lawnerd

People honk and yell at me every so often for no other reason than 1) I am on a bike and 2) I am on the road with them.
God forbid that someone in a car be delayed for 15 seconds because of a bike!

B. Carfree

A couple weeks back I had a person on the side of a bike path I was riding on complain loudly and foully about the brightness of the light on the front of the tandem my wife and I were riding (it was 4:30 AM). He was mostly mad that his "date" (likely a cash transaction) had removed her head from his crotch when she saw us approach.

Even the lovers hate bikes.

daihard 

I just had this happen to me this evening. I was leaving a supermarket around 7:00 PM when someone standing in the parking lot shouted at me saying "Thank you for using the light!" I had mine on in blinking mode. I'm not sure if he meant it or was sarcastic about the brightness. He sure was smiling...

Telly

It's that time of the year here in Athens where everyone's frustrated by the fleeing good weather and -back to normal- post-summer work schedules.
This is the time I get yelled at most for just being on the road and delaying the drivers from arriving to work/home, even if the delay could be counted in seconds.

Ride on; smile and wave and keep making your great vids Joey!

BTW: you can never have too much lighting while commuting in the dark; that is, unless all traffic stops, drivers get out and kneel on the ground believing your lights are the second coming!

jason_h

I don't mean to be difficult, and maybe I am playing devils advocate here, but I don't believe riding a bicycle gives one the license to be an annoyance to their fellow man. If you must be a jerk in order to do some activity, I think that is grounds to consider that maybe you are doing it wrong.

Riding a bicycle is not inherently a virtuous activity. It definitely is not so if it is at the expense of someone else's well being. The thing is, it usually is possible to ride a bicycle without hurting others. You just have to plan your route, keeping in mind the time of day and traffic patterns, and understand that is your responsibility to not put yourself in situations where there can be a high risk of being hit if you end up in a drivers blind spot. One must consider themselves invisible while riding, or in some cases, even having target on their back. It might not be fair to have to do so, but then life is not fair, and it never will be.

Lastly, I am amazed at how much light can be put out by such small devices nowadays. There is a natural human tendency to want to exploit that power, and being a gadget geek I understand that. But it still doesn't absolve one of their duty to be good citizen and conscientious of others. Just because we may feel ostracized by society for our chosen hobby, doesn't mean we are now allowed to give society the bird. This seems so obvious to me, but I live in BFE flyover country, so maybe its just a cultural thing.

treal512

ROFL! Thanks for the laughs


Silly miserable cagers preoccupied with being habitually reactionary to anything that gets in their way.


Ahh, the voice of reason. What is BFE flyover country?

bmontgomery87

I got honked at this morning from someone who wasn't even in my lane. No traffic, was a good 12 feet away from the guy.

Murray Missile 

"Bum F@%# Egypt Flyover Country" from my understanding is pretty much anything outside New York City and L.A. People just "fly over" because there's no good reason to go there, I'm smack dab in the middle of it and proud of it.

Popeyecahn

I don't think in the least the OP was doing anything to annoy anyone on the road per se (yes I know this is JoeyBike we're talking about...), but lighting on a bike is really kind of essential for riding during dark and is no different than a vehicle, even if it flashing (which is no different than emergency vehicles right?). And riding/riving defensively can be consider the same for both for the same reason (survival via accident avoidance).

I would also consider that a cyclists' use of lighting as being a dutiful citizen and mindful of others. The last thing I want to do is hit a person (bike or no) because they were invisible (neighborhood joggers, I'm speaking to you...). It injures or kills them and makes my life and that of their loved ones difficult at best.

So I'd rather have that momentary irritation of being flashed by a bright light than having to wait for an EMT and police to show up to help a hapless cyclist or jogger. Likewise if a cyclist came around me as I was turning right at a stop. Who even let's that crap worry them??? Acknowledge, move on...

kookaburra1701

I get yelled at all the time for my bright lights - so far all yellers have been ninja salmon. No wait, I tell a lie. One was a homeless bum under a bridge who didn't like my light shining on him as I rode by.

ETA: I did take advantage of my work's vision insurance and discovered that I have HORRIBLE eyesight. As in, the big E on the top of the chart was too blurry for me to read. I now have a pair of specs, and suddenly I don't need my brightest lights to see anymore.

daihard 

This may be a cynic in me, but when the motorists show annoyance at bicycles' bright and/or flashing lights, I tend to feel as though it's because they're bicycles, not because the lights are dazzling or annoying. I don't hear a whole lot of complaints about the HID (Xenon) headlights being too bright or the modulated headlights of motorcycles being too annoying. It's like the motorists talking about how cyclists are all lawbreakers, totally ignoring the fact that they most probably break laws just as often, if not more.

Paramount1973 

Yep, I run blinkys fore and aft and many times have seen drivers at intersections or coming out of driveways look directly at my front blinky and come to a stop. It's better to be seen.

Popeyecahn

I despise HIDs intensely, and the higher the color temp the more I hate and want to throttle the driver, but I have learned to moderate my displeasure because in the end life is too short for the small things and things that which I cannot control. I really hate lifted trucks (penile deficiency replacements) with HIDs and fogs to match behind me at 6am.

/rant

Cagers seem to exhibit this sense of entitlement with regards to the road and there in lies the problem me thinks. They forget that although a cyclist doesn't pay taxes to maintain them directly as a cyclist, many of us own cars as well.

walrus1

I noticed something tonight. Jay walk pedestrians are more likely to stop and not walk in front of me when I have my white blinky light going. Will have to pay attention to this. Might try running it in the day as well.

mrodgers

Exact opposite of how I think and how many of the people I know think. There are a lot of complaints over the stupid HID headlights. Most people hate them. They are blinding and in reality produce less usable light for the owner/driver than just regular headlights. They are a bling look at me thing.

The modulating motorcycle headlights are different. They are used during the day where they will not blind you but make you notice them. That is how you should be running a blinking light on a bicycle, during the day so people can notice your narrow stance riding close to the background on the edge of the road where people aren't focused. They should not be used at night. It is illegal (where I live) for a headlight to be blinking or modulating on a motorcycle at night, why shouldn't it be that way on a bicycle?

Recently they put strobe lights on top of school busses here. I can't stand the stupid things. I have to tailgate the busses to get them from flashing in my eyes distracting me. It's either tailgate them or constantly slow down to a really slow speed to get them to move ahead. Problem with slowing down is that it is difficult to drive 35 mph on a 55 mph road and you end up speeding back up and catching back up to the school bus whom none of them seem to be able to do more than 45 mph. So, to get the blinding distracting flashing light out of my eyes right in front of me, I have to tailgate them.

unterhausen

this isn't true, municipalities receive very little gas tax money and so local roads are mostly paid for by taxes that we all pay.

People are getting used to hid lights on cars. They still aren't used to brighter lights on bicycles, so they overreact. A car's headlights on low beam are still pretty blinding, a light that produces more than half that amount of light on a bicycle is really bright.

mconlonx

I have a SuperNova E3 dynamo headlight. It is built to this standard and marketed as an on-road "Asymmetric" beam, vs. the "off-road only" version which doesn't have the shaped beam. Here in the USA, when I was putting my bike together, the non-asymmetric, off-road light was sold out, but there was plenty of the asymmetric lights in stock. I doubt most of these dynamo lights were being sold to off-roaders...

It indicated to me that when cyclists have a choice, they'll go for glare over courtesy... I would have, too, but for the model I wanted being sold out.

mconlonx

For my folding bike on my bike-bus-bike commute, I have a handlebar mount light @ 250 lumens. If there's enough light otherwise provided by streetlights, if I'm approaching a pedestrian walking my way, I will turn the light down about 45 degrees to take it out of their face. Kind of like dimming high-beams in a car for approaching traffic.

This is in a rural area, where pedestrians walking after dark is a rarity. I'd probably not bother with this courtesy in a city, but if my regular commute was well-lit, I'd probably not be using as bright a light anyway.

Popeyecahn

One, I think that depends on the municipality/state and as a cyclist, unless state and local sales tax or property taxes are going towards local (not highways and such) road maintenance my point stands.

Two, I find that hard to believe. For one I hate them and find them obnoxious, and read threads on car forums about HID installs getting crap from other drivers on the road (mostly due to improper aiming of said obnoxious lights), hell just 45 mins ago I was irked with a Honda Civic blinding me from the back, a car which is lower than my CX5. But as I stated before, life's too short to sweat the small stuff. And in addition, I'm not sure if the average driver differentiates a single bright light of a cyclist from that of a motorcycle or a car with a headlight out and makes much of a conscious or subconscious decision to single out a cyclist only.

MikeM21

The problem lies, Jason, when you do all of the things I highlighted and drivers still think you are being a jerk. Then it really is their problem and not mine.

We have to balance the annoyances we cause with our safety. I know where I will err in that scenario. There will always be an annoyance just around the corner. Bicyclists just want to be treated like school buses or tractors or cement trucks etc. are treated. Just slow down and be patient.

daihard 

Just to be sure, HID headlights do have advantages. They provide greater illumination than the normal halogen lamps with less energy. They also light up the area in front of you more clearly. I agree that there are cons, too, especially the excessive glare. Please note that the factory-installed HID lights have light housings designed to reduce the glare. More problematic are the aftermarket HID lamps. I may be biased here, tough. I have (factory-installed) HID headlights on my car.

Maybe because bicycles are more vulnerable than motorcycles? I actually don't disagree that modulating lights should generally only be used in the daytime. I do use my (bicycle) headlight in blinking mode at dawn and dusk, and at night when visibility is good without a full headlight. I feel justified in doing that because (1) there's no regulation that prohibits it (AFAIK - please correct me if I'm wrong), and (2) I want to protect myself as I deem necessary, with so many people (including pedestrians) hostile towards cyclists. You could argue that things like too bright headlights can only add to such hostility towards us, and I don't deny that. On the other hand, I don't think our being nicer towards cars would change their attitude much, if any.