Squeezebox

I've been trying to remember to turn on my blinky lights when I ride during the day. I'm wondering if at night the blinky is too distracting for car drivers. Yes, I do have ADD. So should I switch to constant light at night?
Any opinions?

corrado33

Yes, constant at night, blinky during the day.

Blinking lights make it hard for cars to judge distance at night.

Even better is one solid and one blinky at night.

imi

^ +1

10 Wheels

Doesn't matter.

Car drivers are Not Able to Judge The Distance of bicycles or Motor Cycles.

Get their attention with a Strobe Light.

bikenh

I don't turn the light on during the day since until you are close to make any kind of move you won't see the light in the first place. Try it sometime you will be amazed at how close you have to be to the cyclist during broad daylight to see the light. During the night I use both blinky mode on the front and the back.

bobwysiwyg

This hasn't been my experience with blinking lights during daylight.

bikenh

Go out and have a friend ride your bike on a nice sunny day and go follow them in a car and see how far back you can be and still see the light blinking. It isn't very far. The brighter the sun the closer you have to be. I ride behind two guys who have the lights on every day when they go out and ride and I have to be close to them to ever be able to see the light. I can the rider himself long before I could ever see his blinker light during the daytime.

You're far better off having bright clothing on as it's a much bigger target than the small blinky light and it won't get 'glared' out by the bright sun.

bobwysiwyg

Actually, had my wife do just this check last summer in the U.P. She felt more comfortable about my riding roads up there. I also always wear as highly visible clothing, etc. as possible. My personal riding philosophy is make myself as visible as possible and still ride as though they (auto drivers) still don't see me.. or care.

Raiden

For night riding, I think single lights on constant are a bad idea; I think they blend into all of the other lights (they can look like distant car lights or background decorative lighting). But you will want a big light on the front to light up the road. So my solution is a big headlight on front to see the road with (300+ lumens, but as you get to 1000 or so it becomes blinding)(bonus: helmet-mount it so people see you moving it around, or so you can direct it) , a secondary cheap blinking headlight to grab attention, and at least one blinking taillight (something like a Superflash or Cherry Bomb).

Though if you want to split the difference, some companies made taillights that pulse. My Light & Motion Vis 180 is great for group rides, because the pulse is bright, but isn't aggravating on the eyes of people behind me.

If you really have trouble remembering to turn on lights, there are small automatic lights like Cateye's Refex series for your front and rear flashers, and then get a hub dynamo and headlight for your bigger front beam.

Or get a front a rear set that mounts to your helmet (like the Light and Motion Vis 360) and set it up in such a way that you'll remember to turn the light on when you put your helmet on.

For day riding, I don't feel that steady lights do anything much at all. A very bright headlight and/or taillight set to flash is nice if you're riding on long highway style roads, but for most urban/suburban riding you'll probably usually be close/slow enough that they'll be able to see you already.

mstateglfr 

No idea what your almost assuredly self diagnosis has to do with anything here, but i keep my rear light solid at night most of the time.
When i had a different rear light i had it on flash mode because it was a slow flash. The fast flash mode is irritating to me, id imagine its brutal for others around me.

FBinNY 

IMO and FWIW, lit taillights are pretty much useless during the daytime. However a blinky that's pretty bright might get some attention, and may help.

Raiden

Eh, it's all just opinion. I do agree that some flashing lights are annoying. But I feel that solid small lights (red or white) get lost in the background/clutter in an urban or suburban environment. A single small blinking light pretty exclusively says 'hey I'm a bicycle'. It also saves on battery life. If you feel the light is assaulting others' eyes, point it down at the ground slightly. Or again, check out lights that pulse instead of blink.

Forgetting lights during the day? Don't lose any sleep over it.

bikenh

Gotta agree with Raiden. Why do you want to look like a car or motorcycle. The blinking lights says, "I'm not normal, I'm not a normal vehicle, pay attention idiot." It's why I use it on both the front and rear. I was surprised how well my Niterider 750 doesn't annoy the living crap out of me when it's on blinking mode during the night last summer when I did a full overnight ride between NW LA and SW AR. I was able to see the road fine and the battery lasted all night long. On steady mode I wouldn't have had the light during the latter part of the night since the battery would have run dead. The blinking mode helps to even attract the attention of the drivers from the rear. I had lost the battery door and the batteries out of my taillight shortly after I left for the ride. It was already completely dark by the time I lost the door/batteries so I knew trying to go back and find it wasn't going to be worth it so I just kept riding until I got to the next Walmart around 1AM. I had plenty of drivers come up from behind me and all of them gave me ample room. I think they were seeing the headlight flashing/reflecting on the road signs. I know the reflecting off the road signs in front of you can definitely draw attention, it does to me. A steady light on the signs won't be noticed by the drivers but when the sign is flashing at them, flashing from you headlight lighting it up, it will draw attention.

My biggest problem over the years has been the lack of any decent quality taillights. I haven't seen one yet I would give a passing grade to. I been through so many darn taillights it's incredible. Either I've lost them off the bike due to a piss poor mounting system. I've lost battery doors off them. I've had them quit working for me because water from the rear tire got splashed up into the on/off switch and shorted it out. The list goes on. I've had 5 or 6 of them and none of them have passed my muster test as of yet. Now all the stupid new lights they are bringing out either uses watch batteries or you have to recharge them with a USB plug. What if I'm not around a USB port...stupid morons. Just give me a decent AA or AAA battery taillight with decent battery life(60-80 hours), a mounting system that will stay on the bike and not fall off with a battery door that will stay on and has decent water protection and I would buy it. Nothing like that is on the market...at least nothing I have seen thus far.

fietsbob

You can determine where a thing is and how far away it is easier if its not flashing.

My Dynamo powered light is fine, here is the Battery Version.. Busch & Müller: TOPLIGHT Line

the line width also helps rangefinding.

Bicycle365

Need a better light then , ¼ to ½ mile EASILY with a Planet Bike Turbo Flash (even with 1.2v ReChargable NiMH in place of 1.5v Alkaline)

T Stew

On a bright day most bike tailights are of little use. Brake lights on some cars are hard enough to see. But I use them if it is very overcast/foggy/stormy kind of day, then they are not drowned out so bad by the millions of lumens of natural daylight in your vision. I don't worry about how annoying blinky modes are, I've never had another cyclist within proximity to care. And for vehicles a little annoying is probably good. it's not like a bike light or two or three is anywhere near the level of a cop car, ambulance, fire truck, rescue vehicle, snow plow, etc, in terms of annoying.

merziac

If the bike is moving the lights are on = common sense, not going to blend in more with them on and increases the other persons liability when things go wrong.

DCwom

We're (tandem) using the brightest AAA flashing lights I can find both front & back for daytime use, in full sun they can be seen, but so can the bright day-glow tops that my stoker wears. While full sun reduces the effectiveness, I think the lights are useful for passing tree, & building shadows and cloudy days. As for distracting driver, yes I want them distracted by me!

stevepusser

Blinking tail lights did nothing for these poor cyclists: Deadly Camp Pendleton Bus Crash Investigation Revealed | NBC 7 San Diego

Obviously the bus driver was using a cell phone, lied about the collision, and the bus company tried to cover up his mistakes to avoid liability. One might argue that perhaps the lights might have given the cyclists a false sense of security, but actually on that stretch of road, if you see the telltale video and stills, they could have done nothing except dive over the guardrail to avoid being hit. That route is full of cyclists; how the driver didn't keep watch is beyond me.

That stretch of road is actually on the ACA Pacific Coast route through Camp Pendleton. The alternative (legal) is seven miles on the wide shoulder of busy Interstate 5, but I'll bet many more cyclists have been killed and injured on the surface route than on the freeway shoulder. (If you can do I-5 on a summer weekend, usually it jams up through there, and a bike can keep up with or pass the auto traffic )


There was a SD Reader cover story about the cyclist that was killed; in response to questions raised in letters, the author stated:






Maryann Burke Castronovo · Works at Writer - www.raisingmommy.com

Quote:

Dear All – Thank you for sending in your letters in response to "Udo Was Gone."

I was given permission by Udo’s wife, Antje Heinz, to write her very personal story about her husband Udo so that I could honor him, and bring more awareness about sharing the road to hopefully protect cyclists. I was not, however, given the permission to write about the details that are/were included in the pending Civil and Federal litigations..

The story was about Udo, and what happened to their family after he was tragically killed.

It was not about the bus driver, Gamal Mohamed Hamouda.

Nevertheless, I will answer your questions to the best of my knowledge here: Did he kill those people deliberately? I don’t know if Mr. Hamouda killed Udo on purpose. Only he does. Was he texting or otherwise distracted? That is part of the Civil case that I was not given the right to discuss (nor was NBC 7) or write about. Was he arrested, imprisoned, or deported? At the Federal hearing, I learned that Mr. Hamouda was not arrested, not imprisoned, and not deported. Before the hearing, he had lost his job. Did he at least lose his license? No. It was brought to the attention of the judge that he had a citation in February but even then his license was not taken away. Is he now in federal prison? No, he is at home serving a 6-month home detention. Is he still driving a bus? No. Driving anything? Yes, a car. Did he see the cyclists? I do not know and I’m sure Mr. Hamouda’s lawyer would like him to not say if he did or didn’t.

I hope this helps.

Unfortunately, even after learning all of this information about the bus driver, Udo Heinz is still gone, Antje is still left living the rest of her life without her beloved husband, and their two children are still growing up without an amazing father.

Respectfully,
Maryann Castronovo

At least one case has been settled, I haven't been able to find out if the video was ever released. As usual, one of the letters to the Reader said those riders were asking to be hit by riding on a highway, "all hunched over with the silly helmets."

enigmaT120

Mine, either. I've been driving and spotted a Planet Bike Superflash (obviously I didn't know the brand until I caught up with the rider) from at least a half mile down the road, driving into a morning sunrise. I saw that light way before I could see what it was attached to, and before I could have seen hi-viz gear.

My rear blinkies are brighter than a Superflash. There aren't any guarantees but they help the odds of being noticed.

bikenh

Not sure of the Superflash but the taillight that I shorted out the on/off switch was a Blinky 7. That was the same light I stopped and picked up for a friend of mine when it came flying off his bike on rough pavement. Don't trust the belt clip mounts, they suck...you shouldn't have to wrap them with a rubber band or anything else to keep the light on the bike. The design should be such that it will stay on the bike using only the method that is provide by the manufacturer of the light. Otherwise the model doesn't get a passing grade from me. I can definitely say the Blinky 7 gets multiple F's, and that is for failure.