On The Matter Of Law-Required Bicycle Lights – Types And Importance

For many people who enjoy hitting the road with their bicycle and pedaling across cities, towns, and even faraway places, having bicycle lights have become an essential part of their bicycling activities. Bicycling, after all, is not just a fair-weather activity; surely, biking in the dark is inevitable.

With the fast progression of times happening today, bicycling has gotten past through being a mere sport and leisure activity; it has evolved into an activity that can be used for everyday purposes that may involve having to travel from one place to another that bears a considerable amount of distance between given points. A lot of cycling enthusiasts who enjoy using their bicycle more than other faster vehicles or riding public transportation use bicycle as their form of alternative for cars and train. This given, having to go through bicycling within the darkness may be inevitable since the aforementioned activity is not merely just a leisure activity now. Riding your bicycle is no longer a hobby; it is now a part of everyday life.

Now, when we say “riding your bicycle within the darkness”, a lot of you may think that “darkness” refers to evening, or night time. Well, that is not an incorrect assumption. However, “darkness” does not just include night time. It can also include any happenstance or any period which may render anyone incapable of seeing their way clearly. According to the Uniform Vehicle Code, which serves as a suggested set of traffic laws for most of the states in the United States to adopt and follow, which bikers are also required to heed, “darkness” is defined as “any other time when visibility is not sufficient to render clearly discernible any person or any vehicle on the highway at a distance of 1000 feet.” With this given, it can be surmised that a foggy weather, a blizzard, or heavy rain, may be considered a period of darkness in which having an artificial light with you, bike lights in the case of cyclists, is a requirement under the law.

There are two kinds of lights that the law under which the use of bikes is included; Passive lights and active lights. Specific requirements may vary depending on the biking laws of the place you are in but generally speaking, these two particular lighting are the kind of bike lights you need before setting off into a dark road.

PASSIVE BICYCLE LIGHTS

Passive bicycle lights, where in reflectors fall under, doesn't require much work nor does it involve much complexity in its mechanism for it to work. Most of the bikes that are sold legally, under the federal regulation, are already equipped with reflectors. While it is legal to remove the reflectors and not use it during day time, it is mandatory for every bike rider to put on reflectors on their bikes before using it every prescribed “periods of darkness.”

ACTIVE BICYCLE LIGHTS

Of course, having a simple reflector is not sufficient enough to ensure safety upon every biker. It is very essential for you to have active bike lights, which are indubitably brighter and much more conspicuous than that of passive bike lights. This is for the purpose of you noticing whatever obstacle may be presented to you by the terrain to refrain from accidents. In addition, this is also for being noticeable and recognizable by other road users whom you share the road with. Under this include the headlights which is the most important among the bicycle lights, and rear lights, and other accessory lights that may be mounted up on certain parts of a bike.

Hopefully, this has presented to you the kind of bicycle lights that the law requires you to have and their importance to many cyclists and other road users alike. May this encourage you to get your own set of lights for you to be able to enjoy biking whilst being succumbed in the cold embrace of the “aforementioned periods of darkness.”