Lighting up

[mountainman531]

On Sunday I was out at dusk for the first time this season and so I put my lights on and to a man all following drivers gave me loads of room, much more than in broad daylight with no lights and it wasn't actually dark.
I have noticed this in the past but is it common nationwide or does it vary in different regions?

I'm in Bury near Manchester.

[Si]

Yep, I've noticed it.

My guesses as to explaination include the following driver not being able to pick out the detail around the lights so well, thus they give more room as they are not sure where your outer edge is.

[james01]

..the following driver not being able to pick out the detail around the lights so well, thus they give more room as they are not sure where your outer edge is.

And this holds true for all passing room issues. If a driver isn't sure what he's about to pass he gives more room. A roadie moving with piston-like precision is a familiar sight and hardly registers on the driver's radar as he passes.
Bush & Muller are proudly advertising a rear light with a"width" reference bar to enable drivers to get an accurate sense of how far they are from a cyclist. This is the wrong approach - "keep them guessing and keep them awake" is the safest cycling behaviour, day or night.
Quote from B&M website:
new dynamo diode rear light TOPLIGHT Line plus: Above the large reflector sits the active lighting unit. In a clear strip-like housing a patented lens system can be found that spreads out the light from two LEDs to become a homogenous and brilliant strip of red light. Instead of a lonely speck of light in the nondimensional darkness that makes it all but impossible for succeeding traffic to estimate the distance to the cyclist, an approaching car driver now sees TOPLIGHT Line plus's bright and continuous strip of light. This spatial relation grants the driver a drastically improved perception of the distance between his car and the bicycle
So now Johnny motorist is being aided in his quest to remain safely half asleep at the wheel

[7_lives_left]

And this holds true for all passing room issues. If a driver isn't sure what he's about to pass he gives more room. A roadie moving with piston-like precision is a familiar sight and hardly registers on the driver's radar as he passes.
Bush & Muller are proudly advertising a rear light with a"width" reference bar to enable drivers to get an accurate sense of how far they are from a cyclist. This is the wrong approach - "keep them guessing and keep them awake" is the safest cycling behaviour, day or night.

I sometimes ride a tricycle. I like the "keep them guessing" approach but I worry that they might guess bike instead of trike and take out my outside wheel so I stick a lamp on the mudguard of that wheel.

[Tonyf33]

..the following driver not being able to pick out the detail around the lights so well, thus they give more room as they are not sure where your outer edge is.

And this holds true for all passing room issues. If a driver isn't sure what he's about to pass he gives more room. A roadie moving with piston-like precision is a familiar sight and hardly registers on the driver's radar as he passes.
Bush & Muller are proudly advertising a rear light with a"width" reference bar to enable drivers to get an accurate sense of how far they are from a cyclist. This is the wrong approach - "keep them guessing and keep them awake" is the safest cycling behaviour, day or night.
Quote from B&M website:
new dynamo diode rear light TOPLIGHT Line plus: Above the large reflector sits the active lighting unit. In a clear strip-like housing a patented lens system can be found that spreads out the light from two LEDs to become a homogenous and brilliant strip of red light. Instead of a lonely speck of light in the nondimensional darkness that makes it all but impossible for succeeding traffic to estimate the distance to the cyclist, an approaching car driver now sees TOPLIGHT Line plus's bright and continuous strip of light. This spatial relation grants the driver a drastically improved perception of the distance between his car and the bicycle
So now Johnny motorist is being aided in his quest to remain safely half asleep at the wheel

It's all more money cyclists are been pressured into forking out for to avoid poor driving not to mention any contributory negligence.

I can just imagine in a few years time in a court case.....well you see they didn't have the correct spatial distancing lights on so I couldn't figure out what the closing distance was at 60 mph down the dark country lane so i just ran into the back of him/her. Judge- Oh that's all right, not really your fault, here's some counselling for you.
The fact that some cases have swung partially because they didn't have a high visibility jacket or bright neon coloured strips all over is just perverse.

I stick my rear flasher on well before the light deteriorates and often in busy traffic during the day throughout the year anyway. Sad fact of self preservation unfortunately

As an aside I saw two cyclists in single file on the A23 Brighton bound this Sunday gone, light conditions were shall we say not the best (I & many other drivers had headlights on). Whilst it wasn't really difficult to see them they certainly were blending into the background quite well at times. Given the speed limit for the road, weather conditions & likely closing speeds of following vehicles I think I would have had at least one rear blinker on.
You just never know what prat is going to mow you down saying they never even saw you

[[XAP]Bob]

http://www.ebest24.com/en/car-red-48-le ... anguage=en

If only it was 6V, not 12

[BSRU]

http://www.ebest24.com/en/car-red-48-led-knight-rider-strip-light.html?language=en

If only it was 6V, not 12

You can buy 12v Li-ion batteries of EBay, I have some to power 12v halogens.

[byegad]

And this holds true for all passing room issues. If a driver isn't sure what he's about to pass he gives more room. A roadie moving with piston-like precision is a familiar sight and hardly registers on the driver's radar as he passes.
Bush & Muller are proudly advertising a rear light with a"width" reference bar to enable drivers to get an accurate sense of how far they are from a cyclist. This is the wrong approach - "keep them guessing and keep them awake" is the safest cycling behaviour, day or night.

I sometimes ride a tricycle. I like the "keep them guessing" approach but I worry that they might guess bike instead of trike and take out my outside wheel so I stick a lamp on the mudguard of that wheel.

I ride recumbent trikes and the passing room is almost always very generous. I put it down to a mix of the astonishing? factor and them not wanting to stand in court having driven over the local cripple, not that I am crippled but quite a few people assume I am when I'm on a trike.

[drossall]

I sometimes ride a tricycle. I like the "keep them guessing" approach but I worry that they might guess bike instead of trike and take out my outside wheel so I stick a lamp on the mudguard of that wheel.

I tend to find that you get more room anyway on a trike. It's not actually significantly wider than your shoulders, so bikes and trikes are about the same effective width. However, drivers seem to judge distances from wheels, which on cars mark the outer edge of the vehicle, so a trike gets given more space. On bikes, of course, the wheels are in the middle, but they don't seem to have spotted that...

I'm ambivalent on early use of bike lights. Visibility is a good thing. However, it's not in our interests to encourage motorists to use lights early, because they drown us out, so I kind of don't want to be part of promoting it.

[The Mechanic]

I was out in the dark on Sunday for the first time this year. My new IQ Cyo was brill. I was on a faily busy main road in Aberdeenshire for about 10 miles and had no driver issues at all. In addition to the Cyo I have a B&M D Toplight on the rack and a Blackburn Mar 3 on the back of the rack pack set to flashing. Seems to do the trick. I also carry a head torch but didn't need it as I was on a main road. I usually use that as well if I am on back road, which I usually am.

[aprildavy]

Most definitely, drivers are giving me much more space at night. either I wear a refelctive gilet, reflective tabbard, or cycling jacket, plus a decent steady red light on the rear. Often drivers move entirely over to the other side of the road at night. I think they are uncertain about their own safety at night, so they do wait much longer to see if it is safe to overtake.

I've started cycling once a week to work, leaving at 6am in the dark. I feel safe enough on wide 60mph roads. I don't mind fast traffic overtaking, it's the roads that are just wide enough for a car to squeeze past worry me.

Mind you, I am truly amazed how many cyclists ride in the dark or dusk without lights. Maybe they think their helmets will keep them alive when a 40 ton truck runs into them at 60 mph because he couldn't see them.

[CyberKnight]

Most definitely, drivers are giving me much more space at night.

Apart from the numpties, i was glad i was riding in primary past these bollards , even though i am lit up like a x mas tree i still get turnips trying to squeeze past if they get the chance..

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=newhall+derbyshire&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Newhall,+Swadlincote,+Derbyshire,+United+Kingdom&gl=uk&ei=wZDWTPSzFY6S4gbjyMyeBw&ved=0CB8Q8gEwAA&ll=52.792962,-1.572407&spn=0.036591,0.076303&z=14&layer=c&cbll=52.792962,-1.572407&panoid=DvLI7H-gF4vU4FM9JRfyHA&cbp=12,116.46,,0,5

[Ivor Tingting]

Don't lull yourselves into a false sense of security. It doesn't matter how many lights you have on the go, motons will still drive into you. I heard the RAC chap who witnessed the fwit moton knock me down, later say to plod "He (me and my bike)was lit up like a Christmas tree and the idiot still drove into him!"