Anyone Tried shining a light on the road to the side of you?

[united4ever]

Was reading about this idea (see pic) that shining a light about 1 metre out to the road at the side of you will cause cars to avoid the illuminated patch and give more space.

Pic is American so obviously light would be on the right side in UK

Never seen anyone doing this. Any merit in this? Could it cause confusion? It probably does cause confusion but results in caution which is good.

 

[fossyant]

My rear light has an underlight which illuminates the road.

 

[Drago]

Like the old laser bike lights.

 

[united4ever]

Yeah,sure I also saw a light once that forms a an illuminated ring on the roadbed around you (that may be a laser light mentioned). Wonder if they work. Suppose it's all anecdotal.

 

[cyberknight]

In my experience drivers dont pay enough attention for them to even notice

 

[glasgowcyclist]

Any merit in this?

I doubt it.

Now, if someone could project a hologram of a cardboard box or shopping bag then that would get you the avoiding action and wide overtakes that cyclists can only dream of.

 

[Brandane]

I reckon a metre long metal spike secured to the back end of the bike somehow and pointing horizontaly to the right side of the bike might be more effective.

 

[fossyant]

Magicshine SeeMee 200 and 300 - got both, very good lights.

 

[DRM]

Utter cobblers, latest Elf n Safety fad on fork trucks is red halo lights, and a blue light that is mounted front and rear, that projects about 2 meters in front/behind the truck, no one takes a blind bit of notice of them

 

[Drago]

I don't think it'll make a difference. After all, cars shote a huge pool of light in the road in front of them and they still manage to crash into one another.

 

[mjr]

Yeah,sure I also saw a light once that forms a an illuminated ring on the roadbed around you (that may be a laser light mentioned). Wonder if they work. Suppose it's all anecdotal.

Some years ago, I questioned Transport for London about the bike lights that projected something on the road in front of the hire bikes. I was surprised but they did actually send me some data that seemed to show a lower crash risk for the projecting bikes than the non projecting ones. The data is probably still on what do they know dot com somewhere.

 

[cougie uk]

I'd like to see any research they've done on it.

I always thought an extendable light on the rear of the bike that makes you look 2 feet wider would be a good idea but probably a tad impractical.

 

[Time Waster]

My anecdata of one is that my lezyne laser light at the rear with the red lines on the floor to the outside of my bike that kind of moved forwards and backwards as I rode. It made no difference in that some cars give you space and some do not. There never seemed to be any difference between daytime riding without the light on and nighttime with the light on. Perhaps daytime with the light might have shown a difference or nighttime without the light might have but as I used it (only on at night or if weather conditions give lowered vision for me and drivers).

This is just my anecdata and might not be the true situation. I would look to other things to keep you safe when on a bike at night.

 

[Conrad_K]

A friend of mine used to run a tow truck company. The trucks had the usual assortment of flashers and strobes to make them more visible.

A lot of the trucks got hit while working wrecks or loading vehicles. He noticed it was always at night. After a while he told the drivers not to run the flashers at night, just whatever work lights they needed. Car strikes dropped way down. Not to zero, but less than 10% of before.

Pilots call it "target fixation". There's probably an automotive term, but I don't know it. People will see something that attracts their attention - a brightly-painted tow truck with flashers and strobes - and they will automatically steer toward whatever they're looking at. (in auto racing, a mantra is "look where you want to go") See the truck - hit the truck.

I was already riding a motorcycle when the US government passed a law requiring motorcycles run their headlights during the day. I quickly learned the headlight made me a target. Now everything is lit up, so drivers ignore anything without lights, like pedestrians, bridge abutments, parked cars...

I also found out that the local police department had more police cars hit when they were running "lights and siren" than without, though it's hard to tell if that's also target fascination or if it's because the cops are speeding and weaving illegally in and out of traffic.

 

[Drago]

I was already riding a motorcycle when the US government passed a law requiring motorcycles run their headlights during the day. I quickly learned the headlight made me a target. Now everything is lit up, so drivers ignore anything without lights, like pedestrians, bridge abutments, parked cars...

There is evidence that running motorcycle headlamps during the day actually increases the incidence of T bone type collisions -
The headlamp beam breaks up the riders outline, so the observer is deprived of the necessary visual datum required to accurately calculate velocity, and T bone type collisions in particular arise out of this. This is why I don't ride my bicycle with eye scorching lights during the day and why you feel other road users are out to get you.

Another case of something intuitively mandated in the name of "safety" without researching it properly.