Dunbar

Bright front flashers do work in broad daylight at preventing left crosses and getting cut off by traffic turning right from crossing intersections. It has to be bright enough to be seen though (which many are not.) A bright front light on steady probably won't stand out in direct sunlight IME. The scenario you describe about turning right at a "T" intersection means the cyclist is supposed to give way to thru traffic and wait until it's safe before turning right.

vol

I'll heed your advice in future. At that intersection, the view is almost completely blocked so the drivers and me don't see each other until we are both at the intersection already. What I often did was to keep to the right as much as possible when making the turn. But if some careless driver doesn't slow down or drives too far to the right then I'd be in trouble.

rekmeyata

Those videos don't demonstrate anything related to using a light or not. Those motorists would have done the same thing if you had a 4,000 lumen flashing strobe! They were, and are, IDIOTS!! I've seen this same thing while driving my CAR and someone who is in a huge hurry passes on a double yellow right in front of oncoming cars, they don't care because they're IDIOTS.

jputnam

OECD says daytime running lights are effective on cyclists even in the Danish environment where motorists are used to looking for cyclists.

Cycling, Health and Safety | OECD READ edition

The safety effect of daytime running lights on bicycles was tested in a Danish study in 2005 (Madsen 2006). Nearly 2,000 cyclists in the town of Odense used the new induction lights for one year, while 2,000 others continued with ordinary bike lights, which were only switched on during dark hours. The accident frequencies of the two groups (based on self-reported accidents) were then compared and analysed.


The main result was that use of daytime running lights was associated with a reduction of the number of crashes by more than 30%. The number of related crashes (crashes in daylight and with a counterpart) decreased by 50% approximately. Both results are statistically significant.



Note that the lights in the study aren't bright or flashing, they're standard induction-driven commuter lights that stay on the bike and don't need charging. It doesn't really take very much light to add conspicuity, even in daylight.

jputnam

My commuter and touring bikes both use dynamo lighting, so I just leave it turned on all the time, no worry about battery life, and LED life is long enough that I don't worry about it the way I did filament life when my lights were incandescents.

Chris516

How is it on visibility?

I personally don't trust Planet Bike anymore.

ItsJustMe

Maybe. Hard to tell. Here, however, IS a certified idiot passing on a double yellow with oncoming traffic, from last week:

https://youtu.be/zCGBR0zYLHk

dougmc

The Planet Bike Blaze 2w? It's on the high end of "be seen" lights and the low end of "help me see" lights.

I don' t know why you don't trust them, but the quality on this specific light is good -- rugged, good mount, etc. But with only two AAs it can't put out that much light.

Why don't you trust PB? I've had a number of their lights and they've been fine. I'm surprised that they haven't modified the PBSF so the back doesn't pop off while riding and remove the need to tape/zip tie it, but beyond that I've never had any problems with their lights except that they are now "old school" when much brighter lights are out there now.

asmac

New Orleans has winter months? Haven't noticed!

Saving Hawaii

You have to give that guy credit though. While he nearly kills the oncoming driver and himself, he gives you much more than 3 feet.