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Cycling in the Dark

Posted on by BikeBus.org

Shorter days means cycling in the dark for many of us.

Here’s our top tips for cycling at night.

Route

The most important element of cycling safely is using your safest route.  

Should you use a different route in the dark?

  • Where possible, re-route to avoid unlit roads, parks and paths at night.  
  • Remember potholes and drain covers might be covered by puddles.
  • Exposed quiet roads may be icy when busier urban roads are not.

Skills

All skills need time and practice to develop.  

  • Pay attention!
  • Assume motorists haven’t seen you.
  • If there’s rain on motorists’ windscreens after dark, assume you’re invisible!
  • Consider your riding position: you may need to move into the centre of your lane to improve your visibility.
  • If you race along by day, go slower at night so you have more time to react.
  • Bad drivers tend to behave worse at night. Speeding, using mobile phones, running red lights and failing to look is all more common. in the dark.  Watch the traffic, observe what’s going on, give them more space than usual and pay attention!

Lights

Front & rear lights are essential at night, and mandatory by law in the UK and most other countries.

  • Use 2 x front and 2 x rear lights, in case of battery failure.  This is especially useful for children who may fail to charge their devices.
  • Turn all your lights on!  Funny how often we see lights turned off!
  • Fit at least one front & back light to your bike itself. If you carry a 2nd light, fit the 2nd light whereever you like: bike, helmet, backpack, etc.
  • Flashing lights are helpful during the daytime, but set them always-on at night for better visibility.
  • ‘Be seen’ front lights are fine for commuting (around 100-250 lumens). Use more powerful ‘See’ front lights for rural night time riding where you need to light up the road ahead (250+ lumens).

Reflectors

Reflective materials make a huge difference to night-time visibility.  They never get flat batteries, are visible at long range and help cyclists stand out.

  • Reflective jackets are awesome!  Eye-level for motorists, waterproof and reflective: perfect for cyclists!  
  • Cover all angles: lights are good for front & back but reflectors can really help with side-on visibility.
  • Beware of using 100% reflective jackets in daylight (e.g. 100% Proviz): these jackets are superb in the dark, but their grey pattern is invisible in daytime fog.
  • Fabulous reflective gloves are now available, which really help when signalling.
  • Moving reflectors are more effective than static reflectors: think about which parts move the most – pedals, ankles, wheels, gloves.
  • Reflectors on wheels (mandatory on all new UK bicycles) are made very cheaply and usually fall off soon after bikes are bought: replacements bought on eBay or Amazon can be better quality, and really help bicycles stand out in profile (i.e. at junctions). 
  • Backpacks might cover up reflectors: buy reflective backpacks, backpack covers, or fit your own reflectors to your backpacks.
  • Reflective tape is a quick, cheap and excellent way to improve visibility of bike frame parts: stick strips on the seat stays and forks.  If your bike has disk brakes try fitting stickers on your wheel rims too.
  • Reflective laces, zip tags and backpack straps are available from eBay and Amazon.
  • Select panniers and bags with as many reflective details as possible: reflective panels, piping or stickers.
  • Fit reflective stickers to helmets, for 360-degree visibility. 
  • Reflective arm or ankle bands can really help with visiblity, as the moving reflectors are highly visible in motorists’ line of sight.
More tips from Sustrans