agent pombero

He writes in "Fear of Traffic from the Ear":

Is this accurate? I haven't noticed this shadow effect before. I'm going to test it out tomorrow night.

RIP Ken.

CB HI

True, but a mirror is still much better.

I-Like-To-Bike

Depends on street lighting and the effects of multiple motorists' headlights. Doesn't help much if the motorist is not passing safely, or not using its headlights.

Get a mirror.

Looigi

I'll assume you've noticed or understand that a shadow is cast opposite the light source responsible for it. So if the headlights from a car behind you is illuminating the road in front of you, the direction of the car will opposite the shadow cast by you in the headlights.

All this is good, but of no use, IMO. With a car approaching from behind, all you can do is position yourself appropriately on the road. Nothing will tell you whether or not it's going to hit you until it's too late.

david58

Amazing how many things in life we do simply by faith.

rydabent

This suggeston is a good one. A cyclist needs to use all indicators available to remain safe.

Along this same line, I love rumble strips. If I would hear a car behind me if riding on a hiway with rumble strips, if I would hear the car on the rumble strips, I would bale for the ditch.

B. Carfree

I don't know that expecting motorists to obey the basics of the law and honor the social contract to not slaughter folks is really faith. While we expect, based on past experience, that almost all motorists will behave appropriately, we all know full well that some won't and that we are indeed at risk. I have made my peace with the possibility that someday someone may run me over; the benefits of cycling outweigh the obviously small risk of a fatal encounter. I see this more as dealing appropriately with a risk/benefit situation than as acting on faith.

-=(8)=-

Ive stayed un-hit by not paying attention to other peoples experiences and relying on mine alone,
that are most likely a little more relevant than someone else's.
Yeah, you can watch lights bouncing off of road signs and such, but there is nothing like a mirror
and making monitoring it a sub-conscience habit. I would not consider Mr. Kifers headlite monitoring
method a useful one for me

turbo1889

This method does work on rural roads late at night with minimal traffic. I use it myself (although don't rely on it exclusively by any means). It's just another good tool. With a little practice you can tell if the car behind you is swinging wide around you, holding its line in the lane and not moving left to swing wide but not edging in on you, or edging in on you and/or making a deliberate close pass or run at you from behind just by watching how your shadow created by their headlights swings to the right as they approach you from behind.

Also, +1 on what rydabent said about rumble strips being an excellent audible warning system.

agent pombero

I couldn't quite get the shadows to replicate how Kifer described them. Maybe the rain significantly reduced visibility of any shadow on the side streets. Not looking to get a mirror, prefer frequent over the shoulder checks. Will try again tomorrow night.

Looigi

It can't not work, but there can be many shadows depending on the number and location and relative brightness of light sources, and some may get washed out by brighter lights. You need to identify which of your shadows is due to the approaching car's headlights.

hotbike

There are many new styles of headlights these days, and they all have different beam patterns. Some of them can fool you.

And sometimes a headlight bulb is out.