Cycling UK Forum

I am delighted that this topic has created discussion and debate. The intention of the SHE campaign is do just this; raise awareness and have more people consider certain safety issues.

One thing to clarify is that Pedalite are not currently campaigning for or advocating any new laws or changes to laws. The comparisons to motor cycle lights being the law in many countries is to make people think why it is a law in those countries and how this is inconsistent to cycling laws. The SHE campaign is an awareness campaign and highlights issues and concerns raised by real cyclists in multiple countries.

Given the amount of accidents that happen at road junctions, where cyclists need to be seen from the side, it is good to hear that downfader has already considered this and has lights with very good side lighting. As you would expect our SHE campaign uses Pedalite’s lights as examples throughout, however, one of the purposes of the campaign is to have people think about the need for side-lighting. While there are only a very limited selection of products specifically designed to give good side lighting available there are, of course, others that can be used. Pedalite may consider ours better because they do not use batteries and that will save the user money over time, help protect the environment and batteries do not run out at inappropriate times. However, we fully confess to and am sure all readers will expect a bias on this subject.

I would like to assure the participants on this forum topic that we do not wish to “start an arms race for lighting” or “create a solution to a problem that does not exist”. We receive many letters/emails from cyclists stating our products have helped them, praising the need for them and providing anecdotal evidence of their effectiveness. One topic, amongst many others, we receive considerable feedback on is that the pedal lights define the width of a cyclist to motorists that approach from behind and that these motorists then give the cyclists a wider berth than when the cyclist rides without the pedal lights. So, clearly, there is a positive impact from using these.

The reason for the orange light on the side of the pedal lights is also simple. There are laws in the UK that govern the colour of lights, flash rate and luminosity. Pedalite products have been designed to comply with these laws (amber on the side and no encumbrance of the reflector) which is why they are also used by some police forces and other emergency services in the UK.

Using lights in the day remains a personal choice, our view and that of many of our customers and people that write to us is one view, other views, such as some expressed on this forum are different and it is excellent that an open and full discussion can be held on a forum such as this. It is interesting that the poor and changeable daytime light that there has been in the UK in the past few weeks was referenced in the earlier post by Cunobelin.

Thank you for the opportunity for this discussion to take place, I am sure many people read this and if it makes people think, take some action and then saves an injury or accident (regardless of if they choose Pedalite products or not) then the SHE campaign will be achieving its objectives.

A happy and safe new year to all
Simon Theobald, Pedalite International

Hello Peter and all others here
My name is Simon and I work with Pedalite. Peter kindly emailed me about this message thread and I am delighted to have the opportunity to answer some of the points raised.
Our SHE campaign is intended to raise awareness of various safety issues that have all been raised to Pedalite in the past by our customers and other cyclists. As a cyclist myself, I know full well that many accidents are not the cyclists fault and the campaign in no way tries to indicate that it is a cyclists fault for not being seen. However, in the same way that if you walked onto a level crossing when the barrier was up and saw a train coming you would get out of the way and not say "well its not my fault! the barrier was up" and get hit, it is important for cyclists to make themselves as visible as possible, even if it is only to attract the attention of certain poor motorists that are distracted, talking on a phone or just not paying enough attention. We also advocate wearing bright clothing, using other lights not just ours and offer various safety advice in the SHE campaign and throughout our site.
The point about lights being on during the day on motorcycles and this being something cyclists should consider was actually first raised to me some time back by the editor of a large cycling magazine (and no I am not going to mention names on this post), it has since been raised time after time to me and comments about shadows, bridges, clouds, etc have all been cited by cyclists as good examples. Many times I have been given real customer feedback about the fact that they purchased our products to address this very problem. We included this information about daytime lights to make people consider it and I am delighted that you are discussing it. If discussing this, raising awareness of it and possibly having some cyclists then choose to wear lighting during the day saves just one life then it is worth it.
Regarding some of the other points raised in this discussion:
"have these guys actually been to the UK? Just how much solar charge would the average commuter lights have received over the last few weeeks?"
Pedalite’s Baglite and Ankle/Armlite products are a great British invention from a UK company that are now exported to over 45 countries. The challenges of poor natural lighting in the Winter here is one of the reasons we went to so much trouble to use advanced energy harvesting that recharges the units from ordinary household lights when the products are left lying around during the day. In fact the products never need to see sunlight to stay fully charged although bright sunshine will speed up the recharge.
The "fit and forget" comment in the SHE campaign is in a statement regarding the pedal lights and we have had numerous customer comments regarding the benefits of the pedal lights coming on automatically and that users have benefited through fitting and forgetting the products and then not needing to remember to turn lights on or realise that they are out without lights.
Once again, thank you for allowing me the opportunity to address these points, I am not going to try to turn this into a sales pitch by commenting on the other great features of the products, however, if you have follow up questions I will try to address these or you can email me privately just at Peter did.
Thank you and Merry Christmas
Simon, Pedalite International