It’s dark = lights

[Terpfan]

It’s also a reminder to make sure the batteries are charged. I forgot last year and battery went out on MVT before OT while rear blinky worked. Some other kind cyclist slowed down and offered to let me follow him with his light on to OT (from there I could take city streets with lights on a longer way back). That dude was awesome. I don’t think it hurts to say something because sometimes the person really is hoping for that exact scenario otherwise they’re planning on tailing you without your knowledge.

[Anonymous]

@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.

Curious if the study emulated real-world conditions including first noticing and recognizing the light as something to pay special attention to? Or was this just looking at the ability to judge speed/direction of something once you were asked to pay attention to it?

Anecdotally, (ie, in my personal experience as a driver), there are a lot of steady-on red lights on the road at night– the tail lights of other cars, which are mostly moving at car-speeds. One more steady-on red light doesn’t immediately catch the eye and trigger the brain to “pay attention to this something different over there that might be moving at a different speed”. I totally believe that, if you are paying equal attention to a steady light vs a flashing light it is easier to judge the speed and distance of the steady light. I am more skeptical that in real-world conditions, people are paying equal attention to judging the speed and distance of those two things.

[sethpo]

I’ve gone full safety gonzo this fall. Reflective safety vest. Neon yellow cover for pannier. Three rear-facing red blinkies. Two side-facing red blinkies on the top tube. White blinky on the fork. Two very bright front white lights.

And yeah, lately I’ve been amazed at how many people are walking in the dark on the trails and roads.

Btw – here’s a GREAT deal on an 8-pack of really good blinky lights red or white.

And I recently picked up this very inexpensive $15 bright front light. A bit less convenient than newer integrated models but works very well.

Staying visible doesn’t have to be expensive.

[rcannon100]

5000 Lumens??????????? Geeze, what are you doing…. lighting a basketball game???

[Phatboing]

@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.

Additionally, and I can’t for the life of me find the study that said this, flashing lights are used for safety (fire engines, etc.), because the human brain has some sort of anxiety-like response to flashing lights – the only naturally occurring flashes are lightning, which is ungood.

My approach in light (heh) of these tidbits is to have a flashing red on my helmet, and a steady red on the bike – one to get noticed, one so people can judge where I am.

[mstone]

@Terpfan 97139 wrote:

It’s also a reminder to make sure the batteries are charged. I forgot last year and battery went out on MVT before OT while rear blinky worked. Some other kind cyclist slowed down and offered to let me follow him with his light on to OT (from there I could take city streets with lights on a longer way back). That dude was awesome. I don’t think it hurts to say something because sometimes the person really is hoping for that exact scenario otherwise they’re planning on tailing you without your knowledge.

Two lights, always. I recommend one on the bike and one on the head.

[mstone]

@rcannon100 97147 wrote:

5000 Lumens??????????? Geeze, what are you doing…. lighting a basketball game???

No, it’s only called a “5000 lumen”, like the brand name. The specs say “lumen: 1620 lumen”. Which is still a little crazy. Remember, folks, it’s not the size of the light it’s how you use it. Something like this with a round beam shape is great for floodlighting a downhill trail when you’re worried about bashing your head on a tree branch. Please don’t use it at full blast on a street or trail. A light with a shaped beam rated at a third of the output will probably put just as much light in the places the light needs to be for street use. (Though, admittedly, will cost a lot more.)

[bobco85]

@acl 97144 wrote:

Curious if the study emulated real-world conditions including first noticing and recognizing the light as something to pay special attention to? Or was this just looking at the ability to judge speed/direction of something once you were asked to pay attention to it?

Anecdotally, (ie, in my personal experience as a driver), there are a lot of steady-on red lights on the road at night– the tail lights of other cars, which are mostly moving at car-speeds. One more steady-on red light doesn’t immediately catch the eye and trigger the brain to “pay attention to this something different over there that might be moving at a different speed”. I totally believe that, if you are paying equal attention to a steady light vs a flashing light it is easier to judge the speed and distance of the steady light. I am more skeptical that in real-world conditions, people are paying equal attention to judging the speed and distance of those two things.

The taillights of cars at night have 2 different settings when on: normal (red) and braking (bright red). This change in brightness draws attention to the fact that the car is braking. Bicycle taillights do not have a feature like this as they have usually 3 different settings when on: solid, flashing, and strobe.

This got me thinking, the ideal bicycle taillight would be a solid red light that occasionally flashes brighter, and then I realized that there is already a real-world application of this. In some areas, I’ve seen stoplights at intersections that add an additional white flash every couple of seconds to their red lights at night so that sleepy drivers will be more likely to react to them.

Inventors of the world, create a bike taillight that stays solid red with the occasional flash of brighter red every couple of seconds, and I will be your first customer/kickstarter/etc.! Heck, if someone could mod my PlanetBike flashing taillight to do this, I’d be set 😎

[mstone]

@bobco85 97174 wrote:

The taillights of cars at night have 2 different settings when on: normal (red) and braking (bright red). This change in brightness draws attention to the fact that the car is braking. Bicycle taillights do not have a feature like this as they have usually 3 different settings when on: solid, flashing, and strobe.

This got me thinking, the ideal bicycle taillight would be a solid red light that occasionally flashes brighter, and then I realized that there is already a real-world application of this. In some areas, I’ve seen stoplights at intersections that add an additional white flash every couple of seconds to their red lights at night so that sleepy drivers will be more likely to react to them.

Inventors of the world, create a bike taillight that stays solid red with the occasional flash of brighter red every couple of seconds, and I will be your first customer/kickstarter/etc.! Heck, if someone could mod my PlanetBike flashing taillight to do this, I’d be set 😎

There are lights that flash hi/lo rather than on/off, but in general I think an easy way to achieve this is with one light in constant on mode and another in blink mode. You need redundancy anyway. My helmet light blinks and my rack light is steady.

[sethpo]

@rcannon100 97147 wrote:

5000 Lumens??????????? Geeze, what are you doing…. lighting a basketball game???

It is most definitely NOT 5000 lumens. My cyglolite is 420 lumens (he he) and this thing is about the same or a tad bit brighter on full bright. It does cast both a nice wide light and a tight spot as well. I’ve mounted this on my bars w/ the cyglolite on the my helmet which gives me a very bright combo that I need on the dark suburban roads with ever-changing shoulder conditions and, of course, I love being able to aim my helmet light at things as needed (exception being fog where the helmet light becomes a liability).

It’s not a perfect light, but it’s only $15. I bought a spare battery pack for another $15 (I should have just bought another light!)

[PotomacCyclist]

I like how wide the Cateye Rapid 5 tail light is, even if it’s a little tricky to position under the seat.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04-p1aTl5Y8

[ATTACH=CONFIG]6825[/ATTACH]

I bought a front light, which was part of a combo with the tail light. It has a different blink pattern from that seen in the video. There’s a standard blink mode and a side-to-side pattern, along with Constant Mode.

[AFHokie]

@bobco85 97174 wrote:

The taillights of cars at night have 2 different settings when on: normal (red) and braking (bright red). This change in brightness draws attention to the fact that the car is braking. Bicycle taillights do not have a feature like this as they have usually 3 different settings when on: solid, flashing, and strobe.

How hard would it be to develop a rear light for bikes with an integrated bluetooth connection to the brake levers? Pull the levers and your rear light lights up like brake lights on a car.

[GB]

I’m pretty sure one could rig the wiring in a standard light such that contact isn’t made until the break cable is pulled.

Disclaimer: Be prepared to void your warranty and don’t operate in the rain.

[dkel]

Some dynamo tail lights will sense the drop in voltage from the hub as the bike slows from braking, and automatically brighten. There’s your brake light.

[mstone]

@AFHokie 97191 wrote:

How hard would it be to develop a rear light for bikes with an integrated bluetooth connection to the brake levers? Pull the levers and your rear light lights up like brake lights on a car.

That sounds like an overcomplicated solution. Someone already mentioned the voltage fluctuation method, and you can also use an accelerometer. I’m not convinced that brake lights are a real issue for bikes, though, because of the speed differential and the different visibility.

[Author]

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