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The most common bicycle safety laws don't consider bicycle tail
lights to be as important as headlights. They require that bicycle headlights must be seen from 100 feet away and a red reflector in the back is the minimum legal requirement.
Safety, and the law, both dictate that we ride in the same direction as traffic, what drivers see when
approaching a bicycle from behind can be the difference between life and death. Bicycle safety
awareness programs and increased reports of accidents, some fatal, have convinced many cyclists that they should have
very bright bicycle tail lights rather than reflectors, regardless of what the legal requirements are.
How Important are Bright Lights?
Over the course of one month, in Columbia Missouri, where bicycle headlights and tail lights are required
by law, the police department, instead of issuing tickets, gave away about 150 headlight and tail light sets to
cyclists who were stopped for riding at night without them. Because they wanted to show the public just how important an issue bicycle safety is to them.
Officer Dan McQuillin of Chandler Arizona's bike unit, speaking to his local newspaper,
The Arizona Republic, said “new riders often don't educate themselves before taking to the road,
and that can lead to dangerous results”. Even though state law only requires reflectors, he recommends
red tail lights.
The Amherst Bulletin in Amherst Massachusetts reported that
a 28 year old woman was struck by a car while riding her bicycle at night. The police found the cyclist
to be at fault for the accident because she did not have lights on her bike and the
driver could not see her.
Rob Kusner, a local bicycle safety advocate said “it's important for cyclists
to both see and be seen”.
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