Small Things May Save Your Life

antikeye

I've a short commute (9 miles round trip) from a country home to the local far reach of an Austin Texas bus stop. Since I've been on these forums I notice a lot of tech safety advice, which lights to buy, where to mount them, who not to piss off and how (not) to do it. Granted, there's only so much you can do with electronics and reflectors.

Between the bus stop and the sticks I've got two dangerous stretches of nighttime highway.

The first runs from the stop through a field and up a steep hill onto US I-35. At the top of the hill, I cross the freeway bridge on foot, and turn left onto a quarter-mile of feeder to my shopping-center cut-through. I turn on the blinkies, and walk until I'm through both intersections, paying careful attention to the lights and who's running them. Then I ride the shoulder a quarter mile into the shopping center. Good clearance on this stretch, and it would take a complete drunk or jerk to put me at risk. The remainder of the trip is mostly athletic track nearly four miles long running by the Dell Computer factory.

Near the end of my nighttime journey, the rough stuff happens on a local road running at freeway speeds decorated by a stoplighted intersection. Here's another quarter mile, no shoulder. I come out of a dead country road, stop, carefully check my lights, and wait for the main feed at the stoplight to pass. This gives me a hopefully-clear run over that 1/4 mile into my subdivision. This generally seems to work, even on a Saturday night. If I time it right, one car might pass me during this last stretch.

My question to you other commuters, day or night, is:
What are similar short moves that you pull to keep yourself safe?

kf5nd

you're doing it; be aware of every vehicle that approaches, assume they don't see you, assume they could be drunk or crazy.

do you use a helmet or eyeglasses mirror? very vital to developing 360 degree situational awareness

bikeguy

Riding on a highway at night sounds extremely hazardous to me period. I only ride during the day and avoid all night riding. Then again I don't have to ride at night. My crash with a motorcycle was during the night, and I didn't have a forward facing light. A forward facing light and reflective clothing visible from the front and back seems like a must to me. I say that during the day wearing red and yellow clothing seems to be the most effective for visibility, and wearing black is taking a big risk. I was wearing black shorts and an almost completely black top when a cyclist in front of me turned left on a bike path in front of me causing me to crash. I just bought a yellow coloured helmet and already it seems like cars are noticing me much more.

kf5nd

I use the very bright NiteRider brand of rechargeable front and rear lights, I get the feeling that cars always see me, especially when the lights are in flashing mode. They start changing lanes to move around me as far as 650 ft / 200 meters back, based on my observations of them through my mirror. No one pulls out in front of me from a perpendicular direction; it just doesn't happen. It used to, when I had a feeble little dry AA battery light.

All of my close-calls / near-misses have been daylight events.

A very well lit bike is safer than the same bike during daylight. A not-lit bike is much more dangerous than the same bike during daylight. That's my observation.

chispa60

Yeah, side mirrors are a good investment. I've seen several different versions. From ones that mount on to your helmet to ones that mount on the bike or replace some of your grips.

On another note, lights come in two flavors. Ones that illuminate you to others and others that actually illuminate your path.

For the former, I would suggest flashing red LED beacons. They can be placed pretty much anywhere. Cat Eye makes a good one that's also cheap called Cat Eye Compact Safety Light.

For the later, NiteRider and CygoLite make some nice rechargable headlights that are quite bright. That's probably the reason why they make them rechargable. For an even better way, try some of those headlights that are charged by a flywheel attached near your wheel. It does add resistance, but hey you don't have to worry about batteries anymore in that case.