Originally Posted by
01 CAt Man Do
Paul while I disagree with you to some extent I don't think you are entirely wrong. Police lights ARE freggingly bright. That said they need to be freggingly bright. I don't think I need to explain why. The intent is not to be "obnoxious" but to draw attention, day or night. While there are some very bright rear bike lights I don't think I've ever seen any that come close to the output of the more modern police roof light bars.
I agree with you before the last sentence, but that's what I'm saying - if your rear lights are the same level of light output and flashing that police lights are, you're far bright and more obnoxious than regular cars on the road are allowed to be.
Originally Posted by
01 CAt Man Do
Your statement about being 100% safe I find very odd coming from a cyclist. As for myself, being a person who drives at night for a living I've seen many a cyclist at night riding in various conditions ( urban vs. rural ). While I've seen a bright rear light on a bike a time or two I've never seen anything that would of produced from me an "OMG what an annoyingly bright light!" response. Matter of fact, usually the response I've given to the typical rear lights on a bike I see is something like, "What a weak-ass light that is"! or, "Hey buddy, you want to put some new batteries in that thing and then aim it right". So odd is it to see a good bright rear light on a bike that when I do see one I almost want to wind the window down and give the guy a "thumbs up" and then pat him/her on the back and say, "Job well done".
I agree that I don't see a lot more to-weak rear lights on the road than I do to-bright rear lights. I don't think that's justification to promote that we need more to-bright rear lights.
I do see a fair number of to-bright front lights on the road though. Not a huge number, but I see a couple on a regular basis. But - at least with front lights they're not pointed backwards into the face of the person behind you.
Originally Posted by
01 CAt Man Do
As for being 100% safe... Nobody is 100% safe. Doesn't matter if you're a cyclist or a motorist. The police used to use a single bubble light on top of their cars ( back in the 60's ) Apparently that was deemed "inadequate" by the powers that be, hence the newer brighter light bars. Apparently the newer, brighter lights are working for the police. If brighter lights are better for them I see no reason not to believe brighter lights ( up to a point ) are not better for cyclists.
It is illegal for regular cars to have police-style or level lights on them. It is evidentally believed that if everyone had bright flashing light on their cars, that this would be unsafe and bad for everyone on the road.
You are arguing that bikes should be able to have more lighting than cars are allowed to have. You're arguing that because you're on a bike, you should have the same level of visibility that vehicles trying to save people's lives, or who have the right to shoot at you should have.
You have someone claim that bike lights are "nowhere near" car lights in brightness, then immediately claim that emergency vehicles have brighter lights so it should be fine for bikes to have the same level of lights. Those both obviously cannot be true. Take a look at my screenshot from my previous post - a dinotte rear light is pretty obviously brighter than a car tail light, and it also has a more distracting flashing pattern.
I guess no - I do not believe that bikes should have to same level of light output and attention getting that's needed for emergency vehicles pursuing pursuing shooting suspects, or rushing a shooting victim to the hospital where seconds count in whether they live or die.
Originally Posted by
01 CAt Man Do
While riding my bike at night I want to as safe as possible. To make that possible I use an assortment of lights ( front and rear ) as well as reflectors/reflective material to help make myself visible to others. Not much more I can do along those lines to increase my safety. At this point with two rear lights and two front lights along with some cheap wheel lights, I've pretty much maxed out the "Being visible" issue. Anything else I do with lights is likely only going to produce diminished returns. That doesn't mean though that I might not want a "better quality" lamp to replace ones that I already have. The issue now for me is not, MORE LIGHT but, BETTER LAMPS....smaller footprint....lighter weight....longer run time with an acceptable output...etc.
All that said, the DiNotte quad rear looks to be acceptably bright with the added ability of having more side illumination. Bright, small, long running lamp of high quality. Yep, one of those could easily replace one of my current lamps without a doubt ( if I had the money ).
I agree with most of your post, except for the mention of "smaller footprint".
The smaller the light source, the brighter and more distracting it is to the eye with the same lumen output. A light can be more visible and put out more light without being an eyesore if it does so over a bigger surface area. A tiny bright light is worse on the eyes than a larger bright light of the same output.
I definitely don't think anything I wrote disagrees with what you're saying about wanting lights that are higher quality, or...most of what the rest of what you wrote.