Flashing headlights on the trails

[baiskeli]

How is it that cars manage to use lights without blinding each other? That’s right, they angle the things down to the pavement instead of straight ahead. Simple solution. Make sure your light isn’t angled too far up, and secure it so it doesn’t creep up.

[dbb]

@baiskeli 97786 wrote:

How is it that cars manage to use lights without blinding each other? That’s right, they angle the things down to the pavement instead of straight ahead. Simple solution. Make sure your light isn’t angled too far up, and secure it so it doesn’t creep up.

An use the really dark stretches of your ride to confirm it hasn’t crept up. PRN

[ctankcycles]

@mstone 97759 wrote:

Because the lights aren’t going away. If your position is that an oncoming light makes it impossible for you to see to such an extent that you are likely to maim or kill someone, but it’s ok as long as nobody ever approaches you with an oncoming light, you’ve got a fundamental and unsolvable problem with riding at night. I have family members who simply don’t drive anymore at night because they don’t trust their vision at night. This is the same thing–the onus is on the person who knows that they are posing a danger to others in the conditions that exist. You can’t just wish that away by saying the conditions should be other than they are. Now, if you think that you’re sensitive to oncoming lights but compensate by looking away from them and proceeding more slowly and cautiously, without the knowledge/expectation that you’re endangering anyone, then carry on.

I’m not wishing or suggesting the lights should go away. I think they’re great and make riding at night a whole lot safer and more fun. I use one that’s capable of 360 lumens which I find to be more than enough for non-MTB use. If others feel they need more brightness, that’s cool, but learn to aim it properly, don’t use the strobe on the trail, and don’t put it on your helmet. This isn’t directed at you personally, for all I know you don’t do any of those things. It’s like the high beam lights on a car. While drivers might benefit from the added brightness they provide, it’s illegal to use them when there’s oncoming traffic since they pose a danger by blinding oncoming drivers. It’s more annoying than anything, certainly not something that’s going to cause me to crash since I don’t look directly at oncoming bikes at night and have no vision issues. Shine on you crazy diamonds.

[DismalScientist]

Helmet lights are really useful for upcoming curves. Just sayin’…

[Raymo853]

@PotomacCyclist 97772 wrote:

Your name wouldn’t be Jimmy Page? (Kidding. Sort of. See “Stairway to Heaven copyright infringement lawsuit.”)

Crazy dance between safety and obnoxiousness

Every day I try to ride my bike
It is radically cooler than your Harley trike
It is covered with reflective tape
My 1200 lumen light penetrates your face to your nape

I do a crazy dance With my reflective pants
disregarding fashion and others rods and cones

[ShawnoftheDread]

@Geoff 97784 wrote:

Great song, but I believe it was actually written by Springsteen and covered by Mann…

This.

[timo96]

@mstone 97759 wrote:

Because the lights aren’t going away. If your position is that an oncoming light makes it impossible for you to see to such an extent that you are likely to maim or kill someone, but it’s ok as long as nobody ever approaches you with an oncoming light, you’ve got a fundamental and unsolvable problem with riding at night. I have family members who simply don’t drive anymore at night because they don’t trust their vision at night. This is the same thing–the onus is on the person who knows that they are posing a danger to others in the conditions that exist. You can’t just wish that away by saying the conditions should be other than they are. Now, if you think that you’re sensitive to oncoming lights but compensate by looking away from them and proceeding more slowly and cautiously, without the knowledge/expectation that you’re endangering anyone, then carry on.

Right. So let’s all get in our cars and drive with the high beams on at all times, because brighter is better, amirite?

[mstone]

@timo96 97831 wrote:

Right. So let’s all get in our cars and drive with the high beams on at all times, because brighter is better, amirite?

You seem to be having trouble reading what I actually wrote. Let’s try again. If you get into a car knowing that if someone flashes their high beams at you, you will be blind and lose control of the car, you should not be driving. This is because you know that regardless of law or convention it is not particularly uncommon to see bright headlights at night. Similarly if you ride a bike knowing that if you see a bright headlight you will lose control of the bike and you think that will cause you to injure someone, you shouldn’t be biking at night. None of that has anything to do with what the people with the lights should or should not do, it has to with your responsibility with regard to likely and unavoidable events which may cause you to harm others. I think that this is an exceedingly rare circumstance, that very few people become completely blind and lose control of their bike when faced with an approaching high beam, and that this a mostly theoretical response to the “well what if I’m blinded because someone else has lights that are too bright” trope.

You may have also seen that I’m in favor of bike lights with beams shaped like car headlight beams or at least aimed toward the road, so no, you’re not at all right about driving around with the high beams on.

[DCAKen]

@mstone 97839 wrote:

You seem to be having trouble reading what I actually wrote. Let’s try again. If you get into a car knowing that if someone flashes their high beams at you, you will be blind and lose control of the car, you should not be driving. This is because you know that regardless of law or convention it is not particularly uncommon to see bright headlights at night. Similarly if you ride a bike knowing that if you see a bright headlight you will lose control of the bike and you think that will cause you to injure someone, you shouldn’t be biking at night. None of that has anything to do with what the people with the lights should or should not do, it has to with your responsibility with regard to likely and unavoidable events which may cause you to harm others. I think that this is an exceedingly rare circumstance, that very few people become completely blind and lose control of their bike when faced with an approaching high beam, and that this a mostly theoretical response to the “well what if I’m blinded because someone else has lights that are too bright” trope.

You may have also seen that I’m in favor of bike lights with beams shaped like car headlight beams or at least aimed toward the road, so no, you’re not at all right about driving around with the high beams on.

But it’s not always about losing control of the bike. It’s more of an issue of losing the ability to see what’s in front of you…pedestrians, debris in the trail, potholes, etc.

I’m a reverse commuter and see more than my fair share of bike lights on the trail, encountering the occasional retina-burners leave me temporarily dazzled. Usually, I tip my head down so my visor blocks the worst of it. I do the same when I’m cycling up Beach Drive with the oncoming cars. Like with the cyclists with mis-aimed headlights, I’ll inwardly curse at the drivers who can’t seem to dim their high beams. But limiting my vision by the lights or my visor is the choice foisted upon me by inconsiderate others.

[mstone]

@DCAKen 97841 wrote:

But it’s not always about losing control of the bike. It’s more of an issue of losing the ability to see what’s in front of you…pedestrians, debris in the trail, potholes, etc.[/quote]

We’re looping.

[jabberwocky]

I think we can sum up the thread as:

-Don’t shine your helmet mounted lights in peoples eyes.
-Bar lights, make sure they are properly aimed so you aren’t blinding people unnecessarily. Swiveling or blocking bright lights when there is oncoming traffic is also greatly appreciated.
-You people running strobes on the trail need to stop that shit. This ain’t no disco!

[Brendan von Buckingham]

@mstone 97842 wrote:

We’re looping.

You spelled it wrong. It’s loupe and the loupe my jeweler uses is too bright too.

[LBSki]

I rode behind two flashing red lights (one on the bike, one on the bag, alternate patterns, very bright) almost my entire commute in this morning, and while it wasn’t dangerous, it was certainly annoying. Unless it is pitch black, like middle of december, hours after sunset type black, I always just put my rear red light on solid. And if it is flashing, I only use one. Riding behind a light flashing into your eyeballs certainly takes the joy out of an otherwise delightful morning ride. Those of you who ride with red blinkies when it’s not actually that dark out, is there a reason? Is there any evidence that it’s more safe? Especially want to hear from folks that run two alternating pattern blinkies.. why???

[Supermau]

@LBSki 97976 wrote:

Those of you who ride with red blinkies when it’s not actually that dark out, is there a reason? Is there any evidence that it’s more safe? Especially want to hear from folks that run two alternating pattern blinkies.. why???

I tend to use a single red blinkie pretty much all the time, as well as a daytime front flasher. It’s been my observation that daytime lights increase visibility so that’s why I do it.

I have two more rear lights, one on my left seatstay, and another on my backpack. I only employ those in the darkness and I run them solid. I’ve tried them all in blink mode at once but it gets a little insane and I can see how that might adversely affect a rider behind. They are collectively bright as hell.

[mstone]

@LBSki 97976 wrote:

I rode behind two flashing red lights (one on the bike, one on the bag, alternate patterns, very bright) almost my entire commute in this morning, and while it wasn’t dangerous, it was certainly annoying. Unless it is pitch black, like middle of december, hours after sunset type black, I always just put my rear red light on solid. And if it is flashing, I only use one. Riding behind a light flashing into your eyeballs certainly takes the joy out of an otherwise delightful morning ride. Those of you who ride with red blinkies when it’s not actually that dark out, is there a reason? Is there any evidence that it’s more safe? Especially want to hear from folks that run two alternating pattern blinkies.. why???

I’m curious why you wouldn’t either speed up or slow down a little.

As far as why to blink, a practical (if prosaic) reason is that it doubles your battery life.

[Author]

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