Originally Posted by
cehowardGS
From my limited experience on the bicycle, I see that BEING SEEN, SHOULD, not saying I am correct, but BEING SEEN should be priority one for the bicycle rider!
safety is the most important thing. that means not getting hurt and not hurting others.
being seen is part of being safe, as is self-education, paying attention, keeping your bike in good repair, knowing the limits of yourself and your bike, riding smart, etc.
being seen is just a piece of the puzzle.
Originally Posted by
cehowardGS
IMO, I like to see some stats on bicycles with bright lights causing hazards/accidents/deaths!!
i'm not aware of any documented cases of injuries or fatalities, but as LED technology keeps getting brighter and cheaper i'm sure it's only a matter of time. as noted earlier in the thread (and elsewhere on the site) some motorists respond to bright bike lights the same as they respond to an oncoming car with the high-beams on: they flash their high-beams! that means they have no idea if you've got a car or truck with a headlight out, a bicycle or motorcycle, or a UFO... all they care about is that you're shining too much light at their face! that's how oncoming traffic asks you to turn it down a notch. there doesn't have to be a fatality for me to understand that that has already exceeded the amount of light that is safe and reasonable to use when there's other traffic on the road.
with your blaze-2W (about 80 lumens, very tight beam) you WON'T get oncoming traffic flashing their high-beams at you. you might piss someone off if you stop directly behind them, and shine that "super flash" strobe directly into their rear-view mirror. i've got a blaze-2W (flashing) and a light-star-300 (steady) on my handlebars, and when i stop behind cagers (in small cars) i turn my wheel to the side: i would NOT want those lights pointing directly at MY rear view mirror!
what i can document with ease, unfortunately, are bicyclists who are killed while riding with no lights. that's too common. FSM only knows how many bicyclists are killed because they used weak "blinkies" (with weak batteries) instead of
reasonably bright lights: when they're killed, the police reports tend to not comment on what lights were used, if the batteries were charged, were the lights clearly visible to others... they just (usually) report "yes or no" if the bike had lights, and if any witnesses commented on noticing the lights or the absence of lights.