blinded by light

I got blinded by a bike light this afternoon. Some stupidly bright
flashing thing, poorly aimed.

How do I know it was poorly aimed? I was inside. At my desk. On the
second floor. Looking 90 degrees away from the direction the bike was
traveling.

--
sig 69

On Sat, 28 Sep 2019 03:06:49 +0000, David Scheidt wrote:

I got blinded by a bike light this afternoon. Some stupidly bright
flashing thing, poorly aimed.

How do I know it was poorly aimed? I was inside. At my desk. On the
second floor. Looking 90 degrees away from the direction the bike was
traveling.

Sounds like it reflected off something.

On 9/27/2019 11:04 PM, news18 wrote:
On Sat, 28 Sep 2019 03:06:49 +0000, David Scheidt wrote:

I got blinded by a bike light this afternoon. Some stupidly bright
flashing thing, poorly aimed.

How do I know it was poorly aimed? I was inside. At my desk. On the
second floor. Looking 90 degrees away from the direction the bike was
traveling.

Sounds like it reflected off something.


Probably not. I'm with Dave on this, having seen the run of
urban street idiots at play.

--
Andrew Muzi
www.yellowjersey.org/
Open every day since 1 April, 1971

On Sat, 28 Sep 2019 03:06:49 +0000, David Scheidt wrote:

I got blinded by a bike light this afternoon. Some stupidly bright
flashing thing, poorly aimed.

How do I know it was poorly aimed? I was inside. At my desk. On the
second floor. Looking 90 degrees away from the direction the bike was
traveling.

I agree, some of these new lights are too bloody bright.

--
Dieter Britz

On Sunday, September 29, 2019 at 5:18:45 AM UTC-4, Dieter Britz wrote:
On Sat, 28 Sep 2019 03:06:49 +0000, David Scheidt wrote:

I got blinded by a bike light this afternoon. Some stupidly bright
flashing thing, poorly aimed.

How do I know it was poorly aimed? I was inside. At my desk. On the
second floor. Looking 90 degrees away from the direction the bike was
traveling.

I agree, some of these new lights are too bloody bright.

And with Safety Inflation, we can look forward to a day when a headlight isn't
"safe enough" unless it softens the asphalt as you ride. :-/

- Frank Krygowski

On Sat, 28 Sep 2019 03:06:49 +0000 (UTC), David Scheidt
wrote:

I got blinded by a bike light this afternoon.

Blinded during afternoon daylight hours? I could see that happening
at night, but not during daylight hours. Have you recovered from the
blinding light?

Some stupidly bright flashing thing, poorly aimed.

Probably someone doing weapons research. Megalumen lights will
probably be prominent in the next inevitable war.

How do I know it was poorly aimed? I was inside. At my desk. On the
second floor. Looking 90 degrees away from the direction the bike was
traveling.

If it was a headlight, 90 degree side illumination suggests it may
have had 180 degree beamwidth. Impressive for a bicycle light.

Assuming your description is accurate, my guess(tm) would be a poorly
secured headlight that had rotated itself to one side. Further, I
suspect that the rider was not familiar with the operation of a day
time blinky "safety" headlight. Perhaps the bicycle was stolen, he
was making a hasty escape, and he did not have time to adjust and
secure the headlight?
http://www.learnbydestroying.com/jeffl/pics/bicycles/slides/bicycle-flashlight.html
It's difficult to be certain, but I suspect that this was a unique and
unusual occurrence, which is unlikely to be repeated in the near
future.


--
Jeff Liebermann
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

On Sun, 29 Sep 2019 13:51:03 -0700, Jeff Liebermann
wrote:

On Sat, 28 Sep 2019 03:06:49 +0000 (UTC), David Scheidt
wrote:

I got blinded by a bike light this afternoon.

Blinded during afternoon daylight hours? I could see that happening
at night, but not during daylight hours. Have you recovered from the
blinding light?

Some stupidly bright flashing thing, poorly aimed.

Probably someone doing weapons research. Megalumen lights will
probably be prominent in the next inevitable war.

How do I know it was poorly aimed? I was inside. At my desk. On the
second floor. Looking 90 degrees away from the direction the bike was
traveling.

If it was a headlight, 90 degree side illumination suggests it may
have had 180 degree beamwidth. Impressive for a bicycle light.

Assuming your description is accurate, my guess(tm) would be a poorly
secured headlight that had rotated itself to one side. Further, I
suspect that the rider was not familiar with the operation of a day
time blinky "safety" headlight. Perhaps the bicycle was stolen, he
was making a hasty escape, and he did not have time to adjust and
secure the headlight?
http://www.learnbydestroying.com/jeffl/pics/bicycles/slides/bicycle-flashlight.html
It's difficult to be certain, but I suspect that this was a unique and
unusual occurrence, which is unlikely to be repeated in the near
future.

Perhaps a bicycle size version of the U.S. Navy's " directed-energy
laser weapon" which with a judicious selection of the frequency might
be able to provide a solution to several "bicycle problems".

Scalable power levels would efficiently provide. firstly, the ability
to see after sundown at lower levels, and secondly, the problem of
"dooring" and "Right Turn" accidents, at higher levels, by simply
destroying the doors or vehicles making a right turn in the path of
the bicycle.

The technology is available and with the advent of the"e-bike" power
is no longer a problem and it would, as well as providing almost
perfect lighting for those night rides also eliminate those pesky
bicycle accidents.
--
cheers,

John B.

On Mon, 30 Sep 2019 05:43:38 +0700, John B.
wrote:

On Sun, 29 Sep 2019 13:51:03 -0700, Jeff Liebermann
wrote:

On Sat, 28 Sep 2019 03:06:49 +0000 (UTC), David Scheidt
wrote:

I got blinded by a bike light this afternoon.

Blinded during afternoon daylight hours? I could see that happening
at night, but not during daylight hours. Have you recovered from the
blinding light?

Some stupidly bright flashing thing, poorly aimed.

Probably someone doing weapons research. Megalumen lights will
probably be prominent in the next inevitable war.

How do I know it was poorly aimed? I was inside. At my desk. On the
second floor. Looking 90 degrees away from the direction the bike was
traveling.

If it was a headlight, 90 degree side illumination suggests it may
have had 180 degree beamwidth. Impressive for a bicycle light.

Assuming your description is accurate, my guess(tm) would be a poorly
secured headlight that had rotated itself to one side. Further, I
suspect that the rider was not familiar with the operation of a day
time blinky "safety" headlight. Perhaps the bicycle was stolen, he
was making a hasty escape, and he did not have time to adjust and
secure the headlight?
http://www.learnbydestroying.com/jeffl/pics/bicycles/slides/bicycle-flashlight.html
It's difficult to be certain, but I suspect that this was a unique and
unusual occurrence, which is unlikely to be repeated in the near
future.

Perhaps a bicycle size version of the U.S. Navy's " directed-energy
laser weapon" which with a judicious selection of the frequency might
be able to provide a solution to several "bicycle problems".

Scalable power levels would efficiently provide. firstly, the ability
to see after sundown at lower levels, and secondly, the problem of
"dooring" and "Right Turn" accidents, at higher levels, by simply
destroying the doors or vehicles making a right turn in the path of
the bicycle.

The technology is available and with the advent of the"e-bike" power
is no longer a problem and it would, as well as providing almost
perfect lighting for those night rides also eliminate those pesky
bicycle accidents.

And, I might add, eliminate the complaints of "lights in my eyes".
--
cheers,

John B.

On Sunday, September 29, 2019 at 4:51:11 PM UTC-4, Jeff Liebermann wrote:
On Sat, 28 Sep 2019 03:06:49 +0000 (UTC), David Scheidt
wrote:

I got blinded by a bike light this afternoon.

Blinded during afternoon daylight hours? I could see that happening
at night, but not during daylight hours. Have you recovered from the
blinding light?

Here's my experience while driving one day last year:

I was driving on a 55 mph two-lane highway I occasionally ride. I saw a white
light way up the road and wondered what it was. As I got closer, I realized it
was a bicycle headed the same direction I was. The female rider had fastened a
super-bright bike headlight to the back of her bike, facing backwards.
Effectively, it was a white taillight, which is specifically illegal.

It was aimed directly in my eyes, and bright enough that it really was blinding.
I remember shading my eyes with my hand as I changed to the oncoming lane to
pass her. It was almost as bad as driving into a setting sun.

Now, I generally change lanes to pass bicyclists anyway. But I prefer to do it
when I can easily see where I'm going.

- Frank Krygowski

On Mon, 30 Sep 2019 06:13:05 +0700, John B.
wrote:

And, I might add, eliminate the complaints of "lights in my eyes".

There's a better and easier way that has been proposed many times and
rejected every time. Install a horizontally polarizing screen over
all headlights, and require riders, drivers, and pedestrians to wear
vertically polarized glasses, which blocks the horizontally polarized
light from the lights. As an added bonus, the glasses would also
eliminate most forms of glare.

I was marginally involved in a test of such a system while in college.
As long as every vehicle used horizontally polarized lights, it worked
very well. In fact, it worked too well. If everything was perfectly
orthogonal (90 degrees), it was difficult to see the light source. So,
the researchers had to rotate the polarization of both the headlights
and glasses +/-10 degrees in opposite rotations, to insure that the
headlights could be seen by at least one eye. There was also a
problem with some traffic signal lights which produced mostly
horizontally polarized light and were therefore difficult to see
wearing the vertically polarized glasses.

At the time (1968), seat belts were federally mandated for new cars.
This precipitated a large numbers of "safety" proposals promoted by
patent holders and manufacturers who wanted their products also made
mandatory such as seat belt interlocks, shoulder belts, voice alerts,
air bags, anti-lock brakes, helmets for drivers, redundant everything,
etc. The light polarizing scheme got lost in the rush and confusion.


--
Jeff Liebermann
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558