Originally Posted by
ItsJustMe
OK, the place I work is moving though my department won't be moving for another year so I have time to plan. However, they're moving to a place where from what I can tell, the drivers are seriously horrible. It's only 12 miles away from here, where I have no trouble, but it's got me worried. Three cyclists have been killed in the last year within 2 miles of the place, and a friend who lives nearby says she's jogged on those roads and she runs in foot high grass because all the drivers are staring at their phones all the time and weaving all over the road and into the gravel.....
....So I'm thinking I need to have a ludicrious amount of taillight.
...I'm going to need this day and night.
...What do people who live where they have no choice but to ride on 2 lane roads with no shoulders, no bike lanes or paths, and highly distracted drivers do?
All this sounds very much like the dilemma I would face if I decided to commute to work by bike. In my case I would have to ride the last 2.5 miles on an old 4-lane trucking route which has almost no shoulders. Making matters worse the typical speed for any vehicle is about 45-50mph ( even though the speed limit is 40mph ). It is also very hilly. Not the kind of thing you would want to deal with on a warm summer day as you approach the end of a ride.
Since you mentioned needing this for daytime as well I'm going to address the daytime issue mostly.
Seeker333 has it right. The brightest ( yellow or orange ) jersey you can find will help the most. I'm really not sure there is a rear bike lamp that is going to make that much of a difference during the day but that depends on the road, speed limit and the typical lines of sight.
The brightest lamps I've seen during the day are on either Police or tow trucks. The thing is, the basic reason those are so visible is because they use many lamps and most of those are mounted high enough to be viewed over most of the vehicles on the road. You can mount a light to your helmet but since your head moves the light will not be centered to the rear at all times. Regardless, it would still be worth a try. Heck, for that matter I'd consider using one of my Gloworm X2's ( pointed to the rear ) and using the beacon mode. Yeah, it's going to be 1500 lumen of flashing white light but on a dangerous road in the daytime...WITH NO SHOULDER AND VEHICLES ZOOMING BY AT 50+mPH....I would consider it. Now if you don't like the idea of a bright white rear light than maybe one of the DiNotte daytime Amber lights ( pointed backward ) or the Daytime Red. Even so, most white flashing lamps are going to be brighter. ( *Please note; the suggestion for a rear pointed white flashing lamp I would only consider in the daytime and only on the most dangerous of roads )
Now I know most people will balk at the idea of a VERY BRIGHT rear pointed white flashing lamp. I understand that but I've seen people do it and well...it works because it's hard to miss. Since you didn't give a lot of detail on the typical speed, line-of-sight and incline of your road in question I don't know if running a 1500 lumen flashing white lamp to the rear would be called for. Personally if I felt that unsafe on a particular road I simply would do what
znomit suggested, "I'd not ride it".
No matter what you do to increase your day time visibility when you ride home at night you should be safer than during the day. I say that because if you truly are going to run any of the super bright ( RED ) LED rear lamps AT NIGHT...THEY WILL BE ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE NOT TO SEE.