sms wrote:
On 10/14/2014 10:07 AM, Joerg wrote:

snip

You seem to have missed my point. The point is that it takkes a
surprisingly little amount of light being emitted in order to be
seen. Being identified as a bicycle is whole other can of worms.


But that's the important part. Being identified as a bicycle averts "Oh
s..t!" situations where a driver slams on the brakes because he thought
you'd be farther away.

It can work the other way too. A driver will cut off a fast-moving
bicycle because he or she believes that since it's a bicycle coming it
must be traveling at 5MPH, not 25MPH. When I started using good lights
that were such that it was not possible to tell what was coming, I got
cut off far less often than when I was using poor lights.


Works from the front. My MTB light is quite bright and I guess people
think it must be a bigger vehicle. It has a flash mode as well but I
don't use that anymore because it almost caused some car drivers to do a
panic stop, maybe thinking it was some sort of police vehicle.


The daytime flasher makes a ginormous difference in terms of being cut
off when going straight across an intersection when the motor vehicle is
turning left in front of you. What is most amusing is so many drivers
don't use a left turn signal unless they see a vehicle across the
intersection. These intersections can be across six lanes of traffic
plus a median. As soon as they see the flashing front light suddenly the
turn signal goes on.


Since I have that front flash on my road bike and the bright steady
light on my MTB that rarely happens anymore. With me it wasn't so much
left-turn candidate but people pulling out of side roads or parking lots.


There is still a lack of consensus as to whether a steady on light is
better than or worse than a flashing light.


As long as I have to contend with battery-powered weak LED lights I will
keep them on flash, always. If I could find a big enough rear light that
can reasonably be spliced into a battery pack I'd use a steady light,
maybe. Big as in physically large and a total of 1-2W worth of LED power
in there.

There is no lack of consensus. It does not have to be unanimous for it
to be considered consensus. There are a few people that are just saying
that there is no proof because they don't want to look at, or believe,
the proof. Also, what's very instructive is to look at who insists that
there is no advantage to a flashing front daytime light. If Frank says
that there is no advantage then you can take it to the bank that there
is a big advantage.


Well, I judge by what I noticed as a car driver and there a flashing
rear light proved to be a huge advantage. So that will now be my mode of
operation.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/