Light Up The Night

The Deschutes County Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee has teamed up with Commute Options for Central Oregon, the City of Bend, and the Road Users Safety Task Force to conduct several evening events to enhance the visibility of people walking and biking to motorists.

Each evening event will highlight the safety issue as well as provide critical gear to the community to eliminate these types of crashes.

Critical gear includes:
• front reflector
• rear reflector
• front head light
• highly visible clothing
• reflective tape
• reflective leg and arm bands
• flashing reflectors.

There are few nighttime related walking and biking crashes in Bend, however, most result in injury or death. In the five year period between 2006 and 2010 there were 19 nighttime bike riding crashes reported to the police. Ninety percent of these crashes involved a person riding on a bike while dressed completely in dark clothing on a bicycle that was completely invisible to the motorist that struck them. Similar statistics exist for nighttime walking crashes.

Through this campaign we wish to highlight the importance of night time safety habits while walking and biking in our community.