Marin County has long styled itself as a cycling paradise—sunlit climbs, coastal descents and enough elite road culture to make a water bottle feel underdressed. But paradise, lately, has been taking some hits.
Bike accidents have been rising since 2010, with local observers citing an 86% increase over a 10-year span and a notable inflection point around 2016. Now a newer surge is being driven by e-bikes, younger riders and faster machines sharing roads built for another era. In Marin alone, roughly 240 reported bike crashes—including serious injuries and fatalities—were logged three years ago.
For Fred Goldfarb, founder of Tailgator, the issue stopped being abstract the moment he hit the asphalt.
“In 2016, I had an accident caused by a sudden unexpected stop,” Goldfarb said. “I fell, broke my wrist and landed in the ER.”
As doctors set the cast, another thought formed. “I concluded that bikes needed brake lights,” he pointed out. “They work well for cars … so why not for bikes?”
That question became Tailgator, a Marin-based company producing bicycle brake light systems that brighten when riders slow or stop. What sounds obvious now was not standard then. Cyclists had taillights, certainly, but not many lights that clearly signaled braking.
Goldfarb’s concept emerged from a decade of speaking with thousands of riders while building safety products. That perspective has convinced him the roads have changed dramatically.
“With more riders come more accidents,” he said. “Improved technology increases bike speeds on both roads and mountain trails. Infrastructure doesn’t keep up with the growth in cycling. More cars are on the roads.”
He also points to modern distraction. “Drivers are distracted by cell phones,” Goldfarb noted. “Drivers look for directions or music on their large media monitors.”
Goldfarb believes e-bikes have accelerated existing tensions. While most e-bike riders are adults, younger riders are often the most visible and controversial segment. “Their unsafe driving skills are more visible,” he said. “Their accidents are more visible.”
Anyone who has watched adolescents whizzing down Sir Francis Drake Boulevard like bats out of hell will get it.
Goldfarb is no anti-bike scold. Quite the opposite. He speaks with the zeal of someone who has loved bicycles since childhood. “I rode a Schwinn bike in 1956,” he recalled, noting seven decades in the saddle.
That long view informs his realism. Cycling booms come and go. Technology changes. Behavior lags. The modern road is now shared by commuters, fitness riders, tourists, delivery workers, retirees and teenagers on machines capable of surprising speed.
So what can actually help? Goldfarb starts with the controllable. “Better gear is the easiest way to improve safety,” he said. “You can control that.”
He advocates bright taillights, headlights, reflective clothing and common-sense maintenance. The pitch on his website sums it up: “Why? Because your ass is more exposed than a bumper out there. The Tailgator bike light is more than a tail light—it’s a 300-lumen ‘notice-me’ flare when you brake.”
But he also knows gadgets alone won’t save anyone from distracted driving or poor judgment.
“It will require a mutual awareness for everyone to keep cycling safe,” he noted.
That may be the larger story here. Tailgator isn’t merely a product born from one bad fall. It’s a local answer to a growing national problem: how to preserve the freedom and pleasure of biking while acknowledging that the stakes have risen.
Goldfarb still rides Marin roads, carrying with him decades of cycling history—from the anything-goes bravado of early mountain biking to today’s more complicated landscape of traffic, technology and rising risk. In the end, his outlook remains rooted less in fear than in preserving the joy of the ride. As he put it:
“Forty-five years later, I try to take all those experiences and try to find solutions so I and others can still have a blast no matter where I ride in Marin County. And find peace of mind at the same time.” — Weeklys Staff
More information at tailgator.io.
