On 3/21/2017 11:25 AM, sms wrote:
On 3/21/2017 7:24 AM, wrote:

If they did not want it picked apart they only had to provide the
actual numbers. And they didn't. Why do you suppose that was?

The numbers are almost certainly there--if you pay for the full study. A
lot of studies are like that. They publish a summary for free, but you
have to pay for the full study. I guess that the thought is that it
would be organizations with a budget for which a few hundred dollars (or
in this case about $40) would not be a big deal.

But in countries where flashing lights are already legal and widely
used, and the benefits well-established, why would anyone pay anything
just to get the raw data?

Yesterday it was cloudy here. I was driving in the morning. Gray cars in
gray conditions don't stand out. But you see cyclists with DRLs coming a
mile away (literally), long before you see any bright clothing. I doubt
if anyone here really believes that on bicycles DRLs (flashing or
steady) are not effective. Just look at motorcycles which have been
required to have a DRL for decades (at least in most states).

The _very_ significant difference between bikes and motorcycles is the
typical speed. The closing speed between a motorcycle and an oncomoing
car can easily be 120 mph. That closing speed is vanishingly rare for a
cyclist.

What that means is that in situations where there actually is some risk
of colliding - say, a left cross situation - the motorcyclist can be
hundreds of yards away and thus almost invisible. The bicyclist's body
and bike are much closer and much more visible than the motorcyclist's.

It's true that gutter riders are less conspicuous in left cross and
pull-out situations. But that should be solvable by cyclist education.
Those (like me) who typically ride in more visible lane positions just
don't have the dozens of close calls you frequently allude to. (I had
precisely one, in about 1977, and it taught me to stay out of the gutter.)

BTW, my wife and I made one of our frequent long drives home today. On
a two lane highway, I saw a cyclist coming toward us with a front
blinking DRL. Even if I did notice the light before the cyclist himself
(I doubt it, but it's hard to say), I thought "What's the point?" He
was in a bike lane on the other side of the road in a place with no
intersections for about a mile; and I would have seen him easily if I
did have to turn across his path, just as I've seen hundreds of daytime
cyclists without DRLs in the past.

Of course, he may have had a St. Christopher's medal. That may have
been what really made me notice him. ;-)


--
- Frank Krygowski