Program helps illuminate pedestrians, cyclists during Oregon’s darkest days

Once a year on a chilly November morning, the Lane Council of Governments office building in Eugene transforms into a packaging center. Employees of LCOG and their partners assemble kits that include various types of reflective gear — vests, lights and beanies.

Then they distribute the kits to partner organizations to hand out to underserved communities, for free.

“Basically, imagine an office turned into a big Amazon warehouse, and you have a good sense of how much we’re trying to fit in,” said Kelsey Moore, the transportation options specialist for LCOG.

Since 2021, this See & Be Seen campaign, has been helping people in Lane County walk and cycle safely when daylight saving time hits and darkness comes earlier.

The campaign has distributed more than 20,000 items over the past two years. This includes 12,940 pieces of safety gear in 2024, and, so far, 9,470 in 2025, according to Moore.

In 2024, partner organizations handed out 7,168 bicyclist and pedestrian light sets, 3,325 reflective beanies and vests, and 1,800 reflective zipper pulls. This year, they’ve already distributed 6,565 light sets and 2,905 beanies and vests.

LCOG has also maxed out their storage space. Operating out of an office comes with limitations, Moore said, and bulk orders take careful timing. “We’re just trying to make sure everything compresses into a certain amount of space and time,” she said.

Safety in the dark 

With a record 11 crash-related pedestrian and bicyclist fatalities in 2024, according to the Eugene Fatal Crash Report, See & Be Seen aims to prevent the likelihood of future deaths before they happen. 

“I believe that traffic fatalities are preventable, and in our culture, we’ve come to think of them as inevitable,” said Willow Hamilton, the community engagement coordinator for the city of Eugene’s Transportation Planning team. “I feel really strongly that if we continue to pursue safety measures from all avenues, we can hopefully bring that number down.”

One of the organizations in partnership with See & Be Seen is the Episcopal Church of St. John the Divine in Springfield. Nancy Gallagher, the rector, started partnering with the campaign four years ago and said she’s received positive feedback since.

St. John the Divine also has a food pantry, community closet and gives out free breakfast every Saturday for anyone in need.

“Particularly here at St. John the Divine’s weekly food pantry, we serve over 50 families,”
Gallagher said. “A lot of our people ride the bus, bicycle and walk, and we have a lot of children, so these are the people that cannot afford to add these kinds of things to their wardrobe.”

Brian Dean, a community member at St. John the Divine, uses their resources often. He is a veteran and has a visual impairment. A service dog helps him get around. He came to pick up the gear to make his dog more visible as he walks to and from his home.

Dean uses public transit for most of his transportation needs. He tries to take the bus most of the time, but when he can’t, he is forced to walk on busy corridors like Highway 99 where he says he’s faced close calls.

“It’s been close to the point where the cars breeze past me,” Dean said. 

Statistics from the National Cooperative Highway Research Program show that 76% of U.S. fatalities from 2018 to 2022, the most recent year of available data, occurred in darkness. 

The Eugene crash report states that 65% of fatal pedestrian crashes and 40% of fatal bike crashes occurred in dark conditions. 

David Hurwitz is a professor of transportation engineering at Oregon State University. The Federal Highway Administration and the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety have supported his research. He also helped prepare the National Cooperative Highway Research Program report.

“We know that the trend has been increasing for at least the last 10 years, with pedestrian and bicyclist fatal outcomes, and they’re overrepresented under nighttime conditions,” Hurwitz said. “If we can make it easier to see pedestrians in these crossing environments, that has value.”