"Tony W" wrote .

My experience on country lanes is that the greatest danger is being
blinded by oncoming traffic and losing the edge of the road. It is then
easy to veer either into the middle of the road or into the ditch.

Neither are good. On country lanes a light that says to the driver 'dip
you *******' is required.


Do I ever agree with that! Most of my commuting route has streetlights of
greater or lesser adequacy, but always enough to cut the glare from the
lights of oncoming traffic, which usually isn't using the bright beam
anyway. But get on a dark lonely road and encounter an oncoming car with
the brights on, and it's stunning how quickly and badly you can become
disoriented relative to the edge of the road! I have already stopped
altogether and waited for the traffic to pass, and shouted some
"encouragement" for the driver to dim his lights.

I'm also part of the choir being preached to on this whole thread. My home
commute in the winter is in the dark. I use a bright chartreuse vest with
several reflective strips like highway dept workers use, plus a flashing
rear light (less helpful than the reflective vest) and a Cateye Opticube
front light - low power but 5 beams of blue light that are easier to see
than to see by. My TREK gloves and shoes also have reflectors, but they're
only good down to about 15 F.

My understanding is that the two biggest contributors to bike rider
fatalities are failure to yield right of way and riding invisibly at night.