I was practically on top of each rider before I saw him, her or it. If a bike had, say, swerved to the left somebody's fun would have been seriously crimped.
If you must ride at night you might want to part with $23 for a decent flasher. With the white and red strobes alternating, you will be visible from the rear for a good half mile. I know it's a five minute ride and YOU can see just fine. You have more important things to do than futz around with yet another bullshit bike accessory. You're careful, you're thinking ahead, you have big plans. Alas, as Charles De Gaulle pointed out, "The cemetery is filled with indispensable people."
Recommended by Charles de Gaulle, President of France
Gordon,
ReplyDeleteGood post. Unlit bikes do have startlingly low visibility... i used to do this too. Years ago, while riding, a very polite woman pulled up next to me at dusk and said, "you know, you really are hard to see." She was so polite and sincere i had no choice but to believe her. The next day i went and purchased a tail flasher and have had one mounted since. But your right, since we can see pretty well from our saddles at night many people don't realize how invisible they are to motorists...
safety first
Good on you, Marc, for adding the flasher. I may just try a "polite and sincere" intervention or two.
ReplyDeleteOf course, any comment from the inside of a car/truck to a cyclist puts one on the front lines of the great "Aren't Cars Awful" war. And the cyclist is in the opposing trenches.
Being a cyclist myself, I believe in the big advantage of lights on your bycicle. Nevertheless, I think and observe that and blinking, flashing light is highly disturbing to all other participants in traffic - it simply is not a continuous signal which we quickly and intuitively can recognize and project a route for. That much for my pleading for normal, non-blinking, traffic conform lights on bycicles. Thank you very much.
ReplyDeleteInteresting point. I wonder if it holds true. Is a tiny bike flasher really "highly disturbing to all other participants in traffic?" When I drive at night I'm always grateful to see a flasher, because it tells me in no uncertain terms where a cyclist is riding.
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