On Tuesday, October 14, 2014 8:15:19 PM UTC-4, jbeattie wrote:
On Tuesday, October 14, 2014 11:03:00 AM UTC-7, 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.







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.







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.



Query if flashers are legal under the UVC. I was looking at the Oregon statutes, and flashers are prohibited on cars, and I didn't see any exception for bicycles -- although I didn't look closely. I've never seen anyone get a ticket, and flashers on bikes are ubiquitous.



-- Jay Beattie.

I don't know about flashers in Oregon but here in Ontario it's illegal but seldom enforced for bicycle tires to have studs on them.

Cheers