Hydrated

I see many people posting here with questions about lights and using them to stay safe out on the road. But I think that most of us depend too much on just adding more lights and more powerful lights in the hope that it will make us more visible. More bright blinky stuff on your bike only confuses and distracts drivers instead of helping.

Here's what I did and why:

I started thinking about this subject a few years ago when I had a considerable string of close calls on my commutes. Drivers seemed to be getting too close despite the zillions of blinking flashing lights that I had mounted.

Then I watched a show about search and rescue at sea. It told how survival suits were often tailored with reflective accents that help searchers identify a floating shape as a human. I started thinking about that as it applied to cycling. Specifically how it applied to cycle commuting where traffic is dense and maybe folks aren't paying attention to what's on the road.

I decided to use the mechanics of how human perception works.

First off... get rid of all those blinky things. The human eye has difficulty getting a distance fix on a blinking light. So I put a Planet Bike Superflash on steady mode on the road side chainstay of each of my commuters. That way drivers can easily get a fix on how far away they are from me.

Second... put a single very bright blinker on back to get their attention. The best blinky that I've found is made by Adventurelights and is available from many retailers under many different names. I bought one from RoadID for $18.00 but they are available from Amazon.com for under $12.00 right now. It uses two CR2032 watch batteries and is insanely bright. It is also small enough to clip on nearly anywhere and is waterproof to 300 feet.

Third... use reflective gear to help the human brain instantly identify you as a human. Note the word INSTANTLY. You do not want drivers to have to look at you to see a human shape. Lights are good... but they're just lights. You want drivers to see a human right away... you want their brain to instinctively see a human, not a conglomeration of strange lights. So I wear a reflective vest that highlights the torso. Just look at the kind that road workers and pavers wear... I wear a lightweight version of that. You want one that has reflective strips that go over your torso so that drivers see more than just a reflective stripe.

Lastly... and most importantly... add reflective gear that instantly identifies you as a human on a bicycle. Reflective ankle bands. I feel that these ought to be required equipment for any cyclist riding at night. Drivers see the smooth up and down motion of those ankle bands immediately know that it's a bicycle.

All of these things work together to attract a driver's attention, let the brain quickly and accurately identify you as a human on a bicycle, and to get a range bearing on how far they are from you. And reflective gear does not depend on batteries. I also strongly advise cyclists to buy high quality reflective gear. Some of the stuff on the market is little more than shiny silver paint... look for SOLAS (Safety Of Life At Sea) certified gear when possible.

Since implementing my strategy a few years ago, I have saved a fortune on expensive lights and my near misses have dropped to almost zero. The only close calls I have nowadays are from drivers who want to buzz me because they're jerks.

That's what I did to be seen on the road... now seeing the road is another thread topic!

Burton

All excellent points!
The 'seeing the road' part DOES get a bit more expensive!

rgilliam2004

Thanks for the insight on this. I am planning to start riding at night and this is very helpful

Creakyknees

Agree 100%, I've taken to wearing Illuminite legwarmers at night, and have added reflecto-tape to my wind booties. I also carry an ankle band on the bike at all times in case I get caught out after dark.

For my night jacket I took scissors to a highway safety vest and made a triangle/chevron shape over my rear pockets (lower back) and stripes along each sleeve as well as the front.

Also would add, reflecto-tape between the spokes on the rims (half a wheel only makes for a sort of strobe effect) and across spokes (cheaper, lighter and way brighter than a standard white/yellow wheel reflector.

If you don't have Illuminite pants, you could also scissor up a reflecto vest, and with creative use of velcro and a bit of simple sewing, make some reflective strips for the back of your calves.

Finally, blinkies on the back of my helmet.

vol

I am not sure about this. It seems to me sometimes it may be better (or at least does no harm) if the drivers thought I was a moving vehicle from my lights, than if they knew I was a cyclist with reflective body profile. Almost all drivers would try to avoid hitting another vehicle to injure themselves, but not all of them would try (at least not as much) to avoid hitting a cyclist. So, for example, if a driver knew you're a bike, he may still squeeze past you or even swipe you, but not if he thought you were a car.

Comments?

(Keep in mind I am in NYC with more crazy people than elsewhere)

Xeccon

The real question is, do the reckless minority, distracted or drunk really care if they recognize a human form? What steers most people from doing stupid things on the road is being charged for culpable driving. A "responsible cyclist" who has done all he can to make himself visible on the road who still get hit by a car is not going to go down too well for the driver. This is the best safeguard IMO. Being responsible in this instance means using a combination of bright front and rear lights but angled down to avoid blinding drivers and wearing visible reflective clothing. Drivers will probably see your rear blinkie and reflective strips with their car lights if they are behind you but may not as they are just turning into a road you're on, so a mix of active and passive lighting is best.

. Point addressed.

Not sure if drivers want to intentionally hit cyclist. Drivers with those attitudes should have their lawyer on speed dial.

ItsJustMe

There was a comment here years ago about a guy who put a small LED with a wide dispersion on his rear rack pointing up at his back. This illuminates his body so that he's clearly a human. He said it helped, though of course few of us are going to run scientific studies (if that's even possible).

zebede

The larger part of safety psychology is controlling your own behavior.

-Route selection to minimize hazards
-Travel timing
-Recognizing the types of hazards unique to bicycling and avoiding or addressing those specifically.

I ride in the dark (morning) every work day of the year and "feel" safer than on the same routes during daylight hours.
- Be willing to take a longer route for safety
- Be willing to leave earlier to avoid "rush hour" In my case 15 minute departure time makes a BIG difference in the number of cars on the street.
- Be seen by contrasting with the background, attracting the eye.


I frequently ride with recumbent riders and always feel much safer. These bikes are rarely seen and seem to attract the focus of drivers. They receive a wider berth and road respect . Drivers more frequently seem to discount or not focus on traditional bicyclists. I think a drivers sees an unusual shape of the recumbent in his field of view and wonders "What the heck is that?". Creating the focus. This psychology is somewhat at odds with that state by the OP where he wants to create quick recognition.

BykOfALesserGod

All most of us have to do is observe what catches our attention when we are the ones driving at dusk/dawn/night and apply those observations to our riding plan.

My observations as someone who drives 100 miles a day an rides about 100 a week.

A bicycle light due to its smaller size, needs a way to stand out among the sea of other lights. Rear: A really bright flasher with a unique pattern that doesn't mimic turn signals. In front, another flasher in addition to the headlight.

Reflective surfaces on MOVING parts do a better job drawing attention. Reflectorize those pedals/cranks/rims/ the ankles/the rider itself.

Vehicular cycling makes you predictable, but be aware that in the end, tonnage trumps all. It doesn't matter a whit if you are proven right while you're 6 feet underground or in a wheelchair for life. Just like in regular driving, know when you have right of way but never insist on it if it isn't safe to do so.

In rural areas in the early evening/late afternoon, be very careful when the sun is low in the sky and you are heading WEST towards it. You can get lost in the glare as it can drown out even cars' lights.

The best response to harassment is a wave and a smile. Don't let them ruin your day.

just2wheels

....And pray that the drivers didn't drink. cuz if they did, well, one could be glo-in-the-dark and it still won't help.

rumrunn6

don't understand how 1 and 2 make sense together but I agree with the base statements about adding reflectivity that accentuates the human form

prathmann

I'm certainly not opposed to having a variety of reflective gear to aid your visibility (and have added quite a bit to both my bikes and my cycling clothing), but it seems to me the situation with S&R at sea is fundamentally different from cyclist safety.

In the S&R situation, the searchers are looking for the one human among a variety of possible objects (floating debris, reflections from breaking waves, etc.) in the area. Therefore it's critical that the person in the water stand out specifically as human. OTOH, drivers are looking at a variety of things on the road that they should avoid - other motor vehicles, pedestrians, cyclists, construction zones, debris, etc. I don't really care when they see my blinking light if they think that I'm a cyclist or a bridge abutment as long as they steer to avoid hitting me.

So I view the 'bright blinking light' that the OP recommends as particularly important since it's frequently the first thing that will be noticed and disagree with the recommendation to have only one. There's always a chance that a single light will fail (bad battery, poor contact, failure of the waterproofing, electronics fail, mounting breaks, etc.) and since it's behind you there's a good chance you won't even notice the failure for some time. So redundancy by having a second blinking light is a good thing to have and doesn't have to cost much.

Hydrated

Number 1 and 2 go together for a very particular reason, and it has to do with driving and the way that the human brain works. When I was learning to fly a plane many years ago, my instructor warned me to be careful when observing objects on the horizon because people tend to steer toward an object that they're looking at. And it works for drivers too.

I used to have several strobing blinkies on my bike... I thought that more is always better. But I observed something strange about many of the cars that passed me. They often drifted toward the white line some distance up the road from me. I suspect that they were very curious about that mass of flashing attention-getting lights... and they were looking at me intently. That's why I minimize the blinking lights. I use one to get their attention... and I also have a second light lit solid so that they can get a distance fix on me. But having too many lights blinking seems to get sort of too much attention. My theory is that I use enough to catch the eye... but not enough to hold it.

And someone made a great point as to WHEN you commute. I avoid riding in the heat of rush hour. It's just human nature... when you're getting close to being late to work, you stress out and get enraged at anything that holds you up for even a second. I find that by simply leaving my house so that I get through the heavier traffic areas 30 minutes BEFORE the stressed out drivers, I avoid most of the aggressive driving threat.

And some of you seem to be very very cynical about drivers not caring if they hit a cyclist. I'm not that cynical. I find that if I ride predictably and courteously and make myself seen, that almost all drivers are fine with the fact that I'm sharing "their" road. And there's almost nothing you can do about drunks or incompetents behind the wheel. A good friend of mine was recently hit by a 90 year old man who didn't even stop because he didn't know that he'd hit anyone. (And yes... my friend is recovering and will be back on the bike soon.)

And lastly, I live in a rural area and do most of my riding on dark country roads. So I don't have to deal with a "sea of lights" drowning me out. I'm sure that you city dwellers have a different type of wildlife to deal with.

prathmann

I've frequently observed the same phenomenon and I've also seen it mentioned on other bicycling discussion sites. Frequently drivers will even go quite a ways onto the shoulder immediately after passing a cyclist. But my observations and those of others were made while riding in broad daylight without any lights at all nor were we doing anything that was particularly "attention-getting." My hypothesis is that drivers frequently feel that the cyclist was in their way and that they had to move way over to pass them when actually they hardly moved over at all. Then after the pass they make an exaggerated move back to the right. Jobst Brandt's view in one of the discussions was that it was done to intimidate cyclists by showing how easily the car could have hit them. Your comment is the first I've seen suggesting that this happens because the cyclist was in some way too "attention-getting."

Hydrated

We're probably all a little bit right about the reason that drivers drift toward the white line.

But I remember a trick that my father taught me while teaching me to ride a motorcycle: If you want to avoid hitting an approaching pothole... look to the side of it. If you're looking AT it, you'll probably hit it.

I suspect that too many strange lights on my bike means that drivers are looking at me.

But you know what? I may be wrong.

rumrunn6

makes sense. at 1st I thought you were saying no blinker then you used a blinker, but I get where you are coming from :-) also being in a rural area is very different than where I have commuted where I found adding a strobe to my left drop bar as kept drivers away and added a few inches of courtesy room. so I use 2, 1 on my rear rack and the other on muy left drop bar. I always commuted off hours going in extra early and leaving at 4 instead of 5.

Hydrated

Now that's a good idea. And you added the second blinker to get a specific result. I like that.

rumrunn6

yeah I found I was getting courtesy room but then the drivers seemed to eager to move back right in front of me. The drop bar strobe is a kind of marker letting them know that they haven't cleared me yet and need to wait another second before moving right. I noticed a significant inprovement. I use them both day or night. The thought occured to me that maybe I only need the one on my drop bar but I haven't let go of the rack light yet. I think for my area maybe having both is a good idea. Especialy going through rotaries ... :/

01 CAt Man Do

More is better but everything has it's limits. Unlike you I don't believe the added attention it brings is a negative. Like most cyclist I've always used the best rear blinkie I could afford. For me the new generation of 2W rear lights work very well and are very visible. I also use a limited amount of passive ( reflective ) lighting and clothing with reflective piping. All of this works very well and I have plans to add better/brighter passive stuff to both my bike and my clothing.

All this said, I really noticed a big change in the behavior of the vehicular traffic around me when I added a set of inexpensive wheel lights to my bike. The ones I use are the "Rimfire" wheel lights. Basically they are just three leds per wheel that attach to the spokes from a central hub. I think the cost was something like $14 per wheel but they may cost a little more now. I bought mine on e-bay via Amazon.
They run off of three AA cells per wheel. One blue, green and red led per wheel with each unit having about 10 different kinds of flash or steady mode patterns. Not as fancy as the monkeylites but when moving effect is still rather cool. Yeah, they're cheap Chinese made crap but Whoa! the reaction I get on the road is undeniable. So far mine have worked without problem and if you don't like having multi-colored leds you can buy replacements in different colors from the website. I've been thinking about going all amber but the ones I have right now are fine.

I only mention this because it has a lot to do with the subject of the OP. ...ie...what the brain perceives. When the eyes see flashing lights going in a circle the brain quickly knows that only wheels go in circles and that two wheels mean a bike. I've had cars wait at green lights simply because they wanted to see what the hell it was approaching the intersection. This type of thing doesn't bother me. It may seem like overkill to some but I'd rather be noticed and alive then roadkill on the side of the road. Now if someone swerves ahead of me across the white line in an attempt to gawk I'm not going to worry about it as long as they are WAY ahead of me.

BTW, very good thread and very good comments by all. I have a similar thread going over on MTBR.

vol

I once used a light that was a bit unusual, and as I was slowing down near a traffic light, all of a sudden a car sneaked next to me really really close--too close--from behind, like from nowhere, lingered for a few seconds next to me (like rubbing my shoulder), then drove away. I can't think of any other reason than that someone on the car wanted to have a close look at my light. But that was too close, not a good thing.

cyccommute 

Another area where the sea search and rescue fails is that the rescue team is trying to spot a small light or a small amount of reflection in an ocean of darkness. It may not be that easy but once spotted, the person to be rescue probably isn't easily lost. We bicyclists, on the other hand, are trying to be seen in an ocean of light. One tiny blinky has very little chance of being seen against a background of a thousand different light sources. Reducing the number of light sources you have on the bicycle doesn't help you be seen against that background.

While I agree that you should have one steady light so that a driver has some reference, having multiple blinking lights grabs the drivers attention and draws their eye to that steady light. But you are riding in a rural situation. The lights needed for riding there are different from the lights needed in a high density urban setting.

For urban riding, you need far more light and much more intense lights for the reasons detail above.

Your analogy to flying an airplane doesn't work that well either. In an airplane you have a dimension...vertical...that drivers don't have to deal with. We aren't moths that navigate by a light source and spiral in to our doom. Drivers don't...or at least shouldn't or should be trained not to...steer towards objects that they are looking at. We are specifically trained to either not look at things coming at us or to avoid driving towards what we are looking at. If we didn't, there would be far more collisions than there are now.

daa

Below is an interesting article about the subject:

Cyclist visibility at night: Do perceptions match reality?
https://aushiker.com/cyclist-visibili...match-reality/

Hendricks97

I was running 2 blinkies on the back of my bike (both sides near the top of the wheel) and another one on my back when I was nailed from behind. The driver told the cops he didnt know I was there until I hit his windshield. All 3 lights were bright red and blinking, it was 6:45 am (still dark) and I was in the middle of the lane on a straight, flat road and I had plenty of reflective and bright clothing.
Sometimes it doesnt matter what you do, it all depends on where the drivers attention is focused.

daa

I'm fed up with those excuses. If a driver cannot see a cyclist on a road he or she should be considered impaired and shouldn't be allowed to drive.

Garfield Cat

Neuroscience will help here.