I had an unnerving near miss at my local roundabout tonight with a bike as I was turning left. The bicycle appeared out of nowhere on my right in the middle of the roundabout as I glanced of the left to check again while turning so I crash stopped.
The bike had a light at the front but wasn’t visible to me until it was halfway into the roundabout when I glanced of the right again. The bike rider was going into that roundabout at a good speed against a wall of car lights behind it, so it was impossible to see it until it was close to the door of my car because of the background of car lighting after dark.
Bike riders have an overinflated self-perception of their visibility at night. Not surprisingly, more accidents happen during peak hours when drivers think motorists can see them when they cannot. 
Even on an empty road, bicycles are not easy to see at night – certainly there not as perceived as quickly as cars. Bicycles are a much more dangerous transport mode than driving a car.
A recent study found the bicycle lighting is overrated as a method of making bikes more conspicuous – perceptions of visibility do not necessarily match reality:
The presence of a bicycle light, whether static or flashing, did not enhance the conspicuity of the bicyclist; this may result in bicyclists who use a bicycle light being overconfident of their own conspicuity at night.
Consider this thought experiment. Suppose bicycles have never been invented until tonight. The business case for allowing them on to the road is as follows:
- Certain pedestrians should be allowed to share the road with cars as long as these pedestrians travel quickly on a metal contraption that is slower than cars, but still allows them to move relatively quickly;
- These fast moving pedestrians are near invisible in rear-view mirrors;
- These fast moving pedestrians should be allowed on the road at night when their visibility is poor against an every-varying contrast of a moving landscape;
- These pedestrians moving quickly at night on the road are overconfident in the extent to which drivers perceive their presence against a moving landscape; and
- Older drivers are 50% less likely to perceive the presence of a bike with lights and illumination at night than are younger drivers.
Would that business case pass under the precautionary principle championed by environmentalists, many of whom are bicyclists? Would that business case pass under normal cost benefit analysis? I say no. Bicycles at night must go.
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
Nov 14, 2015 @ 03:10:37
You’re absolutely right. Those heavy half-blind contraptions should be banned from most roads.
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Nov 14, 2015 @ 11:28:07
I wonder how the business case for cars would go? Kill tens of thousands of people each year, pollute the atmosphere, alienate public space for their exclusive use, the list goes on.
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Nov 14, 2015 @ 11:45:24
Bikes are far slower and more dangerous
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Nov 14, 2015 @ 12:08:55
Questioning the economic value of cars shows how desperate it is your own case for bikes – how lacking in merit is the case for bikes.
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Nov 14, 2015 @ 12:53:34
This is not an economic question, at the very core its a question of personal freedom. Bicycles are a practical form of transportation for millions of people. Motor vehicles certainly have their values, but as David mentions, they come with a lot of costs…traffic, deadly accidents, pollution, and almost exclusive use of public space. Bicycles are virtually free of these costs.
Banning bikes at night strips away the freedom of so many people who enjoy riding bicycles and depend on them to get around. It’s already difficult enough for people to get around without a motor vehicle. A proposed ban like this is just another blow, furthering the dependence on a single form of transportation.
I don’t have full access to that publication, but I’m assuming that study is only using one brand/model of light, which was probably not very bright. Unfortunately, many bike lights out there are sub-par. There are lights out there very bright and very visible. Because you had one experience with a cyclist that you thought wasn’t very visible is not a case to ban cyclists at night.
As for Jim Rose’s comment – how are bikes “more dangerous”? Are you comparing them to cars? A bicycle travels at 10-25mph at about 200lbs. A car is traveling anywhere from 30-65mph and weights several tons! Drivers can also become much less alert than cyclists, because they’re just sitting in one position. How many cases of cyclists have you heard falling asleep while riding? You might find bikes annoying, but that’s no reason to further limit the freedom of the average person to choose how they get around.
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