Lights on trail courtesies

[birddog]

Hopefully we can all agree on the following courtesies:

-When on a trail far away from cars, you don’t need your blinky light. Just set it to steady or off – you can be seen!
-Any time you detect traffic traveling in the other direction that is not a car and you’re wearing a helmet-mounted light, turn away. You can still see where you’re going with the ambience from your light, but you won’t blind the person coming the other direction.

I’m really tired of being blinded by blinky lights where they are not needed. I’m even more tired of staring directly into extremely bright helmet-mounted lights.

Please be safe and courteous on the trail – especially in the dark!

Topic

[hozn]

+1

And cover or reduce power on your bar-mounted lights — especially if they are not (as mine are not) pointing down right in front of you.

I don’t mind the low-powered (be seen) blinky lights, but the high-power strobes have no place on the trail. I do occasionally use mine when riding on roads. And once I forgot to turn it off when getting on the trail (it was fairly light by that point); I felt bad about that. So when it’s light out I try to give others the benefit of the doubt on that one

[jabberwocky]

My rules are:

Rear light is always solid on the trail. I generally run two lights for road use; when I get onto the trail I turn one off and make sure the other is solid. Blinkies have no place on the trail on a bike (they’re less an issue with runners; usually I’m so surprised and happy that a runner has any sort of light that I’m not gonna complain about it blinking).

No helmet light on the trail. Ever. Its impossible to avoid blinding people with helmet lights.

Bar lights get swiveled right (or covered) if there is oncoming traffic I can see. I.E. if they have a light of their own or reflective clothing or something to help me see them. Trail ninjas get blinded, because I want to be able to see them and also because I hate trail ninjas and I’m a vindictive dick.

[Subby]

90% of the people I encounter on the trails don’t follow these rules. I don’t think they are on the forum, either. How do we get the message across?

edit: Thinking about this more, I think the answer is “lead by example.” Something I feel like I tell my kids every day. And of course they set the example by not listening.

[birddog]

Yell at people.

I do.

[jnva]

Wear an eye patch. It works for pirates.

[TwoWheelsDC]

@jabberwocky 68057 wrote:

Trail ninjas get blinded, because I want to be able to see them and also because I hate trail ninjas and I’m a vindictive dick.

This. No mercy for ninjas.

[sjclaeys]

I agree with shielding bar mounted lights while on a trail if possible, but sometime that is not possible or safe if you need both hands for steering or braking or to see a ninja trail-user as jabberwocky points out.

[mstone]

I just look away from oncoming lights and don’t freak out about things I can’t control.

[TwoWheelsDC]

@mstone 68066 wrote:

I just look away from oncoming lights and don’t freak out about things I can’t control.

Concur. I’m not a fan of yelling and I doubt that it’s particularly productive. I generally try to shield my bright light, but that’s not always possible, so I don’t get too worked up when people don’t do it for me. If I were going to yell about something, it would be over bright front blinkies (rear blinkies don’t really bother me) on the trail, but I really just don’t care enough to get shouty about it.

[hozn]

@sjclaeys 68063 wrote:

I agree with shielding bar mounted lights while on a trail if possible, but sometime that is not possible or safe if you need both hands for steering or braking or to see a ninja trail-user as jabberwocky points out.

Yeah, that’s true. I certainly have had situations where I didn’t feel I could/should move my hands away from the brakes.

For the horrible offenders I try to ask nicely that they turn down their lights (e.g. “turn down your light, please”), but I’m not sure if it helps. I do think some people just don’t realize how bright their lights are for oncoming traffic. I don’t get worked up over it, but it’s dangerous to blind people when there is potentially ninja traffic in front of me [that I now can’t see because I’m blind or because I had to look away].

[FFX_Hinterlands]

Rarely do I see a discussion (in this forum) around front-mounted lights that talk about the light possibly blinding oncoming riders. It’s mostly like, “hey mine is 8000 Lumens so it’s better!” Get a light that has a shaped beam instead of a round flashlight pattern and you won’t be blinding other riders. In places where there are lots of bikes they get it. We’re just having some growing pains here, I guess. I’m just happy to see other riders out in the dark.

[KLizotte]

@FFX_Hinterlands 68075 wrote:

Rarely do I see a discussion (in this forum) around front-mounted lights that talk about the light possibly blinding oncoming riders. It’s mostly like, “hey mine is 8000 Lumens so it’s better!” Get a light that has a shaped beam instead of a round flashlight pattern and you won’t be blinding other riders. In places where there are lots of bikes they get it. We’re just having some growing pains here, I guess. I’m just happy to see other riders out in the dark.

I use the Exposure Strada light which is designed for commuters such that the top part of the light is darker than the bottom half. I keep it on low beam on the trails (and angled downwards) and switch to high or blinky when I’m riding with cars. I found the remote switch to be extremely useful when I had flat handlebars but don’t much see a way to use it on drop bars.

I do use a helmet light but make sure to aim it to the right when I see oncoming people. If I know the route well and it isn’t too late I usually skip wearing it but late at night on a trail, as a woman, I feel far more comfortable being able to scan the nooks and crannies (particularly under bridges) for shady characters lurking about. A headlight is esp useful if you have a mechanical issue at night.

[Jason B]

@mstone 68066 wrote:

I just look away from oncoming lights and don’t freak out about things I can’t control.

Agreed
Also, my morning commute has number of what appear to be novice riders. The thought of them taking their hand of the bar to frantically fumble for a curtesy cover may turn out more ugly than it is worth. I rather take the 3 millisecond hit. I almost lost it yesterday, covering the light on the Roosevelt boardwalk. I rather them be safe and bright, and they will slowly learn with time.

[rcannon100]

@FFX_Hinterlands 68075 wrote:

Rarely do I see a discussion (in this forum) around front-mounted lights that talk about the light possibly blinding oncoming riders.

Then I must be on your ignore list because I say it in almost every lighting discussion, I blog about it, I tweet about it, and I talk to my fellow staff about it all the time. In fact there is another concurrent thread where I talked about this.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE even if you are a big enough man that you can deal with it (and you think others should just lump it), please realize that we all have different light sensitivities. For some of you, maybe you just are more macho. As for me, if we are on a dark trail and your oncoming headlight is highbeam strobe, I am blind and I have no idea where the trail is. It sucks.

[hozn]

Yeah, I think bar-mounted lights are at least as much of a problem as helmet lights. From another perspective, a large percentage of oncoming joggers and cyclists that I pass say “thanks” when I cover my bar-mounted light. I take that to mean it is the right thing to do.

[Author]

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