squirtdad

I use a flashing front lite...both during the day and at night (along with a steady beam light at nite)

Simple reason..... I am more noticable to drivers. I based this on watching other cyclists. Anything the raises motorists awareness of me makes me safer.

njkayaker

If it isn't moving, it isn't classified as "movement".

Things that change tend to be more noticeable.

Small steady lights can often get lost in the background (that is, they can be harder to see/notice among other light sources).

Flashing also allows lights to be brighter for a reasonable amount of power usage.

AdamDZ

In total darkness I run with steady lights, because I use them to illuminate the road as well. I only use blinking lights in bad weather when I only need "see me" lights.

slcbob

I see some flashing headlights on my dark MUP. I don't know how they do it, it would have me looking for a stick to put between my teeth to stop from swallowing my tongue in the seizure it would induce after a short while.

Absolutely better for being seen, I agree with the many posters. Worse for seeing, and unacceptable to me for sanity in my otherwise fairly dark commute.

In daylight, or in a pretty well lit city at night, the be-seen aspect might win out. I have a headlight modulator on my motorcycle for just that reason -- that enormous Gold Wing is a hell of a lot easier to spot than a bicycle but drivers still look through me and my hi-viz jacket unless I run with the modulator on, which I do whenever I'm in the city with cross-traffic.

Kojak

Always flashing unless there isn't enough ambient light to see. In town where there are a lot of headlamps and streetlights that are "on", a bright flashing light stands out. I want to be as visible as possible to minimize the possibility that someone will turn our pull out in front of me.

SkippyX

A lucid explanation. thank you!

I thought it was perceived as movement by the brain - but the change thing makes sense as well.

All I'm really worried about at the end of the day is people driving cars noticing me before pulling out/turning right in front of me.

Jseis 

True, true. The gal I train with always wants me in back 'cause I've got the big bright light. There are benefits.

hilltowner

Speaking from experience. Once I was pulling out of a side street (driving a car) onto a fairly well-lit city street. The cyclist who was approaching was invisible to me. Perhaps the headlight he/she was running had lined itself up with one of the headlights of the cars that were approaching from farther back. I don't know. All I do know is that I pulled out and heard a distinctly angry yell and only then did I see the light(s) on the bike. None were blinking. I think I would have noticed a blinky amongst all of the background (steady) lights much more readily.

cehowardGS

The lighting requirments for an MUP opposed to street and traffic riding are like night and day. What I run on the street, I would no way run on an MUP.. Visa versa too.

CommuterRun

I don't feel that a flashing headlight does me any good at night or during daylight under sunny conditions. Sunny conditions I run no lights at all. I only run a flashing headlight in daylight under overcast, foggy, rainy conditions; when the light is low. At these times I also run a flashing taillight.

In the dark, which is every day that I commute to work, I typically run a helmet mounted headlight, handlebar mounted headlight, helmet mounted taillight and two bike mounted taillights, when I'm not pulling a trailer.

For the rural highway conditions that I ride, I think that the flashing daytime headlight helps in preventing oncoming traffic from attempting to pass as they are approaching me. Because the flashing white light grabs their attention and makes them notice me earlier and from further away.

cehowardGS

Okay, everybody is talking about lights, might as well show some of mine. I always run DOUBLE up front, and one on my helmet..

My setup varies as I have 9 bikes. All setup with light mounts..

Here is one of my setups.. That big boy with the 3 cree on the bike on the left is a killer, on steady or blinky.. all of these are 26650 lights.




Then I go heavy on the helmet too..Another 26650,



Plus, on the rear of the helmet and bike, I either have a PBSF or a clone of the PBSF.

Let me tell you, when I come down the road with those front burners on, I get RESPECT. They don't turn in front of me, and they don't pull out in front of me..

consumes

i scored 3 Techlite Lumen master flashlights at Costco awhile back .... 3 settings in one .. flash, 50% and 100% ...

i use the flash in town where the lighting is good and the regular flashlight on darker trails

K'Tesh

^
^
^ What he said...

bragi

Chris_in_Miami

I run my light on flash mode most of the time, unless it's completely dark, or I'm on a group ride. I mostly ride in an urban environment, and I find that a bright flasher really gets attention because it lights up reflective signs and other objects well ahead of me.

In my opinion, the "WTF effect" of dozens of flashing street signs forces motorists to pay attention to their surroundings just a bit more than they otherwise would.

Leebo

I think the illegal part of flashing lights has to do with the color, no flashing blue lights. MA law calls for a steady or blinking white light on the front of the bike at night.

cehowardGS

Ya Da Man!!

cellery

Flashing lights draw peoples' attention. However, this decreases the apparent movement and depth perception of the target on short time-scales of a few seconds; it's difficult for drivers to lock-in on how fast a flashing light is moving. Therefore, use a flasher and a solid at the same time ya big dummy!

cellery

Word, dawg. Brightness up top was the best safety decision I ever made on a bike. Actually I think I made the decision while lying down, in a hospital bed after a car pulled out in front of me. But you get the idea.

linus

How can you use the cup holder?

njkayaker

I think this issue is way over rated.

The first requirement is to be noticed. The farther away you are noticed, the better.

By the time the distance is near enough that the driver needs to estimate where you are, the car head lights should be enough.

K'Tesh

Like this...

Sixty Fiver

I am the rider on the right hand side... light you see is a 300 lumen LED on steady mode and it is paired with a 10 watt halogen which was turned off. With the Halogen as my light to see with, my LED light becomes my flasher and find it is very effective during the daytime as it can be seen from a considerable distance and am sure it has saved me from becoming road kill when I am passing through intersections.

It also throws enough light to see by and has a longer run time than the Halogen which is of equal brightness although it throws a more balanced light... you do not want to be looking directly into either one of them.

Giro

This is unfortunately not true. I think this low percentage number keeps getting repeated because the NHTSA FARS (Fatality Analysis Reporting System) data records the crashes from the perspective of the motor vehicle, not the bicycle. Not surprisingly, the front of the motorvehicle is usually what crashes into and kills the bicyclist. The labeling on their table does not make this clear. Only if you read their manuals do you see what this data field really represents (the illustration at the top right is a motorcyclist, not a bicyclist):


Starting in 2010, the FARS data added the PBCAT (Pedestrian and Bicyclist Crash Analysis Tool) data which reveals the crash type. You can do these tabulations on NHTSA's site. I just did this and the results are:

As you can see, the yellow highlighted four types of Motorist Overtaking Bicyclist total 43+21+14+77= 155 of 626 fatalities
155 / 626 = 24.76% of all bicyclist fatalities in 2010.

The relative proportion of different crash types is also dependent on where you are biking. For example, the North Carolina data show an increasing proportion of motorist overtaking bicyclist crashes in both urban and rural settings. In rural settings the most recent years show about 1/3 of rural crashes were motorist overtaking bicyclist:

With Motorist Overtaking Bicyclist crashes increasing to over 35% of rural crashes, cyclists in rural environments might consider keeping an eye & ear out to the rear, choose their route carefully, and take steps to increase their conspicuity from the rear.

The frequency of fatal motorist overtaking bicyclist is not a new phenomena. The often cited major US study is Bicycle and Pedestrian Crash Types of the Early 1990's (FHWA-RD-95-163, all 9 MB of it available online). Of their 85 crash types, 5 (6 including "Type unknown") are in the "Class D: Motorist overtaking bicyclist". They compared their data to the 1977 Cross and Fisher study and for this class of crashes:

1977 study, Total Fatal=166 of which 37.8% were motorist overtaking, Total Nonfatal=753 of which 10.5% were overtaking
1990's study, Total Fatal=41 of which 29.3% were motorist overtaking, Total Nonfatal=2453 of which 9.8% were overtaking.

As you can see from the above proportions of fatal vs nonfatal, you are absolutely correct that these motorist overtaking crashes are indeed "devastating".

Big Lebowski

I too am looking into a light for the front. I don't understand the issue for using flash-mode on MUP. I've only been doing this a few weeks and I have had people walking or jogging coming at me with heads-down, texting, earbuds in, etc. I'm not going that fast, so it's not like I am going to collide with them, but I have occasionally surprised people and I think a blinking or flash mode would help.

I ride at dawn, so I'm not needing it for vision. That will change when the days shorten. I'd need steady mode then to see.