Winter draws on

[JohnInStockie]

With the standard LED lights fitted to my Cadence, additional LEDs on my tyre valves (for side visibility), and flashing lights on my fluorescent tabard and backpack, I am lit up like a proverbial Christmas tree on the move for my early morning and early evening darkness commutes.

Yet I still get cut up by motorists on occasion (must be that 'Somebody Else's Problem' field fitted to my bike) - and even worse, I have noticed a huge increase in potential collisions with pedestrians and other cyclists crossing my path or stepping in front of me (without looking) in the gloomy hours.

Wonder if there is a pschological reason behind that (too many bright lights from cars?) or if it is just ignorance? I am considering replacing my bike bell with a louder electric horn...

David.

I think that drivers just get a bit mesmorised by the lights. All you can see in your car on dark nights are white and red lights in various directions, so its a bit like 'cant see the wood for the trees' type of thing.

Maybe those 50 cycles flashing blue tabbard thingys would be better, hmmm....

John

 

[Fat Girl]

flashing Blue tabard thingy

I think that drivers just get a bit mesmorised by the lights. All you can see in your car on dark nights are white and red lights in various directions, so its a bit like 'cant see the wood for the trees' type of thing.

Maybe those 50 cycles flashing blue tabbard thingys would be better, hmmm....

John

My Bike shop man told me he saw me cycling in the dark with the flashing blue tabard thingy and he could see me very clearly from quite a distance in the dark. However, it was an unlit country road so no other lights around to distract. It doesn't look very bright so i've had doubts as to how visible i was with it.
Maybe its better than it looks.

 

[JohnInStockie]

Apart from the usual red lights, is there anything that members can recommend as a useful lighting method to reduce the risk of car driver 'memorisation'.

I have the Hi Viz jacket, rear fixed red light and 3 separate flashing leds, one the reelight low on the wheel, one a cateye attached to the seat post, and one high up on the back of my helmet.

Am I overdoing it?

What do others use that travel in heavy traffic on dark nights?

 

[flecc]

That's primary safety John, and as you know, I thoroughly approve of that and don't think there can ever be too much.

Anything that avoids an accident always makes sense.

Car drivers generally hate unconventional illumination since it distracts them as they try to work out what the Christmas tree is, but I'd rather them have a bit of inconvenience than me get run over.
.

 

[allotmenteer]

I've got two rear lights, one on the seatpost and one on my backpack (though the clip has snapped so I've cable tied it to the bike for now), one flashing and one fixed.

I also have a home-made 12V halogen MR11 mounted inside a plastic plumbing pipe reducer running off a 12V SLA. This is very bright and for about £6 (battery was free) is great value. I've got a LED front light too in case the halogen fails (the LED is only good enough for being seen and not for lighting dark country roads).

 

[Ian]

This evening while driving in the deceptive twilight period I noticed a cyclist coming the other way with a fairly feeble flashing LED light, nothing special about that except I saw him, over 100m away against a backdrop of car headlights. Of course I only saw the flashing white light, not the bike itself until it got closer. It occurred to me that far from being confusing, as some claim, the flashing light had uniquely identified the vehicle as a bicycle and a more effective lamp would have identified the vehicle at a greater distance. Later on I caught up with another cyclist with a flashing rearlamp on a much darker road and once again it was clear from the distant flashing light that the dark shape was a bicycle and therefore likely to be travelling slowly. Any car drivers who find flashing lights confusing should consider that only cycles can display white and red flashing lights on the road, which shouldn't really leave much room for confusion.