How to give away lights to cyclists without lights?

Question

My objective is simple enough... I want people to be safe when out riding. Too often on my way to work I often see cyclists in the dark and rain without lights. When I see them I try and offer them an extra light I keep handy, just in case.

The problem is I have only been successful two times over the course of a full year. Most of the time, male or female, young or old, I am told that they either have one some where or they forgot their batteries or some other crazy excuse. I have even offered free batteries to no avail.

One time it took me running into the same fellow three times on a dark forest track before he would accept an old set of trail lights I had kicking about. (And of course the next day my newer replacement lights died - talk about Murphy's Law!) The only other time, I felt like the person was begrudgingly allowing me to mount a light on their bike (they were riding in the dark down a busy rural road with no street lights).

In theory this should be a simple exercise, but I am failing miserably.
I know my approach is important so I focus on being friendly and non-judgemental (no one likes being called out). I don't tell them what they should or should not be doing, I only talk about how the conditions make it hard to see and that I have some lights they can have.

Question

What is going on here? Am I missing some sort of psychological/human nature angle? Should I be taking a completely different approach?

Note: I am unclear if the bicycles stack is the most appropriate stack for the question, but figured I would give it a go here first.

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Update

I wanted to thank everyone for their ideas and feedback.I am currently shopping the idea of a central light give-away with various local sponsors. The best target will be in the area around the major city I live in as it has the highest density of cyclists.

That said, I actually work out in a smaller community, which will likely be missed in any give away due to the lower volume of cyclists. So I am continuing to work on my technique for the ones I encounter here. Tonight I was able to give one to a older stealth cyclist who refused me in the past (and who was actually the impetus for this post). I just extra time striking up a conversation and was a bit more persuasive in my sell job. Also I made an extra effort to communicate that there were no strings were attached (mainly in my tone and some small comments about the origins of the lights - Moᶎ's "unknown provenance." I will also see if a small light gift certificate is an easier give-away.

Answer 1

We have had much more success advertising it and doing it through a local bike shop or bike group. Once each, so far, that I've done.

I think the psychology behind refusing a gift from a stranger is much as Criggie says. You're some random dude approaching people at night offering second hand lights of unknown provenance. Why are you doing that? What's going on? Especially because you're also criticising them "you, the idiot without lights, stop and let me tell you how to do it properly". Yeah, nah.

FWIW, I have your same issue with chain lube. Occasionally I'll ride up behind someone whose bike is in mortal agony and say "I have chain lube in my pannier, wanna stop and let me fix that noise for you" and hardly anyone will accept.

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The first time I was involved in a lighting give-away was when the Critical Mass fund I kept had more than a thousand dollar surplus and I decided I should do something with it. Critical Mass is an anarchy, so it really was my decision. While chatting with the owner of a bike shop at Mass we came up with the idea of buying a bunch of cheap-but-reasonable lights and giving them away. We talked to the local cycling promotion bureacrazy and they agreed that given 6-12 months to get themselves organised they could help promote it. We declined. I handed over the cash (my $1000, about $500 from the shop for lights that wholesaled at ~$5/pair when bought by the boxful), the shop ordered some of boxes of lights, I printed up a few posters and we put them up in the shop and along the bike route we were targeting. Then one winter night we set up a stall on the footpath next to the bike route, got 3-4 people to man it, and gave away about 300 sets of lights over 3 nights. We explicitly didn't stop people getting more than one set, but we did refuse a couple of people who were obviously going "free stuff, give me everything".

That was very popular, and was sufficiently effective at promoting the bike shop that the owner went "I can spend $500 on a 1/4 page ad in bike magazine, or $500 on free lights... the lights work much better". Even people who didn't need or want the free lights thought better of the shop for the give-away.

So a couple of years later the shop owner did a deal with the cycling promotion unit in the local council or state government or somewhere (I wasn't involved with that bit). The promotion people advertised it and put in half the light fund, the shop ditto, and we/they gave away another few hundred lights (I helped with this bit). The location was picked to suit the promotion people, but it was busy and also the site of a new cycle route. Again, very popular and effective.

The difference is that we had an official-looking banner and multiple people, plus the signage/people were known entities. People will take a free gift from a local businessman, or "that guy from Critical Mass" who they see regularly, much more willingly that someone they've never seen before. It's about attributing motivation. "it's a bike shop promotion" or "that guy is nuts about bike community" is easy and people will just run with it. Having to think about why you're trying to press lights on them is hard.

Answer 2

I am from the Bike Lobby in Austria, and we are doing security checks together with the police. We make a checkpoint, the police stops all cyclists and checks their equipment.

If everything is O.K. we give the rider a goodie, like some chocolate

If something is amiss we have a repair tent nearby where we fix the problems. We have reflectors for free, and do repairs e.g. for dynamo powered lights for free. If there are some components missing (battery lights) we sell them cheaply. If someone does not want to fix their lights (happens rarely) he will not be fined, but has to push his bike.

This works great, and we have pushed the light quota from 60% to 95% in the city we are doing this kind of activities. It requires a lot of effort and support from the government though. We run 12 of these checkpoints on different places in the city, always in the weeks before or after the change from daylight saving time to normal time. This activity is sponsored by the government, they are paying the costs for the repair tent and some of the equipment and goodies.

So summarizing: Instead of trying on your own, better work together with some people and get organized. This approach works!

Infos about the Event in German

Answer 3

Yeah I've thought of doing this too. However people generally don't accept spontaneous gifts because it creates a sense of obligation and humans avoid that.

The other viewpoint is they are adults and have made a choice to ride without lights. You are not responsible for their decisions, and they have to live with the results of their actions.

Short answer: Not your problem - Respect a fellow adult's space, even if you know its stupid.

Alternative answer: If you still want to help, contact your local bike co-operative and see if you can volunteer time fixing bikes. Our local coop subsidises a pair of red and white flashies for less than wholesale cost, and sometimes we just put them on a repaired bike. Downside is they're still pretty poor lights but better than nothing.

Lights came from http://dx.com/ Not a product recommendation, but they're cheaper in lots of 10. Batteries last about a month of daily usage, and they're unobtrusive enough to leave on the bike most of the time.

http://www.dx.com/p/ultrafire-xp-01-led-2-6lm-3-mode-red-bike-tail-safety-light-black-red-2-x-cr2032-280577

Personally I use one of these as a second/backup rear light, and I also hang one on the dog's collar when walking at night.

Answer 4

Consider offering to lend your spare set instead, and give an address where they can be returned. It doesn't have to be your own address; you could specify a local bike shop, for example.

This reduces social pressure on the recipient, because they can then believe they are willing to return the lights to you. Whether they do or not is of little relevance, as you don't mind if you don't get them back.

If people do return them by dropping them off at the bike shop, then you are likely to go up in the shop owner's estimation for sending in lots of potential customers, so that's an extra benefit!

Answer 5

There may be an element of social debt, as Toby mentioned, especially if the lights are large or otherwise look expensive. By approaching them in the dark and rain they may also be more on edge compared to being approached midday.

In Ottawa, Canada, there's been success passing out free cheap lights with a small information brochure. Make sure you approach very friendly, and explain why you're doing this. There's a short news report from last year on one cyclist taking this in his own hands: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/free-bike-light-campaign-aims-to-make-ottawa-roads-safer-1.2719526.

Answer 6

One factor that has not been mentioned yet. Most people are not getting on their bike to participate in social mingling, but are on their way to something. So if you stop them to offer them light you are interrupting and delaying them from reaching their destination. This might or might not be a significant issue for the other person, but it might set you up for a negative start. So just be aware of this and adjust the shortness of the interaction appropriately.

Answer 7

I have given away about 20 sets of lights to local teenagers. They have nearly all accepted them gratefully. My tips:

I give away small USB chargeable lights. If teenagers can't be bothered to buy lights, they won't bother with changing batteries so it's pointless giving them lights that require batteries to be changed. The small size and USB connectivity I think make them more acceptable as a high-tech solution. They also strap on so no need for ugly brackets or tools to fit.

I just offer them the lights, I don't make comments about it being unsafe to ride without lights.

Generally they know me or have seen me around, and I offer them when in conversation and they are stopped, not when they are purposefully riding.

Having said that there have been some isolated incidents where the situation has been different, and they have still been well received, e.g. some wild teenage boys wheelieing in the high street, I caught up with them and complimented them on their skills and offered them lights, and they accepted them.

Another idea I have is to donate some to a charity event. There is an annual BMX jam thing at the skatepark, which includes an auction of merchandise donated to the event. Often this is made up into packs, and in previous years this has included helmets, so I think they'd be happy to include lights in the pack.

It is good fun giving away lights!

Answer 8

I tend to use several battery powered bike lights on my bike, the rather cheap kind you use for a couple of weeks or even months but do not change the batteries in, with a rubber or elastic band to attach it.
Several times each week I use the local pool and most of the time parents leave with their kids after swimming lessons at the time I park my bike and at the time I leave.
When mother tells the kid the light is not working I offer one of mine and more than half the time the mother accepts it.

While I am a regular at that time, nobody has ever offered it back.

My point, the lights are quite cheap and I clearly can miss one (as I still have two working ones at least) and the person getting it and I are both standing still, within easy talking distance.