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Light up! Here’s how:
Reflective safety vest. Good for cycling in dark clothes or if your rear light goes out. Don’t wear dark clothes with no other light-colored material.
Reflective tape. Use white or yellow in front, yellow or red in back.
Rear light. Effectively supplements your legally-required reflector to help approaching traffic see you. Many cyclists use flashing red lights.
Rear reflectors. Biggest are best; get one at least three inches wide, make sure it’s pointed straight back and not up or down. Only red is legal but newer amber ones can be several times brighter. Reflectors work only if they’re clean, so remember to wipe them off!
Pedal reflectors. Built into front and back.
Spoke reflectors not a substitute for a headlight or rear reflector.
Headlight. Battery-powered halogen or strobe. Get the most powerful one you can afford. (Use white or amber, not red.) The new-er strobe lights don’t cost lots and have long battery lives.
Generator lights can be bright, but many go dark when you stop—bad for night riding.
Rechargeable batteries. If you ride at night a lot, you’ll save money and throw away fewer toxic batteries.
Flashlight. In a pinch, tie on with rubber bands or a bungee cord.
Jacket. Bright color, reflective piping in back.
Only three percent of bike rides happen at night—but over half of all cyclists killed get hit while riding at night without lights. At night, Illinois law requires a white front light visible from 500 feet, and a red back reflector or light visible from 100 to 600 feet. That’s not much; you can see a car’s headlights from 3,000 feet—and that’s what most motorists look for. (Under bright street lights you need bike lights to be seen, not to see.) And because your upper body’s at eye level, it’s important to wear bright stuff at night.