In any case, a rear light is important for safe night riding regardless of any legal incentive. Back when I drove and biked, it was pretty eye opening to me how almost invisible a cyclist without lights is to a driver at night, especially in areas with poor street lighting.

I had an old man cuss at me recently because he had to brake hard saying he at first didn’t see me, and I had 3 really bright bike lights on, a rear reflector and 2 large reflective patches on my large and yellow messenger bag. If I had no lights on he probably would have noticed me even later or not at all and I would have been struck from behind.

But back to the legal issues — A rear light is NOT required by the Cali vehicle code. A reflector’s required, but not a light. So if people have indeed been cited at critical mass for not having a rear light, that’s an incorrect citation — unless the city of Santa Monica’s enacted its own stricter rules –

Of course, I think we can all agree that having the rear light’s a good idea, regardless of what the law requires –

The law also requires a tail light and headlight after sun down in addition to reflectors, although if you have lights cops typically ignore the reflector requirement. The most common ticket given to cyclists during the SaMo police efforts to break up critical mass were tickets for lack of either rear or front bike lighting.

Legal issues aside, night visibility of cyclists by motorists is pretty poor, so lights are very important. I think we would all prefer a living green LA girl.

As to the econess of bike lights, the most effective way to go is battery powered LED’s with rechargeable batteries. Red LED’s especially last a very long time per charge. The pedal powered lighting systems are generally not as a bright, heavier, and they make your bike slightly slower by harnessing some of your kinetic energy away from going forward to generate the electricity.

The light you linked to is very popular and I have one in my assortment of rear lighting options. The new blackburn Mars 4.0 light that just came out is a similar style of rear light competing with the planet bike light, and I have it as well. I think the blackburn may be slightly brighter with the big beam flash but lacks the smaller red in between flashes, however has yellow side lighting for alerting cross traffic. Both are very good rear lighting options.

I’d also like to give a shout out to my friend Ashira (aka Red Riding Hood) who makes night time reflective patches and bright clothing that are more punk rock and less I am a safety nerd. She just set up a shop on Etsy.

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=101224

If you want a planet bike light I’d be down to give you one, and you don’t have to wait till Christmas, because if you are doing any night riding I’d rather you be safe sooner then later.