Rant on Frivolous Bike Laws

For one of my classes I was doing research on bicycle laws and came upon this Michigan bicycle law, 257.662 part 4.

“A person shall not sell, offer for sale, or deliver for sale in this state a bicycle or a pedal for use on a bicycle, either of which was manufactured after January 1, 1976, unless it is equipped with a type of reflex reflector located on the front and rear surfaces of the pedal. The reflector elements may be either integral with the construction of the pedal or mechanically attached, but shall be sufficiently recessed from the edge of the pedal, or of the reflector housing, to prevent contact of the reflector element with a flat surface placed in contact with the edge of the pedal. The pedal reflectors shall be visible from the front and rear of the bicycle during the nighttime from a distance of 200 feet when directly exposed to the lower beam head lamps of a motor vehicle.”

To me this seems like an unreasonable law. Any reputable bike shop will sell you pedals that do not comply with this law. Almost every clipless pedal used by professional bike racers and serious recreational users does not have reflectors on them. They are designed to be as lightweight and low profile as possible not leaving enough room to place reflectors on the front and back of them. Furthermore, with their low profile design even if they had a reflector built in would be impossible to see because the shoes would cover them up when clipped in.

When most people use these higher end pedals they are riding during the day or should be sufficiently knowledgeable to wear some other form of reflective gear when riding at night. If this law was to be enforced it would require people who want these pedals to go out of state or online to purchase the pedals hindering Michigan bike retailers. To be fair to the shops some of these pedals do come with an attachment that has the reflectors but this many times doesn’t allow you to be clipped in with the reflector attached and is normally thrown away anyways. This is a waste and harmful to the environment which is one of the reasons that many people have chose to bike as a form of transportation to begin with.

Campus Bike Racks

I go to school in Houghton, Michigan which has a large biking community. Around the school and the town there is a significant shortage of bike racks. This is a problem when you bike to class and the majority of the racks are full. People then resort to locking their bikes to trees, signs and other objects that can be damaged from unintentional use. If campuses would have larger bike racks it would encourage more people to bike and would have the added benefit of being better for the environment. Along these lines they should also have more covered bike racks so it is more pleasant biking in inclement weather.