On 4/4/2019 6:17 PM, wrote:
On Thu, 4 Apr 2019 10:55:46 -0400, Frank Krygowski
wrote:

On 4/3/2019 9:58 PM, David Scheidt wrote:
David Scheidt wrote:
:From time to time, we have discussed the visibility of daytime running
:lights. I commute on a bike with B&M Cyo, which I leave on all the
:time, because I can't tell the difference if it's on or off. I found
:myself on google street view on my ride home last fall. I got passed
:by the car, and then passed it, and got passed again. So I, and the
:bike, are in a bunch of pictures, from the front and behind, over
:several blocks. This one gives a good view of the headlight. It's
:more visible than I'd have expected. This was about an hour before
:dark, and overcast November day.

:https://goo.gl/maps/NQURJ9dps3p

And one that will make Frank happy:
https://goo.gl/maps/S1QRDrdpBhz

I used your Street Views to track you along the street for quite a
while. Looks to me like in most photos, the light is visible only as a
white dot. (I suspect the photos where it looks brighter happened to
capture a moment when your handlebars twitched a big more toward the
Google car.) Overall, I doubt very much that it will make any more
difference than, say, if you painted a white circle on the middle of
your chest.

Which is not to say your light - or a white circle - has zero value in
daylight. There's data out there showing that motorcyclists who choose
white helmets get hit a bit less than motorcyclists who choose dark
helmets. However, that doesn't justify forcing all motorcyclists to wear
only white hats.

Some here will say that the problem is your Busch & Mueller headlight,
which is designed for lighting the road but not glaring in the eyes of
other road users. They have called for super-bright lights with
unsophisticated round beams, the kind that can irritate or even blind
others.


I've read you and others going on about lights that blind oncoming
riders but frankly I don't see how that happens if the light is aimed
to illuminate the road. I use a regular single cell (3.7 VDC)
flashlight with the normal "unsophisticated" round beam and if I aim
it to illuminate the road it does not shine in the eyes of oncoming
riders, in fact after reading your various posts about blinding lights
I tested my lights.

I tested this, in full darkness, by parking the bike and walking a
distance in front of the bike and then turning and walking back toward
the bike. If the flashlight is aimed to illuminate the road it doesn't
shine in my eyes.

At other times I have observed where the light shines on autos that I
overtake in traffic and the beam seems to hit a car at about the level
of the tail lights.

Thus it would appear that blinding bicycle lights are simply aimed to
shine in approaching traffic's eyes. I might point out also that a
normal bicyclist's eyes are at a height above the roof level of the
average modern automobile.

This is not to say that it can't happen rather that it appears to be
just one of the usual short comings of the bicyclist.

A couple weeks ago, my wife and I were on vacation in a city south of
here. On a riverside bike path at night, we were assaulted by one of
those glaring beams used by a rider coming the opposite direction. We
had to stop by the side of the bike path and shield our eyes until he
rode by. But I'm sure he felt very virtuous as well as safe.

We were passed by only one other cyclist. She had no lights at all.

So much for the Golden Mean.

Agreed but out in the real world it's a real problem:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16669326

--
Andrew Muzi
www.yellowjersey.org/
Open every day since 1 April, 1971