Riding at night: a strategy for survival?

"Tom Keats" wrote in message
...
In article ,
_ writes:
On Fri, 02 May 2008 19:36:06 +0200, Jens Müller wrote:

ComandanteBanana schrieb:
On May 1, 5:24 pm, Jens Müller wrote:
ComandanteBanana schrieb:

Anyway, now my next door neighbor wants to ride at midnight... And he
ain't one of those crazy bums on a Huffy. He even bought a vest with
blinking lights
Args. Please don't use this blinking bull****s. It just distracts
other
drivers and makes them focus on the blinking.

So how is it the blinking rear lights are OK?

They aren't ok.

Why not?

There's a belief that it's more difficult for
an observer to determine the speed and vector
of a blinking, rather than steady light in the
darkness of night. Perhaps blinking lights
confuse our human, pathological tendency of
Persistance Of Vision. What're those things
called? Oh, yeah: "optical illusions." I
suppose there's a wariness about blinking
lights creating optical illusions.

Or epileptic seizures.

In article ,
Jens Müller writes:
Tom Keats schrieb:

The real reason bicycle red rear lights blink
is to conserve battery juice and avoid expense.

What batteries? Here bicycles need to have a dynamo (by law).

Here in British Columbia bicycles just need to have
lights at all, for riding at night.

I use dynamo lights. They work well for my purposes.
But I supplement them with battery lights which have
the option of flashing or steady beam.


cheers,
Tom


--
Nothing is safe from me.
I'm really at:
tkeats curlicue vcn dot bc dot ca

On Sat, 3 May 2008 13:05:11 -0700, Tom Keats wrote:

In article ,
_ writes:
On Fri, 02 May 2008 19:36:06 +0200, Jens Müller wrote:

ComandanteBanana schrieb:
On May 1, 5:24 pm, Jens Müller wrote:
ComandanteBanana schrieb:

Anyway, now my next door neighbor wants to ride at midnight... And he
ain't one of those crazy bums on a Huffy. He even bought a vest with
blinking lights
Args. Please don't use this blinking bull****s. It just distracts other
drivers and makes them focus on the blinking.

So how is it the blinking rear lights are OK?

They aren't ok.

Why not?

There's a belief that it's more difficult for
an observer to determine the speed and vector
of a blinking, rather than steady light in the
darkness of night. Perhaps blinking lights
confuse our human, pathological tendency of
Persistance Of Vision.

Well, more than a "belief" would be required for any effort to attempt to
persuade others to adopt the same conclusion.

Unless Muller is being merely religious.

On Fri, 02 May 2008 06:50:35 -0700, Pat wrote:

On May 1, 5:49Â*pm, ComandanteBanana wrote:
On May 1, 5:24Â*pm, Jens Müller wrote:

ComandanteBanana schrieb:

Anyway, now my next door neighbor wants to ride at midnight... And
he ain't one of those crazy bums on a Huffy. He even bought a vest
with blinking lights

....SNIP...

I don't think any solid
light will be strong enough to be seen by drivers who simply aren't
looking for bikes at that time... if they are paying any attention at
all.
....SNIP...

Anything you can do to increase your visible profile is helpful.


Perhaps Cold Cathode Wire is the answer to being seen.

See:
http://www.vibelights.com/elwibikit.html

Now that is being visible!!!
Of course it is a bit gaudy...

Rich B.

In article ,
_ writes:

So how is it the blinking rear lights are OK?

They aren't ok.

Why not?

There's a belief that it's more difficult for
an observer to determine the speed and vector
of a blinking, rather than steady light in the
darkness of night. Perhaps blinking lights
confuse our human, pathological tendency of
Persistance Of Vision.

Well, more than a "belief" would be required for any effort to attempt to
persuade others to adopt the same conclusion.

Unless Muller is being merely religious.

In my own empirical observations I've found my
above statement to be true. I, however, don't
mind that blinking lights may make drivers'
brains work harder. Whatever it takes to keep
'em on their toes & alert. There's been too much
emphasis on dumbing-down driving, instead of
smartening it up. When we dumb something down,
we end up with a bunch o' dummies doing it.

Some jurisdictions in various nations & countries
only allow blinking/flashing lights on emergency
vehicles. Fair enough.

It's been suggested that blinking/flashing lights
attract drunk drivers and cause them to crash into
the vehicle with the light source, but I think
that's just a canard.

I think cyclists should be allowed to have blue
tail lights, either flashing or steady.

Anybody who can't tell the difference between a
Police/Fire/Ambulance cherry & a bicycle light
is too stoopid to be on the street.


cheers,
Tom

--
Nothing is safe from me.
I'm really at:
tkeats curlicue vcn dot bc dot ca

In rec.bicycles.misc _ wrote:
There's a belief that it's more difficult for an observer to
determine the speed and vector of a blinking, rather than steady
light in the darkness of night. Perhaps blinking lights confuse
our human, pathological tendency of Persistance Of Vision.

Well, more than a "belief" would be required for any effort to
attempt to persuade others to adopt the same conclusion.

Simply check your preferred library on the topic of visual
cognition, especially in traffic‥


Cutting follow-up to rec.bicycles.misc,

--
MfG/Best regards
helmut springer panta rhei

On May 4, 4:37 am, Richard wrote:
On Fri, 02 May 2008 06:50:35 -0700, Pat wrote:
On May 1, 5:49 pm, ComandanteBanana wrote:
On May 1, 5:24 pm, Jens Müller wrote:

ComandanteBanana schrieb:

Anyway, now my next door neighbor wants to ride at midnight... And
he ain't one of those crazy bums on a Huffy. He even bought a vest
with blinking lights

...SNIP...

I don't think any solid
light will be strong enough to be seen by drivers who simply aren't
looking for bikes at that time... if they are paying any attention at
all.

...SNIP...

Anything you can do to increase your visible profile is helpful.

Perhaps Cold Cathode Wire is the answer to being seen.

See:http://www.vibelights.com/elwibikit.html

Now that is being visible!!!
Of course it is a bit gaudy...

Rich B.

available in UK from BeSeenOnABike.com

http://tinyurl.com/69pbzf
and http://tinyurl.com/62o9lm

On 2 May, 14:50, Pat wrote:
On May 1, 5:49 pm, ComandanteBanana wrote:



On May 1, 5:24 pm, Jens Müller wrote:

ComandanteBanana schrieb:

Anyway, now my next door neighbor wants to ride at midnight... And he
ain't one of those crazy bums on a Huffy. He even bought a vest with
blinking lights

Args. Please don't use this blinking bull****s. It just distracts other
drivers and makes them focus on the blinking.

So how is it the blinking rear lights are OK? I don't think any solid
light will be strong enough to be seen by drivers who simply aren't
looking for bikes at that time... if they are paying any attention at
all.

I was told the same thing about having blinking lights on the canoe,
which I fixed.

3M makes some pretty spectacularreflectivetape that you can use for
all sorts of situations. For example, I have a black helmet. I put a
strip of the blackreflectivetape (which reflects white) on the back
of the helmet. During the daytime you can't see it (it just looks
like a piece of electrical tape) but it is BRIGHT during the night.
Anything you can do to increase your visible profile is helpful.

get it he http://tinyurl.com/6nnp43