Impressed with the number of Cyclists with Proper Lights

We did an "in-town" 40 mile ride today and I was amazed to see the
number of riders using front strobe lights. It makes an incredible
difference in "being seen" in overcast conditions. Maybe only the people
going out in cold, overcast weather are those hard core people that use
proper equipment.

SMS writes:

We did an "in-town" 40 mile ride today and I was amazed to see the
number of riders using front strobe lights. It makes an incredible
difference in "being seen" in overcast conditions. Maybe only the
people going out in cold, overcast weather are those hard core people
that use proper equipment.

Ugh. I hate those damned front strobes. They are incredibly
distracting. It's bad when they're going the opposite way, but
it's awful when a cyclist is behind me for any distance and the
pavement just ahead of me blinks on and off a couple of times a
second.

Just think if every automobile headlight blinked on and off like
that. The roads would become unusable.

Just say no!
--
Ben Pfaff
http://benpfaff.org

Ben Pfaff wrote:

Ugh. *I hate those damned front strobes. *They are incredibly
distracting. *It's bad when they're going the opposite way, but
it's awful when a cyclist is behind me for any distance and the
pavement just ahead of me blinks on and off a couple of times a
second.

Just think if every automobile headlight blinked on and off like
that. *The roads would become unusable.

Just say no!

How else do you propose to make your one-watt (or less) bike light
conspicuous among the many 55 to 1000 watt lights strewn throughout a
city? If you can tolerate car headlights, and you can tolerate
flashing neon signs, traffic lights, and cop car lights, then you are
just being peevish about flashing bike headlights. It's like getting
worked up about the blinking LEDs on people's car alarms.

Chalo

On Mon, 13 Dec 2010 00:57:49 -0800, Chalo wrote:

How else do you propose to make your one-watt (or less) bike light
conspicuous among the many 55 to 1000 watt lights strewn throughout a
city? If you can tolerate car headlights, and you can tolerate
flashing neon signs, traffic lights, and cop car lights, then you are
just being peevish about flashing bike headlights. It's like getting
worked up about the blinking LEDs on people's car alarms.

Flashing lights can cause people with photosensitive epilepsy to have
seizures.

Motorists routinely ignore police cars, fire trucks and ambulances with
flashing lights. There's no evidence they are more likely to of a white
flashing light than a steady one.

The front light is most important for a motorist noticing a bike in the
rear view mirror. The motorist will pick out a moving steady white beam
from the background clutter. If the motorist does not scan his rear view
mirror, then no light - flashing or steady - will be of any use.

--
Stephen Bauman

On 12/12/2010 9:18 PM, Ben Pfaff wrote:
writes:

We did an "in-town" 40 mile ride today and I was amazed to see the
number of riders using front strobe lights. It makes an incredible
difference in "being seen" in overcast conditions. Maybe only the
people going out in cold, overcast weather are those hard core people
that use proper equipment.

Ugh. I hate those damned front strobes. They are incredibly
distracting. It's bad when they're going the opposite way, but
it's awful when a cyclist is behind me for any distance and the
pavement just ahead of me blinks on and off a couple of times a
second.

Normally the strobes are used in the daytime, not at night. At night the
light is solid-on.

They make the cyclist very conspicuous which is the goal.

I've been using these: http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.16894.

SMS writes:

On 12/12/2010 9:18 PM, Ben Pfaff wrote:
writes:

We did an "in-town" 40 mile ride today and I was amazed to see the
number of riders using front strobe lights. It makes an incredible
difference in "being seen" in overcast conditions. Maybe only the
people going out in cold, overcast weather are those hard core people
that use proper equipment.

Ugh. I hate those damned front strobes. They are incredibly
distracting. It's bad when they're going the opposite way, but
it's awful when a cyclist is behind me for any distance and the
pavement just ahead of me blinks on and off a couple of times a
second.

Normally the strobes are used in the daytime, not at night. At night
the light is solid-on.

Then you haven't been riding the same streets that I have been at
night. There's been a huge increase in extraordinarily bright,
blinking front lights at night, and it's hugely distracting.
--
"Term, holidays, term, holidays, till we leave school,
and then work, work, work till we die."
C. S. Lewis

Chalo writes:

Ben Pfaff wrote:

Ugh. Â*I hate those damned front strobes. Â*They are incredibly
distracting. Â*It's bad when they're going the opposite way, but
it's awful when a cyclist is behind me for any distance and the
pavement just ahead of me blinks on and off a couple of times a
second.

Just think if every automobile headlight blinked on and off like
that. Â*The roads would become unusable.

Just say no!

How else do you propose to make your one-watt (or less) bike light
conspicuous among the many 55 to 1000 watt lights strewn throughout a
city? If you can tolerate car headlights, and you can tolerate
flashing neon signs, traffic lights, and cop car lights, then you are
just being peevish about flashing bike headlights. It's like getting
worked up about the blinking LEDs on people's car alarms.

If these lights were just a few among a much larger number of
lights, then maybe, as you say, it would not be an issue. But my
commute does not take me through city streets for any distance.
A few bright blinking lights either in front of me or behind me,
blaring out in the darkness, are very distracting.

I don't know what blinking bike lights you are seeing, but the
ones that I am seeing are *much* brighter than anything on a car
alarm. They look like they're more than 1 W, at that. They are
not just single LEDs blinking in isolation.
--
Ben Pfaff
http://benpfaff.org

On Dec 12, 11:18*pm, (Ben Pfaff) wrote:
SMS writes:

Ugh. *I hate those damned front strobes. *They are incredibly
distracting. *It's bad when they're going the opposite way, but
it's awful when a cyclist is behind me for any distance and the
pavement just ahead of me blinks on and off a couple of times a
second.

Just think if every automobile headlight blinked on and off like
that. *The roads would become unusable.

Just say no!
--
Ben Pfaffhttp://benpfaff.org

I agree with you Ben.

Not necessary if the rider is paying attention.

They may make an auto driver think there's a cop behind them and slam
on the brakes.

I am more concerned with what's coming up on me.

:-)

Andy

Per Ben Pfaff:
I don't know what blinking bike lights you are seeing, but the
ones that I am seeing are *much* brighter than anything on a car
alarm. They look like they're more than 1 W, at that. They are
not just single LEDs blinking in isolation.

I went head-to-head with a guy on the bike path through Valley
Forge park and his light actually dazzled me - as in a little bit
blinded... In broad daylight, no less. Some of these things are
*BRIGHT*.
--
PeteCresswell

On Dec 13, 5:18*am, (Ben Pfaff) wrote:
SMS writes:
We did an "in-town" 40 mile ride today and I was amazed to see the
number of riders using front strobe lights. It makes an incredible
difference in "being seen" in overcast conditions. Maybe only the
people going out in cold, overcast weather are those hard core people
that use proper equipment.

Ugh. *I hate those damned front strobes. *They are incredibly
distracting. *It's bad when they're going the opposite way, but
it's awful when a cyclist is behind me for any distance and the
pavement just ahead of me blinks on and off a couple of times a
second.

Just think if every automobile headlight blinked on and off like
that. *The roads would become unusable.

Just say no!
--
Ben Pfaffhttp://benpfaff.org

When we cyclists take over the world, you'll learn to adapt, as you
did when the autombilists took over. Don't worry about it. There will
be plenty of psychiatric help for the hard-core incorrigible suvvers.
-- Andre Jute