longprime, the moth to light phenomenon is well known and it affects cars in the breakdown lane far more often than bicycles. Usually late at night and compromised drivers that are drunk or sleepy. People have rammed cruisers with their emergency lights flashing so not much you can do in those cases. But I would still prefer a flashing strobe to a continuous light.
I live on a winding two lane road with a solid yellow line for 5 miles in either direction. Because it is scenic, bikes are always on it. Blocking traffic for miles invites trouble. Then there are the talkers that come through at 5:30 am in groups. Yelling at the top of their lungs so those around can hear their inane musings. How about I come over to your place and do the same?
@Pvt,sounds about right-some colors jump out at us,while others you can easily ignore,green is an especially energetic color for whatever reason-thanks,Kevin
@keith: Kind of over-the-top to say bicyclists MUST use a bike lane, rather than be caught on a road that doesn’t have them. First off, you can’t know where those cyclists live, where they are headed, etc. The vast majority of locations are not directly served by bike-specific infrastructure, and even fitness riders ride somewhat for the “transportation” side-effects; otherwise, they’d be in a room, spinning on a stationary.
Second, until very recently, bike lanes weren’t “engineered,” per se, with any level of intelligence. I’ve seen plenty of lanes that perpetually leave the cyclist in the “door zone” of parallel-parked cars. That’s worse than no lane at all, and I’d stay away from it for safety reasons.
Finally, sometimes lanes (or especially multi-use paths) are too crowded with pedestrians and slow, unskilled cyclists to be useful to a 15+MPH cyclist. Where I grew up, there was a 5-mile loop around a lake (North Park), with a 25MPH road, and a multi-use path full of joggers, children,ladies pushing strollers, etc.
When I was in my prime, I could do the 5 mile loop in under 15 minutes (or 20 MPH). What’s in the best interests of safety: me cycling on a 25 mph roadway at 20, or me doing 20 amongst the toddlers, strollers, and joggers? Just because a facility is available to cyclists doesn’t mean one might use one’s discretion to employ a more favorable route!
If that’s all you have to contribute, there are voting buttons you can click to indicate your agreement. I’m struggling to figure out what you’ve added to this conversation.
When I lived about a mile from campus, I tried riding a bicycle to work. I did my best to keep right, but I had cars honking at me and with parking there was no place to pull over. Interestingly, I was bicycling and a semi was behind me and was very considerate. I gave up riding the bicycle, but walking wasn’t an option, since there are no sidewalks.
I was really glad when our son turned 16 and was able to get his driver’s license. I felt much safer with him driving a car where he was surrounded with metal than on a bicycle.
I am really having a problem understanding what y’all are saying. I do a 6 mile coommute to and from work, and have had nothing but respect from drivers except my ah bud who thinks its funny to gun his deisel truck to leave a cloud of black smoke for me, paintball for him I think is in order, I play by the rules, bend the rules, break the rules possibly, but I am cognizant of drivers and they are aware of me, If they have the right of way they get it, unlike stupid kids I see walk into the street without even looking, and they grant me the right of way, and I will pedal faster in order for them not to miss a break in traffic if needed, shure there are idiots on both sides, but then again there are great people on both sides.
With one light only at night I believe its a depth perception issue for one thing. You just can’t tell how far ahead one light is compared to two lights. The strobe red lights though are the best and you immediately know its a bike.
Two lights would be easier to place in space than one. One on the back of each pedal works nicely, especially if they flash. Hard to miss those lights and both the motion and the distance between them aid with depth estimation. LEDs rurn on and off very rapidly with little effect on lifespan (they last longer, because of the time they’re off) and cycling them saves battery wear. A win for everyone.
As for human vision, in fairly bright light (photopic vision) we see yellowish green light most efficiently. Violet and deep red are seen very poorly. In bright light we are using both rod and cone cells. In very low light (scotopic vision) there is a shift and we see best a shade of bluish green because this is the shade rods are most sensitive to. Cones contribute very little to low light vision.
MarkM, your statement about which color is best depends on whether the light is source light or reflected light. In low light conditions, light blue objects (reflected light) are the hardest to see.
I have read a document that was over 500 pages long about visibility in various lighting conditions. It was commissioned by the US Navy back in the late 60’s and is often used as a reference for this topic. It is extremely complex and not something that can be covered on an internet post.
I don’t remember everything in the document but that fact struck me because it explained why I had so many close calls with my light blue 71 Maverick on may way to work at dawn every morning. People had trouble seeing me.
