Bicycle Network: Behaviour

April 2010

After five years of the Light Up! campaign we have looked thoroughly at the program to identify what is working and what needs to be changed.

Our review found that there were elements of the program that were going well.

The annual lights test

After five years of testing lights, interest among riders is growing stronger. Riders are enthusiastic about the test. There has been strong positive feedback from riders about the continuous improvement of the test and we expect the 2010 test to be as or more popular than in previous years.

In general the majority of retailers are stocking better quality, more powerful lights than they were in 2005. The proportion of stores offering inadequate lights has declined significantly.

This partly reflects the improvement in lighting technology over the past years, it is easier for retailers to get hold of effective lights. However this trend has been driven strongly by riders asking to see better lights and bringing the results of the tests with them when they are buying lights. Stores say people come in clutching Ride On.

More retailers are putting up a broomstick with lights attached for riders to touch, test and fiddle with. This did not happen five years ago. Customers were expected to take a box off the shelf. The front counter discussion has moved from the look and weight of the unit to the power of the light.

The retailers have become supporters of the test. Retailers gave us strong feedback after the 2008 test that the on-street assessment needed to be complemented by destructive testing. The 2009 test revealed the winning Tioga light from 2008, to be fragile and therefore it wasn’t recommended by the 2009 test. A Tioga light is among the recommended lights in 2010.

In 2009 for the first time retailers, rather than retailer representatives, attended the test. This added to the word of mouth credibility of the test in the trade. Retailers asked for more formal statistical analysis and we have added that in 2010.

In 2010 we have included wholesalers to the test. Trek and Giant were invited but only the former attended. The main light importers were invited but even the past winners were reluctant to see their lights be tested. St Kilda Cycles who import Schmidt lamps and dynamos as well as Bausch and Muller lamps attended the test in 2010.

We plan to continue to develop and refine the test responding to rider needs, retailer feedback and product developments. We will concentrate on tightening up test procedures, in our view the better test, the stronger the impact. We will also continue to build awareness among riders, retailers and wholesalers about which lights are good.

Things that need to change

Looking back over five years there are elements of the campaign that need to change.

The campaign has traditionally been launched each year at the end of daylight saving with a big media effort followed by a smaller effort on the shortest day. (The daylight saving date is not relevant for Queensland, Northern Territory and Western Australia so the message has been about ‘the start of the footy season’.)

The messages in the media campaign have been based on roadside observations of riders in the weeks leading up to the end of daylight saving. The results of these observations, including the coordinated national observations in 2008, are consistent and show that a third of riders observed do not have both operating lights.

The media message has been supported by the public results of the test which highlight the best front and rear lights. The press releases have also carried information about penalties and collisions as appropriate. The media campaign has produced mixed results. The national and statewide media have paid little attention. The issue has however been taken up strongly by local media.

From now on we plan to flip our old approach so that our main effort is on the shortest day when it is unambiguously dark.

It is difficult to get people to recognise the importance of lights at the end of daylight saving. From March the lighting up time gets earlier but the gradual change in the makes it hard to make a dramatic entrance for the campaign with riders and the media.

Although the program has emphasised the importance of lights at dusk and dawn, the program has not up until now given enough attention to conditions of poor light that are not related to time of day. Poor light can occur in thunderstorms in the north and fog in the south even when it is outside official lighting up times. The traffic regulations reflect this fact.

We will continue to have an alert early in the calendar year. The 2010 launch has been postponed until after Easter at the request of the Victoria Police so as to leave them a clear run in reducing the Easter road toll.

In the next phase of the program we will drop the twice yearly battery reminder. We were not getting this picked up by the media consistently and it blurred the focus on the basic question of have you got lights or not.

In the next phase we will shift our focus from a one size fits all approach and start to focus on populations of riders who don’t use lights. We need for example to put a stronger emphasis on roadies who are out riding at dawn.

In 2009 we made substantial efforts to establish a pilot program under Light Up! that would work with the university student population. This group is typical of the riders who ride at night without lights. In general established commuters and riders who regularly use their bikes for short trips get their lighting system worked out. People who ride without lights are often new into riding, have moved recently and may be watching their expenditure, especially on boring things like bike lights.

We took a proposal to road safety authorities, police and tertiary institutions where it was met with some enthusiasm. We received strong internal support from within a couple of universities. This triggered some in principle agreements including the establishment of committees and notional funding commitments from the universities. Unfortunately the conditions placed on the pilot were not able to be met. One institution wanted the program to be run in September for example.

We have changed tack in 2010 and are attempting to base the pilot on the support of local government, the police and road safety authorities. We hope to run the program in the dark of winter in 2010

In our survey of 300 members in 2008 62% supported increasing the penalties from $55.It will be interesting to see the effect in Victoria of the increased penalties for riding without lights. The fines have risen from $55 to $146. This is still $9 less than a motorist would pay for the same offence. This change may well trigger a shift in behaviour especially if it is backed up with some work by police. If the change in the penalty is associated with changed behaviour, it will add weight to the arguments for change in other jurisdictions.

Signs of success

Light Up! is a long term behaviour change program that will require skill, persistence and patience. The campaign will end when it is normal to have good lights on your bike. This may take some time to achieve.

There are some important milestones we will pass along the way including:
• The number of riders without lights in our observations will fall below 10%
• The number of fatalities and hospitalisations in poor light will fall below 10%
• Bike lights will have to meet a minimum standard before they can be sold
• Police will run regular blitzes each year to reach the ‘unreachable’
• Penalties for riding without lights will be greater than $100 in each jurisdiction

Another key group in the campaign are motorists. Every time a rider travels at night without lights, the reputation of bike riding is lowered. The 2006 RACQ survey found that it was the ‘most annoying’ rider behaviour for motorists coming in at seven in the top ten annoying behaviours of other road users. In our view this survey correctly reflects the shock felt by a motorist who suddenly realises there is an unlit rider in their path. That it is the most annoying rider behaviour reflects the frequency of the experience. A key sign of success of the campaign will be when this behaviour doesn’t make the top ten of similar surveys.