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Good Morning There,
Sorry to post again. Hopefully I will not post again for a while but I am worried about something.
There is only one thing worse than cyclists without lights. Cyclists with super bright flashing lights.
I nearly had a crash this morning in my car. A cyclist came around a bend around the back of Grove by the airfield. He had extremely bright white lights on the front of his bike. I think they were the off road variety. I was so dazzled and distracted by these lights that I pulled out in front of another car I failed to see. Lots of horns and a very near miss. Also a very angry me.
Yesterday I over took some chap on a bike who had made his own extended arm for his bike. It had a very bright red flashing light working exactly in sync with another very bright red light on the back of his bike. It was designed to make cars pass wide but the lights were so bright and distracting that it made it difficult to see past him into oncoming traffic. I was very distracted my it but also under pressure from traffic behind to pass him. Very unpleasant.
As a cyclist myself I know how important it is to feel and be safe and seen. I have plenty of lights on my bike, amber ones from the side as well for side visibility. I was recently told off for my front lights being too bright while cycling along the footpath from Lark Hill to Lockinge. I have since made some adjustments. I also have super bright off-road lights, but never use them in traffic and turn them off for other cyclists and walkers.
We must be careful on our bikes. We want to be safe, but super bright lights, especially super bright flashing ones can be very distracting and dangerous for other road users, including cyclists. Bright lights can also startle horses as well.
I do wonder about the sense of cycling in this bad weather during rush hour in traffic. I have been out mountain biking in the snow on Boxing day once, but there was no one around. I also walked most of the way! I guess if you have no choice then please take care, but you are better off in a car or in a bus otherwise maybe? At least until the snow has gone, which I hope it is soon. I miss my bike.
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Very well said!
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I don’t see any problem in cycling in this weather in rush hour and neither have I had any problems this week on the roads. The Winnaway track from Harwell has been dicey with compacted ice and snow but the roads are O.K.. Even last Friday, in the snow, it seemed that car drivers were having more problems on the roads than cyclists, my ride home was OK other than diverting via the Rowstock roundabout. If you have the right clothing, cycling in this weather is better (IMHO) than driving or catching a bus. There are no windscreens to scrape or waiting for engines to warm up or waiting in the cold for busses, that are late in this weather. On a bike you pedal and start generating heat straight away.
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I hope you can get back on your bike soon too.
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There’s no snow left on the roads as far as I can see. I wouldn’t cycle cross-country yet, though. But are bright non-flashing front lights also distracting? I never use my front light in the flashing mode, but maybe I should start using it half-beam if there’s oncoming traffic.
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Have a read of this article from a former RAF pilot. He suggests using flashing front lights all the time in order to be seen.
What an RAF pilot can teach you about road safety -
Hi,
I too have encountered the red flashing light on the extended arm, and it took my retinas a while to recover, so I do take Mike’s point about needing to make sure our lights are safe but not a distraction.
While I am certainly not in favour of dazzling oncoming traffic or pedestrians (being a member of both categories at various times myself !), I upgraded to a fairly bright set of front lights (non-flashing) a few years ago for a couple of reasons:
1) It’s amazing how many people you find walking down shared cycle paths in the dark who have not dressed in such a way as to make themselves visible. Since said people are often in the vicinity of a free-running dog which also has no lights/reflectives, I thought it was in everyone’s interests that I got some decent lights in the hope of spotting them within a safe stopping distance. That said, a loud bell can help too…
2) I’m pretty sure motor vehicle lights are getting brighter too ! This isn’t just an observation from a cyclist’s perspective – when I have been driving my old banger with its fairly ordinary headlights, I find increasingly that the lights of oncoming traffic are blindingly bright (and perhaps not correctly adjusted in some cases ?). As it’s not nice being temporarily blind when riding a bike, I felt I had to get something which would give out enough light to let me see the road ahead while my eyes re-adjusted to the dark after a vehicle had passed.The problem, perhaps, is that most of us, whether cyclists or drivers, don’t often get the chance to find out how we appear to someone who isn’t in the driving seat. I once had a very helpful motorist stop at a junction to point out that I wasn’t very visible side-on. I’d never realised this (I thought I was doing pretty well for visibility) until she mentioned it.
Anyway Mike, hope you are back on your bike now the snow is gone !
Frances
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I’ve got a bright light; I find that having it on my helmet gives me good control over where it’s pointing. So compared to the usual pool of illumination 3-10m ahead (OK for both road and off-road), I can ‘dip’ if there’s something coming the other way or tilt the beam up a little to try to see further when I’m going fast off-road. Also allows me to track the wildlife.
Frances: not sure where you’re cycling, but the Winnaway still had plenty of snow and ice this evening!
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I’m a convert to “24 hour flashing” as I got tired of (ok, scared about) the number of drivers who were pulling out causing me to brake. Also, as a driver, I observed how difficult is to spot cyclists when things get a bit busy, and that fluorescent gear is an almost perfect camouflage in some conditions.
One point I have learnt was pointed out to me by a driver: while the flashing light made it easy to see me, the flashing meant that it was hard to gauge how far away I was, hence the addition of a permanent constant light. I try to have these pointing where they won’t blind other road users, and turn the flashing off on off-road sections, but there have been several times when I am sure that the driver about to come out of the side road through me has stopped because of these lights.
Finally, a question: what do people consider to be “super-bright lights”? Admittedly quantifying this is made difficult by the different units quoted for lights (anyone got a “conversion chart” for watts/lumens/candelas?), but it would be interesting to know.
Cheers
Kev -
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