Invisible Cyclists in Solstice Dark

In these dark winter months, I am car-pooling with a colleague to get to
work. Although I am impervious to cold, I am not happy about cycling
because of the poor visibility. My road to work is poorly lit, my
eyesight is bad, my balance perturbed by the dancing beam of my front
light and my glasses fog up every time I stop.

In the car, I really do get to notice what can and cannot be seen from a
motorist's point of view. And I am appalled to discover just how hard it
can be to see cyclists and pedestrians, and how few of them seem to be
aware of this.

Much winter clothing is dark or black to begin with. Then many ride
entirely without lights, or just a little reflector. Great aurioles of
light surround the street lights and the headlights of the oncoming
cars, casting everything else around them into a pitch black shadow from
the glare. A few days ago, I was standing on a pavement waiting for a
bus, looking directly into the traffic. Two cyclists swooped right in
front of me - they were less than 30 feet from me before I even noticed
them.

On mornings and even in the broad daylight of the lunch hour, there is
frequently a freezing smog that not only soups up the air but makes the
ground slippery. This smog can come on quite suddenly - all is clear,
then the car descends into a barely perceptible valley and the
windscreen empties like a movie screen with the projector turned off.

For night riding it has been my personal practise to wear a reflector
vest and blinkie lights on armbands. I have a LED headlight and a small
red backlight. But my lesson from this is that perhaps even I need to up
the ante. I shall get myself a yellow reflector parka from Glow Dog, and
wear that even as a pedestrian. And I need more blinkies, especially in
the back.

I know I'm preaching to the choir here, but for those of you who do
cycle in the dark, please make sure you are as visible as you can make
yourselves. Perhaps do a visibility test with your gear - ask family or
a neighbor for feedback on whether you can be seen and at what distance,
especially if you are sharing the road with cars and headlights.

Safe riding to all,

EFR
Ile de France

Elisa Francesca Roselli wrote:

In the car, I really do get to notice what can and cannot be seen from a
motorist's point of view. And I am appalled to discover just how hard it
can be to see cyclists and pedestrians, and how few of them seem to be
aware of this.

Much winter clothing is dark or black to begin with. Then many ride
entirely without lights, or just a little reflector. Great aurioles of
light surround the street lights and the headlights of the oncoming
cars, casting everything else around them into a pitch black shadow from
the glare.

With the "great aurioles of light," Elisa makes a point that the
youngsters in the crowd may not be aware of.

About 15 years ago, I visited a museum devoted to medical matters.
They had a display illustrating the effects of aging. Part of that
showed how aged eyes become cloudy. Supposedly, protein changes in the
lens put a cloudy halo around every bright light. I recall thinking
"Hmm. That doesn't happen with me."

And it didn't - back then. But the effect is beginning to be
noticeable now, 15 years later.

Young people don't normally have this problem, and they may make the
mistake of assuming that, since _they_ can see unlit cyclists and peds
at night, everyone else can. Not so!

So you cool young dudes and dudettes - put lights on your bike, and
carry a tiny LED light when you walk (if you ever do actually walk).
Use reflective stuff, too. It doesn't take much, but it takes
_something_ bright to be seen.

Remember, we old fogies are not only unfashionable and confused, we're
half blind!

- Frank Krygowski

wrote: (clip) Remember, we old fogies are not only
unfashionable and confused, we're half blind!
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I'll be 88 in a couple of weeks, so I guess I have the right to say this.
Older people take longer to form a meaningful picture from what enters their
senses, and longer to react. We try to compensate for these losses, but
many of us don't realize, or hate to admit they occur. The changes are so
gradual we're not always aware of them.

BTW, Elisa, your writing is delightful: "The windscreen empties like a
movie screen with the projector turned off."

"Leo Lichtman" wrote in message
...

wrote: (clip) Remember, we old fogies are not only
unfashionable and confused, we're half blind!
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I'll be 88 in a couple of weeks, (clip)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I guess age has also affected my ability to add, or remember. ake that,
"I'll be 78 in a couple of weeks..."

Leo Lichtman wrote:
"Leo Lichtman" wrote in message
...

wrote: (clip) Remember, we old fogies are not only
unfashionable and confused, we're half blind!
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I'll be 88 in a couple of weeks, (clip)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I guess age has also affected my ability to add, or remember. ake that,
"I'll be 78 in a couple of weeks..."

Time does speed up as we age. I know I made it from 50 to 60 a lot
faster than I did 10 to 20
;-)

Leo Lichtman wrote:
"Leo Lichtman" wrote in message
...

wrote: (clip) Remember, we old fogies are not
only unfashionable and confused, we're half blind!
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I'll be 88 in a couple of weeks, (clip)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I guess age has also affected my ability to add, or remember. ake
that, "I'll be 78 in a couple of weeks..."

I was gonna say, Leo... 88?!? 78 is impressive enough!

On 23 Dec 2005 08:02:24 -0800, wrote:


So you cool young dudes and dudettes - put lights on your bike, and
carry a tiny LED light when you walk (if you ever do actually walk).
Use reflective stuff, too. It doesn't take much, but it takes
_something_ bright to be seen.

Remember, we old fogies are not only unfashionable and confused, we're
half blind!

uhh, judging by the vernacular aesthetics, across differing youth
populations today, one could reasonably conclude that the fashionably
cool dudes and doodettes are at least half bind too.

I causally, at 2am, stopped a couple of perforated and studded punks
on the street and asked them if they thought my belt was cool.

He liked the belt. She liked the buckle. Then they looked closer at
six of the others I had and realised they were recycled bicycle parts.
That got them both excited and I respectfully listened to what they
had to say. (hmmm)

They're not so blind they can't spot kool zut when they see it.

My night vision has diminished somewhat. No cloudy halos though unless
it's through a water droplet lens. Even then I'm most often able to
spot the silhouette of a stealth rider against the background street
lighting. The riders with red blinkies, front and rear, are worse than
a stealth rider, IMO.

Know that stealth riding plainly and simply requires a different
technique than you or I choose to practice. We're lit. They see us so
stealth riders will stay out of _our_ way. No need for knotted
knickers.

It makes cycling safer for us because we can always point to some
stats and show that some certain percentage of unlit cyclists
experience car/bike collisions at night.
--
zk

Zoot Katz wrote:

I causally, at 2am, stopped a couple of perforated and studded punks
on the street and asked them if they thought my belt was cool.

He liked the belt. She liked the buckle. Then they looked closer at
six of the others I had and realised they were recycled bicycle parts.
That got them both excited and I respectfully listened to what they
had to say. (hmmm)

They're not so blind they can't spot kool zut when they see it.

Somewhere, on some alt.punk newsgroup, s/he's posting about this strange old
biker coot who, roaming the alleys at 2 AM, made them look at his "belt"
(hoping it's not a euphemism).

Weirdo! eg

On 23 Dec 2005 08:02:24 -0800, wrote:

So you cool young dudes and dudettes - put lights on your bike, and
carry a tiny LED light when you walk (if you ever do actually walk).
Use reflective stuff, too. It doesn't take much, but it takes
_something_ bright to be seen.

Besides my normal bike commute, I also walk my turbo-supercharged
Irish Setter in the morning before I pedal off to work, and in
the evening after my return from work. Perhaps 3-5 miles per day
(and maybe a 15 miler via MTB on a weekend!).

During the evening walk, I carry a small LED light and am constantly
surprised at how, even with a fairly bright light, I am apparently
not seen until the last minute as I and dog are preparing to dive
off the side of the road (a very dark, curvy road along the local
river course).

I now take to actually waving the light beam back and forth across
where I think the driver's head would be located in the oncoming
vehicle. Seems to do the trick in getting their attention.

My "iluminite" vest from Performance doesn't seem to do much any
more. Used to work quite well (sort of a bluish glow when hit by
car lights), but I think perhaps it's been washed too many times
and now "the glow is gone".


SMH

In uk.rec.cycling Stephen Harding wrote:
On 23 Dec 2005 08:02:24 -0800, wrote:

So you cool young dudes and dudettes - put lights on your bike, and
carry a tiny LED light when you walk (if you ever do actually walk).
Use reflective stuff, too. It doesn't take much, but it takes
_something_ bright to be seen.

Besides my normal bike commute, I also walk my turbo-supercharged
Irish Setter in the morning before I pedal off to work, and in
the evening after my return from work. Perhaps 3-5 miles per day
(and maybe a 15 miler via MTB on a weekend!).

During the evening walk, I carry a small LED light and am constantly
surprised at how, even with a fairly bright light, I am apparently
not seen until the last minute as I and dog are preparing to dive
off the side of the road (a very dark, curvy road along the local
river course).

I once came across a horrible multiple car accident on the A1 at
night. The wreckage could only safely be negotiated slowly and
carefully. Since lots of folk were already helpiung the injured and
trying to clear the road, I legged off to mount advance warning by
waving a torch at oncoming drivers.

After being forced to dive into the hedgerow several times I concluded
that it couldn't possibly be that, wearing bright reflective gear,
standing in the middle of the road, and waving a powerful torch, I
wasn't been seen. I concluded that I was being seen, and being
identified as an annoying impediment to fast motorised progress who
needed to be taught a lesson about who the road belonged to.

--
Chris Malcolm +44 (0)131 651 3445 DoD #205
IPAB, Informatics, JCMB, King's Buildings, Edinburgh, EH9 3JZ, UK
[http://www.dai.ed.ac.uk/homes/cam/]