With Halloween just days away, all bike riders need to know how to safely travel during a day jam-packed with elaborate costumes and a high number of pedestrians. With these tips, you can ensure that your Halloween is both safe and fun.
1: Wear a Bike-friendly costume
Should you choose to ride your bike on Halloween, you’ll want to ensure that your costume is bike-friendly. In general, you’ll want to avoid wearing a cape of any kind, as these can easily become tangled, thus resulting in injury. Furthermore, you’ll want to avoid costumes that cause you to retain excessive heat. For example, a large bear costume may cause you to become overheated. Finally, you’ll want to ensure that your costume can still include a helmet.
2: Remain cautious of pedestrians
It is important that you understand how to navigate pedestrians while biking on Halloween. Considering Halloween is a time where many people are out, including many children, you’ll want to understand how to navigate between them. First, you should always signal and look out for pedestrians while turning. Doing this makes pedestrians aware of your intended actions and thus reduces the chances of an accident. Furthermore, make sure you are not distracted while biking. Avoid using your phone or eating while biking. This will allow you to notice pedestrians quicker and thus react to them before a dangerous situation occurs. Overall, navigating around pedestrians requires you to make your intentions known well in advance as well as remain vigilant.
3: Ensure that you can safely ride at night
Considering many outings on Halloween occur at night, it’s important that you know proper safety methods for biking at night. First, make sure you have a front light that allows you to see what’s in front of you. Second, make sure you are visible to other riders, as well as vehicles and pedestrians. For example, you can attach an LED light-up vest to yourself, thus ensuring others can see you. Finally, make sure you store multiple lights if one breaks or loses power.
Overall, biking on Halloween can be fun, but it requires that you engage in safe practices. Regardless of whether you bike on Halloween or not, it’s important to practice safe biking practices, including securing your bike with U-Lock, registering your bike with Bike at Illinois, and following the rules of the road. MTD and Champaign-Urbana Cyclists are organizing “Witches Ride!” This event will begin in front of Common Ground Food Coop on October 30th, at 2 P.M. Together, we will bike to Riggs Brewery, where food and drink will be available. Contact Cynthia Hoyle at choyle@mtd.org for more information. Learn more at the Bike at Illinois website (bike.illinois.edu), and if you have questions, comments, or suggestions please send an email to bike@illinois.edu. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to stay connected.
By Alex Gallardo
