The Law Offices of James M. Freeman, P.C.

Last night Mayor Daley's Bicycling Ambassadors and CPD officers from the 14th district, gave away headlights to cyclists in an effort to educate them about the law with respect to lights and reflectors.  Under Illinois and Chicago law a white headlight and red rear reflector (or red taillight) are required when riding a bicycle at night.  Lucky cyclists that happened to be traveling through the intersection of Milwaukee and Logan were given a headlight and told about the headlight law as it applies to cyclists.

I guess this is the next best thing to enforcement.  I always try to get officers to hand out headlight tickets, but there seems to be no interest in traffic enforcement as it pertains to cyclists.  If CPD just handed tickets every once in a while people would be more aware of headlight laws and there would be more compliance.

Such laws are often touted as a measure to protect cyclists, but in the absence of enforcement and compliance such laws are only used against non-compliant cyclists when they are involved in an accident.  An otherwise negligent driver who injures a cyclist will argue that they didn't see the cyclist.  They will point out that the cyclist lacked a proper headlight, and they will point to the law requiring a headlight.  The defense attorney will then argue that if the cyclist had proper lights the otherwise negligent motorist would have seen the cyclist, and a perfect defense is mounted.

The bottom line is- use headlights when it's dark.  If you don't motorists can do practically whatever they want to you and just say they didn't see you, and you might even be held accountable for any damage to their car.