It’s dark = lights

I couldn’t agree more. I see so many ninjas around here, specifically on Franconia Rd where motorists speed like crazy. I don’t get it. Not long after I began cycling again this spring I saw a guy on Franconia in broad daylight with a powerful strobe on his bars and that truly opened my eyes about bike lights. I could SEE the guy.

I leave work after dark, near the Capitol. Ninjas everywhere.

I see fewer bikes without lights than peds without lights, but it’s a lot either way. All my way home last night after 7:00 I kept asking myself, do these people like navigating dark MUPs without lights? It is really dark in some places! I don’t understand how these folks even stay on the path! That’s saying nothing about whether a driver could see any of them from a moving car.

one little tid bit, too:

I see a lot of riders using flashing rear lights. I’d recommend keeping both front and rear lights on constantly. I used to work a transportation research institute and we did a small study on different flashing and non-flashing lights for both stationary and (slow) moving road maintenance vehicles and found that steady-on lighting greatly improves other motorists’ ability to estimate speed and direction of another vehicle. Flashing lights are good for stationary objects, but not so great for moving objects.

@peterw_diy 97110 wrote:

It’s the law in VA, yes: http://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title46.2/chapter10/section46.2-1015/

Not so crazy about all the ninja hate. Sure, total blackout is bad, but cyclists shouldn’t need 2w headlamps and hi viz to stay alive. Motorists should pay more attention.

No hate. But I disagree. There are many roads where, in my opinion, a cyclist with no lights has no business on at night. They (we) really can be hard to see until they (we) become a hood ornament.

@Harry Meatmotor 97109 wrote:

one little tid bit, too:

I see a lot of riders using flashing rear lights. I’d recommend keeping both front and rear lights on constantly. I used to work a transportation research institute and we did a small study on different flashing and non-flashing lights for both stationary and (slow) moving road maintenance vehicles and found that steady-on lighting greatly improves other motorists’ ability to estimate speed and direction of another vehicle. Flashing lights are good for stationary objects, but not so great for moving objects.

Wasn’t there an issue when some motorcycle manufacturers started building motorcycles with two smaller headlights instead of a single light and some motorists would think it was a car, but much farther away? Because of that, they thought it was safe to cross/pull into traffic, etc only find they just cut off a bike.

@PotomacCyclist 97127 wrote:

I often call out politely “you need a light.”

I’ve used this one, too, but as I ride away, I always wonder if the person I’ve spoken to thinks I meant that they must be having a hard time seeing because it’s so dark, instead of what I really mean, which is “get a light, you moron, I nearly ran right into you!“

There is a big big difference between a strobe and a blinkie. Strobes, well they JUST SUCK. Based on requests from this forum, I always run my lights on solid (no blinks) while on trails.

Comments on the trail ~ My attitude is that people are not going to get the message the first time. They probably wont get the message the second time. Maybe not even the third. But if we all politely repeat the message “light or reflectors please” ~ ninjas will get the message. Someone who hears that enough times on the trail will most hopefully have an epiphany.