiny proportion of accidents involving cyclists are caused by riders jumping red lights or stop signs, or failing to wear high-visibility clothing and use lights, a government-commissioned study has discovered.
The study, carried out for the Department for Transport, found that in 2% of cases where cyclists were seriously injured in collisions with other road users police said that the rider disobeying a stop sign or traffic light was a likely contributing factor. Wearing dark clothing at night was seen as a potential cause in about 2.5% of cases, and failure to use lights was mentioned 2% of the time."
"With adult cyclists, police found the driver solely responsible in about 60%-75% of all cases, and riders solely at fault 17%-25% of the time."
"The main cause of crashes seems to be 'failed to look properly', whereas very few cyclists are injured or killed acting illegally, such as failing to use lights at night or disobeying traffic signals,"
Hope this helps.
Here is the report of this study on this very site>
http://road.cc/content/news/12065-report-dft-casualty-stats-says-cyclist...
Here is how it was reported.
"The study, carried out by the Transport Research Laboratory – which has also published a report on helmet-wearing that we have covered separately today – found that one in four accidents resulting in death or serious injury to a cyclist was due to the bicycle being struck by a vehicle from behind.
Meanwhile, according to police reports studied as part of the research, wearing dark clothing at night was thought to be a possible cause of just 2.5% of accidents resulting in serious injury to the cyclist, with not using lights or jumping red lights each blamed in 2% of cases. Those percentages rose slightly in instances when the cyclist was killed, although in those circumstances police could only rely on evidence from the driver and other witnesses.
The report’s findings show clearly that far from being the danger to other road users that certain elements of the media have portrayed them as in recent months, cyclists are themselves put at risk by the actions of motorists, with the police attributing blame to the driver in up to three quarters of collisions between a bicycle and other vehicle in accidents involving adult bike riders."
This really matches my personal experience. I see a lot of unlit riders around town (plus dark clothes etc. etc.) but in honesty I don't have any difficulty in seeing them as the roads are well lit. In such environments I'm not surprised that lights offer limited safety benefits in real terms. Unlit rural roads are a different story altogether but I suspect the number of unlit riders on such roads is very small.
While giving out free lights is a good thing it will not solve problems such as crappy infrastructure, > 90 degree turns on bike lanes, shared lanes with buses, drivers being cunts and so on...
For sure with ~35m motorists licensed to drive in the UK, tackling poor driving habits is going to seem like an insurmountable problem to the Police after years of neglecting to enforce the law.
Easier then to just try and scare the much smaller number of cyclists there are off the roads, and dress up the ones who still insist on pursuing their ridiculous activity in clown outfits.
Let’s not let their tactics work...
Cool. Break the law, get caught, get a Free Gift..... W0oho0 that'll really show them!! Wonder what would happen if i got caught drink driving? Maybe the Police will just phone me a free taxi. Seriously, fine them!! Half the fine if they take a receipt and their bike fitted with lights to the Police station.
Because drivers never break the law, do they? No motorist would ever dream of speeding, passing too close, texting at the wheel, driving without or insurance or whole banned, surely?
Did you actually read my whole post, or just the first sentence? Your just arguing for the sake of it. Please be quiet.
for all the stories of invisible cyclists, you really have to wonder how they are possible. If a cyclist is invisible how could motorists actual see them breaking the law?
Maybe the reality is that a lot of drivers are simply looking for sticks to beat cyclists with, "road tax", RLJing, lights, bells, hi viz, this isn't about cyclists but about drivers finding excuses for their s**t driving?
BECAUSE THEY'RE IDIOTS. IDIOTS I TELL YOU. NOT SMART LIKE THE WISE COMMENTATORS. IT'S COMMON SENSE. ANY FOOL CAN SEE. THEY ARE NOT REAL CYCLISTS. CAN I STOP FROTHING NOW?
It would be better if they actually enforced the law and had a crackdown on dangerous driving habits. There is actually very little evidence that making cyclists wear hi-viz has any effect on safety, no amount of hi-viz can make people see when they are not looking.
Enforcement of speed limits, red light jumping, drink driving, and phone use while driving, has a greater influence on making roads safer for everyone.
The Highway Code states that you *must* have a red rear reflector, but only that you *should* wear Hi-Viz. Why aren’t red rear reflectors being given out? Two car headlights shining at a red rear reflector is going to throw back a lot more light than an LED light from the pound-shop surely, no batteries are required, and they are very cheap.
Doesn't matter how visible if driver doesn't look or care.
Are the police stopping dark/dull coloured cars and giving out free stick on reflectors?
LED lights will be fairly poor. Most I see (which I assume are the cheaper end) are not bright enough from a distance. If the person riding the bike is silly/reckless enough to ride without lights, when chance is there of them batteries when they die?
I see a fair number of people on bikes without lights, apart from the one guy on an unlit off road path (just after dusk so may have been just running late), most are either children (and where is the parental responsibility as the ones I see have no lights not just rebelliously turning them off) or scrotes who don't give a flying.
But the key point is that they can be seen, certainly in urban areas if drivers actually bother to look.
Umm, fairly certain cars all have red reflectors at the back as bikes should. The police should be mentioning it to the idiot drivers who insist on parking against the flow of traffic though, as per Highway Code 248.
Well done all of you, I can only imagine the carnage you've avoided. Why not write a list of how you want me to dress then stick it up your arse.
Motorists will often have a bit of a moan if you flash them, but at least they have noticed you.
Are we still talking lights?
Ho, ho. Ho.
We did something similar in #Bath last year. Sustrans bought us a load of lights cheap (£2.50 a set I think they cost, with batteries) (Someone did ask about the likely very dodgy supply chain that no doubt including small children burning off their digits in boiling vats of solder, but hey!).
After some debate we decided it would be a 'bad' idea to give them away for free, instead we thought we'd sell them for a whole crisp fiver a set, cash, and fit them there and then. We thought we'd plough any 'profit' we made into buying more lights and put any 'surplus' into the coffers of the local cycle campaign group - CycleBath..
We set ourselves up on one of the busy commuter routes out of Bath one evening (which also leads to one of the less affluent corners of the City, where there also happens to be a large student population). (Just down the road from road.cc towers as it happens).
We stopped about 15 cyclists... all dressed mostly 'ninja like' (ie no refelctives to make up for the lack of lights). Some were on the road, some on the pavement, some riding responsibly (if that's possible with no lights?) most not (ie. we noted that they were far more likely to jump the red than all the 'light emitting cyclists we saw - we lost count of them, over a hundred at least)..
Of the 15 or so I remember no more than 2 were apologetic, admitted they were in the wrong, were pleased to be offered the deal and gratefully accepted it, handing over the cash there and then before riding away all 'lit up' and happy
The other 13-ish weren't "cyclists" at all.. they were all manner of idiots who happened to be riding a bike. Most thought they were doing "nothing wrong" "You saw me, why do I need lights" was a common retort. "A FIVER! I could buy five cans of White Lightening for that"! Was another. "F*** off" and other such words were often muttered.. or shouted!
The best response we had was from one well-dressed, apparently middle-class woman on a Boardman Hyrbid. She lights on her bike. The batteries were flat (complelely flat) and "her husband hadn't gotten round to taking it back to the shop to get it sorted out"!!
We did an hour or so and gave up... never again. Ticket them. They deserve it!
Anyone brain dead enough to be cycling under the circumstances you present, and not realise how stupid it is, does deserve it.
have to agree with this, have seen ,( only because I look several times by default( the advanced motorcyclist in me))over the last few days , which have been a bit dull, several bicycle riders , possibly not cyclists! riding with no lights/pathetic lights, and dark clothing to boot generally. Don't give away free stuff , give them a kick up the backside at least. The same should apply to all road users, cars with no lights on seems prolific on these dull mornings, and peds dressing up to look like james bond undercover. everyone has a duty to make themselves easier to see if they don't want driving/riding over. For the record, I wear some flouro/reflective , and have a minimum of 2 lights f&r (mostly riding unlit A&B roads, and like to have back up lights)
And right there, in case anyone misses the underlying thinking, we have a perfect illustration of the problem.
I quite enjoyed this story. You'll take a different view, I realise, after a few hours of rejection by people with better things to do than recognise and acknowledge your safety wisdom and pay you £5, but for me, it's a sign of success, of sorts, when our roadways are jammed full of these non-cyclists you call idiots (aka "people") - nice to have them not in cars too - and it reflects well on the infra if these "idiots" feel so little personal danger they aren't even carrying lights. Pedestrians have enjoyed such idiotically safe and relaxed a-to-b journeys for years and its good to see some cycle routes reaching that level of safety, quite heartening. I agree it's a bit thoughtless to travel without lights as it slows us all down, drivers especially, and everyone wants to get home quick. Now I think about it, drivers going slower might be a good thing.
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2009/dec/15/cycling-bike-acciden...
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