mokane54

Pretty interesting and worth the read.
When More Visible ? Safer: Target Fixation | Off The Beaten Path

El Cid

This article definitely adds some new perspective to road safety. Not to excuse distracted, drunk, or tired driving, but there is always more to it.

B. Carfree

Jan's got a bit of an agenda there. The article he references that reviews various studies comes to the solid conclusion that there isn't much evidence that target fixation, or the moth-effect, is playing much of a role in our CARnage.

I'll just continue to live on the edge, at least in Jan's opinion, and go big and bright at night. I suppose if others choose to go dim then I'll stand out all the more.

Looigi

Most all the roads I ride on have no or minimal shoulders. Cars have to actively move to the left from their normal path to avoid hitting a cyclist. If they don't see a cyclist, and don't see him/her far enough in advance and realize that it is an object in their path, they'll hit the cyclist. A single unblinking light doesn't provide as much information to the driver as a combination of one or more steady and blinking lights. They main thing is to alert them early and to get them to realize and become aware of the situation so that they can react accordingly.

spivonious

I agree that too bright, such as a police car with all of its lights going, can be distracting and cause some target fixation. But suggesting the cyclists go without lights or with a single solid red light is lunacy. How can cars avoid what they can't see?

From my personal experience, a bright headlight, reflective vest, and ankle reflectors let cars know where you are and what you are, and most importantly gives them time to prepare their next move.

Keith99

Ideas like this are at least 25 years old.

BUT the first time I heard it the fixation idea was that a single red light was the very worst thing to do.

I much prefer the reflective vest idea. What I had when I did some back to back doubles was reflective tape on the bike, including the wheels. Result I looked like a UFO.

As I see it the best thing is to create a WTF or UFO effect. Even the drunks rarely want to get probed!

EDIT: Just thought of something re drunks and stopped cop cars. The key tipoff for a drunk is weaving. There are sections of highway scores to 100s of miles long where there is nothing on the shoulder, until a car stalls and a cop stops behind them or a cop pulls someone over.

If a guy weaves enough to be on the shoulder 20% of the time is it target fixation that they hit the only thing to hit or just chance?

keyven

I ride with a low-pointing blinking headlight that floods the front of my bike and solid red backlight.

The blinking headlight will catch the attention of motorists coming from my back without 'blinding' or 'distracting' them. The red light makes me even more obvious. I think that's all I need.

squirtdad

YMMV, but when I drive, my observation is a flashing red light is much more visible to me than a solid red, in all conditions. Blinding or distracting drives is not as important as being seen

I use a combo of flashing and solid at night front and back

FBinNY 

Target fixation is real, but fairly rare. Compare to the question of being seen at maximum distance by the vast majority of drivers at a distance ar enough that they have the room and time to make adjustments.

I long ago abandoned red taillights, and opt for either flashing amber, or flashing blue. Neither are approved as legal tail lights for bicycles in New York, but they stand out and get drivers attention better than red.

TransitBiker

This has always been an issue that I've tried to mitigate. Instead of the fast flashing rear light, I set it on a slow blink. Not only does this not "draw" but it saves battery as well. Also, headlight is steady vs blinking. I use it to see, not bee seen, hard to see if illumination keeps changing. On top of that, I always look back if I see headlights, to make sure they are giving me enough space & not speeding etc.

Properly kept reflectors are also important, but you don't want to go overboard, as more of a "show" is more likely draw.

- Andy

B. Carfree

My commute used to be a forty mile trip in mostly along a two-lane highway with very little traffic at the time of morning I rode (2:30-4:30 AM). There were always a couple of drunks heading in from the coast at that time. The first few times I rode in, I would get off the road but leave my lights on when these drunks appeared. Without fail, they would slow almost to a stop once they saw my kaleidoscope of bright lights. I suspect they thought they had stumbled onto something from Close Encounters. I quickly learned to douse the lights when I pulled off. This allowed me to watch the drunks weave on by at 30-50 mph.

They used so much of the road I began to look for trees for protection lest they leave the pavement as they passed. I strongly suspect that this is part of what happens when drunks hit cars that are pulled off the road. They simply don't have enough control of their cars to avoid hitting the things they see. They also don't always see the things they should.