Originally Posted by
drlogik
On today's city roads it is just not safe to ride day or night without active and passive lighting. Meaning reflectors and lights front and rear. There are more ways for drivers to get distracted today than there were even just 10 years ago. No, reflectors and lights are not a silver bullet but they do increase your odds of being seen. That just may save your life some day.
Your best defense is still your brain with the aid of a rear view mirror on your riding glasses. Your brain should be telling you reflectors and lights......
If you have good powerful lights front and rear, there is not need for reflectors...other than as the legal requirement that is part of the (somewhat outdated) Uniform Vehicle Code. I guarantee that someone approaching me from the front or rear with these lights
isn't going to
see a reflector.
Originally Posted by
Luke Jackson
OP had advance notice of a cyclist and was able to react/plan accordingly for no other reason than the fact that the cyclist had reflectors on his bike.
Reflectors that came on the bike right out of the box and always work as intended.
Nobody has to remember to buy and install them later or clip them on or charge them up or replace their battery.
I feel sorry for the hardcore bike fashion queens who cannot understand this.
Keep matching your shoes, water bottles and handlebar tape though ladies
Perhaps some of us don't remove the reflectors due to
fashion but remove them because we realized that they are ineffective band-aids that are stuck on bikes for those people who can't figure out that active lighting is far better than depending on the light from some vehicle to light them up.
Milton Keynes may have seen someone's wheel reflectors at night but would he have missed the lights like my pictures above? Reflectors are okay for a last ditch, emergency back up but carry multiple
active light sources and not depending on reflectors is far better.