Carpediem wrote:Rightly or wrongly more and more cyclists are using DRLs so those who choose not to use them are IMO putting themselves at a real disadvantage when it comes to being seen.
It’s not we who are putting ourselves at a “real disadvantage” but you plural. I see no sign that that bothers your conscience, so why not be forthright about it?
However, I contest there is any disadvantage to be suffered. Whether a driver sees me as I heave over the horizon is irrelevant to my safety (or possibly bad, giving them too much time to dismiss me from their attention). What matters is whether I’m seen in good time for the driver to avoid hitting me. I have never had a doubt that I am. Nor apparently have thousands of Parisian cyclists, dressed in black from head to toe at midnight with not a lamp in sight. I don’t condone that behaviour, but the fact that I’ve never seen, heard about, or even read about one of those stealth ninjas being hit shows it is not nearly as hazardous as the scaredy-cats believe.
DRLs ratchet the scaremongering up another notch. Well, you can’t scare me so easily. I opt out of a life of perpetual startlement. I leave that to the meerkats and hi-viz alarmists.