Ocean City provides bike lights

More than half of all bike accidents last year happened at night, according to Ocean City officials.

To help improve biking conditions, the City Council has started a new project to help riders move around the city with better and brighter lights.

According to the Council, so far only 40 light sets have been collected, but it is hoped to have at least 3,000 by the end of the year. Each set costs 8 dollars.

Officials say it’s hard to see bicyclists without lights at night and that reflectors are not helpful enough.

“I mean if you’re wearing black and you’re on a bike with a reflector you can’t even see it, and that’s what the bikes come with,” said City Council Member, Tony DeLuca.

“So I thought, you know, let’s put blinking lights on bikes – it would be a great initiative for the city in terms of safety,” said DeLuca.

Funding for the lights has been provided by the Council’s Green Team by the Ocean City Hotel, Motel and Restaurant Association. However, the team hopes to receive more donations from grants, local businesses and other community members.

“When you look out at the boardwalk any day of the summer time, people want to ride their bikes,” said Gail Blazer, Ocean City environmental engineer.

“It’s great and if we can make it safe for them — that’s why we’re going for this initiative,” said Blazer.

Ocean City police are also participating by helping install lights on bikes. They say they want to make sure bicyclists comply with law.

“A lot of our crashes have to do with bicycles that are not [lit up] correctly and so it’s dangerous at night,” said Officer Nathan Kutz.  

“In most cases when you’re driving down Coastal Highway or especially a side street that might be darker than Coastal Highway, you don’t see these bicycles,” said Kutz.

Bike riders are able to stop by the Public Safety Building located on 6501 Coastal Highway to have the lights installed on their bikes.