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Invisible Cyclists in Solstice Dark



 
 
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  #21  
Old December 24th 05, 12:17 AM posted to uk.rec.cycling,rec.bicycles.misc
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Default Invisible Cyclists in Solstice Dark

Elisa

Have you considered that if your colleague is driving so fast that they
cannot pick out a cyclist then the appropriate action may be to slow down
rather than moan about them wearing dark clothing.

When motorists say that a cyclist was invisible or they just didn't see them
it is usually because they aren't looking. What you are really complaining
about was that there was little time to take avoiding action when seeing a
cyclist. That is a car speed issue rather than a cyslist visiblity issue.
Cyclists in flourescent jackets enable drivers to go faster. Hence when they
do hit a cyclists theor pedestrian they are more likely to kill them.

I believe that the responsibility is squarely with the motorist to conduct
their driving so that they can avoid any obstacles that are within their
vision. That means GO SLOWER.

Merry Christmas

Rod King

"Elisa Francesca Roselli" wrote in message
...
In these dark winter months, I am car-pooling with a colleague to get to
work. Although I am impervious to cold, I am not happy about cycling
because of the poor visibility. My road to work is poorly lit, my
eyesight is bad, my balance perturbed by the dancing beam of my front
light and my glasses fog up every time I stop.

In the car, I really do get to notice what can and cannot be seen from a
motorist's point of view. And I am appalled to discover just how hard it
can be to see cyclists and pedestrians, and how few of them seem to be
aware of this.

Much winter clothing is dark or black to begin with. Then many ride
entirely without lights, or just a little reflector. Great aurioles of
light surround the street lights and the headlights of the oncoming
cars, casting everything else around them into a pitch black shadow from
the glare. A few days ago, I was standing on a pavement waiting for a
bus, looking directly into the traffic. Two cyclists swooped right in
front of me - they were less than 30 feet from me before I even noticed
them.

On mornings and even in the broad daylight of the lunch hour, there is
frequently a freezing smog that not only soups up the air but makes the
ground slippery. This smog can come on quite suddenly - all is clear,
then the car descends into a barely perceptible valley and the
windscreen empties like a movie screen with the projector turned off.

For night riding it has been my personal practise to wear a reflector
vest and blinkie lights on armbands. I have a LED headlight and a small
red backlight. But my lesson from this is that perhaps even I need to up
the ante. I shall get myself a yellow reflector parka from Glow Dog, and
wear that even as a pedestrian. And I need more blinkies, especially in
the back.

I know I'm preaching to the choir here, but for those of you who do
cycle in the dark, please make sure you are as visible as you can make
yourselves. Perhaps do a visibility test with your gear - ask family or
a neighbor for feedback on whether you can be seen and at what distance,
especially if you are sharing the road with cars and headlights.

Safe riding to all,

EFR
Ile de France



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  #22  
Old December 24th 05, 12:20 AM posted to uk.rec.cycling,rec.bicycles.misc
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Default Invisible Cyclists in Solstice Dark or "Is black white?"


Fritz M wrote:

wrote:

Nonsense. Light/bright colours are much more visible than dark colours
when picked up by headlights or any other lights for that matter.


That's true, but not true enough.

I was driving at night on an unlit street last week. A half-mile ahead
of me was a shopping center with bright lights. I nearly hit a cyclist
-- I only saw him at the last minute when I saw his silhouette in the
supermarket lights. I swerved to avoid him and that's when I noticed
the faint outline of his flourescent yellow jacket in my headlights.
After I passed I saw that he had a very bright front light.

Bright colored clothing is not generally adequate for night visibility.
You might as well be wearing black. I don't ride at night without
lighting front, back and sides. I generally have reflective material on
me, bike, or bags also.

RFM
http://www.cyclelicio.us/


Obviously there are occasions when a bright jacket is not enough but
the probability is that the lighter/brighter the more likely it is to
be seen. Even better if the cyclist also has a big bright back light
preferably not flashing, and as much reflective material as possible.
Seems one has to keep repeating the obvious in this discussion!
Look at it this way - if you wanted to move around at night without
being spotted would you wear dark non-reflective clothes, carry no
lights, perhaps black up your face with burnt cork in the old fashioned
way, or would you wear bright light reflective clothing, carry bright
lamps etc etc? Clue to the answer - the first approach is called
"camouflage" (though I'm not sure how you spell it). Geddit!
Or to look at it another way - try drawing a black figure on black
paper. Er, how else can I explain this difficult concept!

happy christmas

Jacob

  #25  
Old December 24th 05, 03:33 AM posted to uk.rec.cycling,rec.bicycles.misc
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Default Invisible Cyclists in Solstice Dark


"Tony W" wrote .

My experience on country lanes is that the greatest danger is being
blinded by oncoming traffic and losing the edge of the road. It is then
easy to veer either into the middle of the road or into the ditch.

Neither are good. On country lanes a light that says to the driver 'dip
you *******' is required.


Do I ever agree with that! Most of my commuting route has streetlights of
greater or lesser adequacy, but always enough to cut the glare from the
lights of oncoming traffic, which usually isn't using the bright beam
anyway. But get on a dark lonely road and encounter an oncoming car with
the brights on, and it's stunning how quickly and badly you can become
disoriented relative to the edge of the road! I have already stopped
altogether and waited for the traffic to pass, and shouted some
"encouragement" for the driver to dim his lights.

I'm also part of the choir being preached to on this whole thread. My home
commute in the winter is in the dark. I use a bright chartreuse vest with
several reflective strips like highway dept workers use, plus a flashing
rear light (less helpful than the reflective vest) and a Cateye Opticube
front light - low power but 5 beams of blue light that are easier to see
than to see by. My TREK gloves and shoes also have reflectors, but they're
only good down to about 15 F.

My understanding is that the two biggest contributors to bike rider
fatalities are failure to yield right of way and riding invisibly at night.


  #26  
Old December 24th 05, 05:35 AM posted to uk.rec.cycling,rec.bicycles.misc
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Default Invisible Cyclists in Solstice Dark

In rec.bicycles.misc Claire Petersky wrote:

Elisa, I've done this too -- while driving in the dark and passing a
pedestrian or a cyclist, made a note of what it is that I see first.
Usually it's some sort of reflective clothing. snip


I have often done this as well. The things I notice most often are
spoke and pedal reflectors. I'm sure that's because of the way they move.
The things I am least likely to notice are dark clothing and fixed
reflectors. I'm not sure I have EVER had my eye caught by one of those
useless front reflectors.
A few weeks back I was riding on one of the darker stretches of my
early morning commute, and suddenly there was a pedestrian in the street
squarely in front of me. He was dressed in dark clothing, crossing away
from the crosswalk. I saw him in time to lean the bike a bit and pass
behind him, but I don't think he even knew I was on the same planet with
him. Most likely he was listening for cars instead of looking for
traffic, in which case he'd have seen my headlights.) I couldn't resist
giving him a friendly toot on my marine air horn. He jumped so much I
could hear the stuff in his backpack go "whoomp."
Of the four main visibility items (brightly colored clothing,
reflective clothing, reflectors, and lights) my definite preference for
night riding is all four, (except that I took off my front reflector to
make room for my headlight).


Bill

--------------------------------------------
| As long as people believe in absurdities |
| they will continue to commit atrocities. |
| --Voltaire |
--------------------------------------------
  #27  
Old December 24th 05, 09:27 AM posted to uk.rec.cycling,rec.bicycles.misc
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Default Invisible Cyclists in Solstice Dark

On 23 Dec 2005 08:02:24 -0800, wrote:


So you cool young dudes and dudettes - put lights on your bike, and
carry a tiny LED light when you walk (if you ever do actually walk).
Use reflective stuff, too. It doesn't take much, but it takes
_something_ bright to be seen.

Remember, we old fogies are not only unfashionable and confused, we're
half blind!


uhh, judging by the vernacular aesthetics, across differing youth
populations today, one could reasonably conclude that the fashionably
cool dudes and doodettes are at least half bind too.

I causally, at 2am, stopped a couple of perforated and studded punks
on the street and asked them if they thought my belt was cool.

He liked the belt. She liked the buckle. Then they looked closer at
six of the others I had and realised they were recycled bicycle parts.
That got them both excited and I respectfully listened to what they
had to say. (hmmm)

They're not so blind they can't spot kool zut when they see it.

My night vision has diminished somewhat. No cloudy halos though unless
it's through a water droplet lens. Even then I'm most often able to
spot the silhouette of a stealth rider against the background street
lighting. The riders with red blinkies, front and rear, are worse than
a stealth rider, IMO.

Know that stealth riding plainly and simply requires a different
technique than you or I choose to practice. We're lit. They see us so
stealth riders will stay out of _our_ way. No need for knotted
knickers.

It makes cycling safer for us because we can always point to some
stats and show that some certain percentage of unlit cyclists
experience car/bike collisions at night.
--
zk
  #28  
Old December 24th 05, 09:47 AM posted to uk.rec.cycling,rec.bicycles.misc
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Default Invisible Cyclists in Solstice Dark

Zoot Katz wrote:

I causally, at 2am, stopped a couple of perforated and studded punks
on the street and asked them if they thought my belt was cool.

He liked the belt. She liked the buckle. Then they looked closer at
six of the others I had and realised they were recycled bicycle parts.
That got them both excited and I respectfully listened to what they
had to say. (hmmm)

They're not so blind they can't spot kool zut when they see it.


Somewhere, on some alt.punk newsgroup, s/he's posting about this strange old
biker coot who, roaming the alleys at 2 AM, made them look at his "belt"
(hoping it's not a euphemism).

Weirdo! eg


  #29  
Old December 24th 05, 10:34 AM posted to uk.rec.cycling,rec.bicycles.misc
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Default Invisible Cyclists in Solstice Dark


"Rod King" wrote in message
...
Elisa

Have you considered that if your colleague is driving so fast that they
cannot pick out a cyclist then the appropriate action may be to slow down
rather than moan about them wearing dark clothing.

...
I believe that the responsibility is squarely with the motorist to conduct
their driving so that they can avoid any obstacles that are within their
vision. That means GO SLOWER.


Right. IOW, "don't overdrive your headlights". If you cant see something
in your path in time to stop, you're speeding (violation of the Basic Speed
Law). That's true of driving in the dark, of course, but it's also the case
when you drive faster than the speed on the yellow diamond-shaped sign with
the curving arrow and the "35 mph" on it. That sign means that the
sightline of the road ahead is such that, if you're driving faster than the
posted speed, you cannot stop in time to avoid an object in the roadway.
Sometimes it's a deer, sometimes it's a cyclist, and hereabouts, sometimes
it's a big-assed combine or hay-wagon.

But expecting people to drive within the capability to see the road ahead is
sort of futile, isn't it? I mean, look at all the "chain-reaction"
accidents where motorists speeding down the freeway at 80mph heedlessly hurl
themselves into a fog bank?





  #30  
Old December 24th 05, 10:57 AM posted to uk.rec.cycling,rec.bicycles.misc
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Default Invisible Cyclists in Solstice Dark or "Is black white?"


David Martin wrote:
wrote:
Look at it this way - if you wanted to move around at night without
being spotted would you wear dark non-reflective clothes, carry no
lights, perhaps black up your face with burnt cork in the old fashioned
way, or would you wear bright light reflective clothing, carry bright
lamps etc etc? Clue to the answer - the first approach is called
"camouflage" (though I'm not sure how you spell it). Geddit!
Or to look at it another way - try drawing a black figure on black
paper. Er, how else can I explain this difficult concept!


How do you camouflage yourself to get into the Houses of Parliament?
wear bright fluorescent jackets etc.

If you ask the average motorist, they'll be able to tell you exactly
how many no-lights-dark-clothes-invisible-cant-see-the-buggers they saw
but won't remember a single one wearing an EN40whatever reflective
vest. Retroreflective *is* the new urban camouflage. Apparently it is
easier to get away with shoplifting if you wear a reflective vest,
safety helemt and site boots. Urban camouflage again.

Yes you are so right. There's more to camouflage than meets the eye!
Next time I cycle in town at night I intend to disguise myself as an
unlit stretch of tarmac so that motorists will be able to pick me out
amongst the reflective jackets.

cheers

Jacob

 




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