Night Riding
The cardinal rule of cycling safety is "Be seen!" If drivers, pedestrians and other cyclists can see you, they can avoid you. Night is an especially perilous time for cyclists. Even in the day, an object as small as a pencil can block a cyclist or motorcyclist from a driver's view or so they taught me in my driver's ed. class in high school. That means a smudge on a driver's window may hide you from view. At night, you're even more hidden due to the light conditions.
Fortunately, technology has ridden to the rescue. Lights are more compact and powerful than they have ever been in the past. And cycle clothing manufacturers are using more and more reflective material in their products. The best cycling garments will have Illuminite fabric panels sewn onto road facing surfaces.
The most important surface on cyclist at night is the rear facing one. At night, cars will not see until they're right on top of you if at all. As if the darkness is not bad enough, drivers are more likely to be tired and inattentive the later the hour at night. So you have to work to grab their attention. For that reason, choose your clothing carefully. Jackets should have, at the very least, reflective strips. Tights should have Illuminite panels, and packs should also have reflective strips. The rider pictured below is a good example of a cyclist well dressed for the night. The silver shining out from his ensemble comes from the light reflected by the camera flash. A car's headlight will light his clothes up even brighter.
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Lights serve a dual purpose of making the rider seen and helping him or her to see. In well lit areas such as Center City Philadelphia or most of Southern California, the primary purpose of a headlight is to make the cyclist visible. A compact, LED headlight is more than adequate for this purpose. Most of this breed have a blinking mode that will make a cyclist stand out even more. If you live an area that is not light polluted and actually gets dark, invest in a powerful headlight that throws a good, focused beam. These will be much more expensive, but your safety is well worth the investment. You should also mount a red tail light on your rear facing surface. I mount mine on my helmet since that puts it roughly at a driver's eye level. Again, running this in blink mode will grab a driver's attention. The pictures below show how bright lights can be. They in fact overloaded the digital camera used to take the picture. If you look closely, you'll notice that the head light has lit up the entire area in front of the rider. This kind of headlight is essential for safe riding in poorly lit areas after dark.
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