Originally Posted by
heywood
That fighter pilot article was a fascinating read.. i'd heard about 'saccade' before but had no idea how important it was.. Something can be right in front of us and we'll see right through it. I saw my wife do this at an intersection once. Middle of the day, she's turning left, pedestrian in front of us she nearly drives right through him (I yelled and grabbed the wheel before she hit him)..She swore she didn't see him.. 'saccade' blindness, that explains it.
This is the main reason I use a helmet-mounted light at night. Bike lights are lost in the sea of lights out there, and a quick flash on a car pulling out or turning in front of you gets their attention. If that fails, lighting them up with a 750 lumen beam on their face never fails.
There is one particularly dangerous area where car are frequently blocking the bike lane/crosswalk or coming around the ramp to merge into traffic that leads onto Key Bridge heading into DC. They literally aren't looking for bikes or pedestrians, and even there, full light in the face doesn't always work. It seems to stun them slightly, though, which is better than nothing. At least they come away feeling like something out of the ordinary just happened (temporarily blinded), and perhaps the next time they will realize there are others out there.