PSA – trail crossings/intersections in the dark

[Sunyata]

Do you think if they had had small blinking white lights on the sides of their bikes (say, on their fork?), that you would have been able to see them more easily?

I have spoke lights on my bike (granted, I do not run them all of the time), but I have also been thinking about putting some small blinkies on my fork facing outwards to make myself more visible.

[mstone]

@Sunyata 128322 wrote:

Do you think if they had had small blinking white lights on the sides of their bikes (say, on their fork?), that you would have been able to see them more easily?

I have spoke lights on my bike (granted, I do not run them all of the time), but I have also been thinking about putting some small blinkies on my fork facing outwards to make myself more visible.

I would guess not. My suspicion is that a lot of cyclists are either ignorant of or in denial of how little use blinkies are in increasing their visibility to motorists. There is not enough power in a tiny battery to stand out in a street scene. They are helpful for trails and pedestrians, but not traffic. The same is true of a lot of battery powered lights as the batteries go dead, especially on rear lights (because you can’t see them). As a driver, I was terrified to suddenly realize the other day that there was a cyclist ahead of me that I literally COULD NOT SEE until I was far too close for comfort. He had a very very dim (dying) battery light on the rear and no headlight that I could detect. He probably thought he was good because he had a rear light.

So what’s the answer? Reflectors. A car is burning 100W to throw a consistent 1000+ lumens ahead of it. When that light hits a reflector, it will send an order of magnitude more light back at the driver than you’ll get off a blinky. The people who take the reflectors off their bike because they’re not cool and still ride at night, frankly, are idiots. Get a front reflector, a rear reflector, pedal or shoe reflectors, spoke reflectors or reflective sidewalls (those things rock), wear reflective gear, and consider applying reflective tape in strategic locations on your bike. Get good lights also, and use them in pairs (I’ve been happy with a vis360 as my backup light, as I can tell from the front beam whether the rear light has enough power.) But the reflectors don’t run out of batteries, are visible from more angles if installed well, and are a heck of a lot cheaper than good lights.

All that said, none of that will help at an intersection like shreve where the cyclist is basically coming from behind the traffic. Only solution there is to slow the hell down, and make sure you’ve got eye contact. A helmet mounted light used as a signalling lamp or to see in the car can help with that.

[MFC]

@mstone 128330 wrote:

So what’s the answer? Reflectors. A car is burning 100W to throw a consistent 1000+ lumens ahead of it. When that light hits a reflector, it will send an order of magnitude more light back at the driver than you’ll get off a blinky. The people who take the reflectors off their bike because they’re not cool and still ride at night, frankly, are idiots. Get a front reflector, a rear reflector, pedal or shoe reflectors, spoke reflectors or reflective sidewalls (those things rock), wear reflective gear, and consider applying reflective tape in strategic locations on your bike. Get good lights also, and use them in pairs (I’ve been happy with a vis360 as my backup light, as I can tell from the front beam whether the rear light has enough power.) But the reflectors don’t run out of batteries, are visible from more angles if installed well, and are a heck of a lot cheaper than good lights….

You can also get some reflective tape or reflective stickers at your LBS or Amazon, etc. There is a brand call Nathan that has some pretty good offerings. I have some on my seat stays, front fork and a reflective circle on my head tube so I should be visible even if my lights run out of juice.

[dkel]

@mstone 128330 wrote:

So what’s the answer? Reflectors.

Uncle Sheldon’s take on reflectors, including this statement: “Although rear-facing reflectors are of some use, side and front reflectors accomplish nothing, since vehicles on a collision course with a moving bicycle don’t have their headlights shining on the reflectors until it is already too late to avoid a collision.” I still have reflectors (reflective tape, actually, which is awesome), but less on the sides than fore and aft. I’m not sure that Sheldon’s statement had trail crossings in mind, honestly.

[FFX_Hinterlands]

Many cyclists out there are really sideways ninjas! All lights from the front and back, all ninja from the sides. Four things you can do:

– Put white reflective tape on the sides of your cranks and inside your rims (or even on the braking surface if you have disk brakes). Get the good stuff like Reflexite, 3M Prismatic or 3M Solas
– Use a reflective ankle band on both legs
– Install a spoke reflector at least on the front wheel. Rivbike.com makes a good one using reflexite tape and velcro
– Use a spoke light. I prefer nite-ize spokeit and buy big packs of batteries on Amazon

[kcb203]

I’ve got my Monkeylight M232 on my race bike/commuter for the winter. I look like an idiot, but I’ve long since stopped caring. I just bought a pair of neon green tights for nighttime use. My wife won’t let me out of the house with them on during daylight.

[jabberwocky]

In Tanias case, I’d bet that what happened is the cyclist saw her slowing and assumed she saw them and was letting them cross, when in reality she didn’t see them and was just slowing to check for cyclists.

My method for crossing trail-road intersections after dark was to basically assume I was invisible. Don’t ever ride out in front of a car, even if you think they see you. That said, I found a several-hundred lumen light helps a lot; it illuminates so much in front of it that cross traffic knows something is there, even if they can’t see exactly what.

I do think it would behoove some cyclists to actually drive some of the intersections sometime. Visibility up and down the trail, even in daylight, is often nowhere near as good as you think it is. A great many intersections, if someone is more than 10 or so feet back from the road you basically can’t see them. Its only compounded at night.

[Anonymous]

Another thing to be aware of is don’t think you’re visible at road crossings just because there are streetlights. I can be somewhat guilty of this, particularly as a pedestrian: there is plenty of light to see around you, see where you’re going and what’s coming in your direction. It’s easy to assume it’s just as easy for drivers to see you. Especially since they have headlights! They ought to be able to see even better! But no. Drive through the same area and there are so many shadows thrown by trees, bushes, parked cars, street signs, that it becomes very difficult to pick out and recognize the dark blob that happens to be a person among all the other dark blobs.

Of course if you have reflective bits and/or lights, you look less like a random dark blob but then again, under streetlights, lights and reflective bits are less noticeable than in fully dark conditions.

[dasgeh]

I bought a reflective construction vest with LED lights, like this one. I get tons of comments on it, even from drivers who have rolled down windows to compliment me on it/ask where I got it. It seems to help with 360 visibility, it’s cheap and it works with all the crazy bikes I have.

Though I fully admit that it’s obnoxious on blink mode.

[mstone]

@dkel 128334 wrote:

Uncle Sheldon’s take on reflectors, including this statement: “Although rear-facing reflectors are of some use, side and front reflectors accomplish nothing, since vehicles on a collision course with a moving bicycle don’t have their headlights shining on the reflectors until it is already too late to avoid a collision.” I still have reflectors (reflective tape, actually, which is awesome), but less on the sides than fore and aft. I’m not sure that Sheldon’s statement had trail crossings in mind, honestly.

There are certainly cases where side-impact collisions aren’t going to be helped by reflectors, which is one of the reasons that you need both lights and reflectors, but there are other cases where the side reflectors are useful. (Oblique approaches, slow approaches at trail crossings…) Spherical reflectors like those usually found in reflective sidewalls or tape are more effective on the sides (IMO) than the prismatic reflectors that come stock, because of their wider useful angles.

[Emm]

@kcb203 128341 wrote:

I’ve got my Monkeylight M232 on my race bike/commuter for the winter. I look like an idiot, but I’ve long since stopped caring. I just bought a pair of neon green tights for nighttime use. My wife won’t let me out of the house with them on during daylight.

I want that light SOOO BAD (it’ll increase my rainbow output significantly!). How do you like it? Does the battery last long? Has it stood up to nasty weather nicely?

[Starduster]

Many (but not all) of the front and rear lights on the market, be they domestic vendor or StVZO spec, do offer light output to the sides. Some, quite good.

On reflectors, I became a big fan of reflective sidewalls on bike tires some time ago. Defines the bike quite effectively to other traffic. Standard on CABI bikes. The single most important other reflector for me (and the last one I would consider removing) is the red rear one. Can be US spec or Euro, and integrated with the rear light, if you prefer. And reflective anything on the pedals or your ankles. That said, reflective materials still rely on light output from that oncoming vehicle, and the hope that the driver is looking at something other than his/her smartphone. Like the road, maybe?

[KLizotte]

I highly recommend Fiks Reflective wheel stripes. Mine have held up very well and I will buy them again for my next bike.

I also covered my bike and helmet with 3M reflective pin striping tape. During the day you can’t see it nor the wheel stripes because the colors match the bike.

[GovernorSilver]

@Emm 128353 wrote:

I want that light SOOO BAD (it’ll increase my rainbow output significantly!). How do you like it? Does the battery last long? Has it stood up to nasty weather nicely?

I have the slightly lower-end version (M210). I like mine, though it took me a while to make sure the color was set to random like I wanted, and the correct pattern (skulls) was showing. I got it for the Halloween group ride. The battery holder is zip-tied to the hub and you zip-tie the light unit to your spokes. You’ll get a generous helping of zip ties with each system. Both the battery unit and the light unit appear to be well-sealed from water and dust.

The batteries on the M210 are just regular AA – 3 per unit. The lights lasted long enough for the Halloween event (about 4 hours). I’m guessing the batteries still have quite a bit more life left in them – they’re either Energizers or Duracells – forgot which. I don’t use the lights all the time – I save them for group rides at night.

If you subscribe to the Monkeylectric mailing list, you’ll get a 10% off coupon code which is good for the Amazon store. Keep in mind each Monkeylight system is for one wheel, so if you want lights on both wheels you’ll need to order two.

So far the bike’s been rained on a couple of times with the M210 installed, before Halloween. No problems yet.

[cvcalhoun]

I use the Rimfire lights. http://www.amazon.com/Rimfire-Lighting-System-G-5PCWR-Power/dp/B001RTL5L6 They are very visible indeed — I have drivers yelling out, “Nice lights!” Part of it is that they have one red, one green, and one blue light, so they make swirly patterns when seen from the side.

[Author]

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