Coloured Lights To be Noticed By?

[alp1950]

Would coloured lights on the front of the bike or helmet help make us more visible to oncoming motorists?

(To be used in addition, not as an alternative to a main white light).

Why coloured?

When the roads are busy at night, it must be all too easy for for motorists to ignore/miss yet another white light especially if not super-bright. However I would guess that humans are programed to pay more attention to anything that seems unusual/unexpected/incongruous. The flashing blue light on the ambulance a mile away really stood out amongst the stream of white headlights. Perhaps cyclists could achieve a similar effect by using a flashing blue or green helmet light.

Mad? Legal? Anyone tried this?
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[thomas]

You could have an amber/yellow light legally, flashing, as it's just a warning light. Apparently green is the colour that humans can see the most easily...though it wouldn't probably help you be visible

 

[wafflycat]

Isn't it against the law to have a blue flashing light if you're not an emergency vehicle?

 

[Ranger]

Also illegal to have flashing green, this is the colour for Doctors'

 

[ufkacbln]

In Portsmouth they have pioneered blue flashing lights- but even these fail to work on some occasions!

 

[alp1950]

In Portsmouth they have pioneered blue flashing lights- but even these fail to work on some occasions!

Interesting. Anymore detail?

 

[the reluctant cyclist]

A lot of the cheap sets of lights have one red one green - my hubby got me a set from Aldi - I did stick the green one on the front as an extra to the two white ones I had already but when I see them on other bikes they are not so noticeable!

I often think that I might thread a chain of fairy lights along the cross bar of my bike so that I really am lit up like a christmas tree - failing that I thought about a costume of some sort - like a big fluffy bunny or something and that way you really would be so unusual that you might get seen!!!!

 

[hackbike 6]

I don't particularly have any problems with a flashing white and a steady white on the front.

 

[Lazy-Commuter]

A lot of the cheap sets of lights have one red one green - my hubby got me a set from Aldi - I did stick the green one on the front as an extra to the two white ones I had already but when I see them on other bikes they are not so noticeable!

I often think that I might thread a chain of fairy lights along the cross bar of my bike so that I really am lit up like a christmas tree - failing that I thought about a costume of some sort - like a big fluffy bunny or something and that way you really would be so unusual that you might get seen!!!!

Good idea, but unfortunately humans will miss even the most unusual thing when they're busy concentrating on something else .. there was that classic study when people were shown a basketball match and told to calculate what percentage of possession of the ball each team had. They were so busy concentrating on that, most people missed the man in the gorilla suit that ran onto the court and cavorted about during the footage.

I guess the equivalent in driving terms to make them miss seeing the big fluffy bunny on a bike would be setting the correct temperature on the climate control and / or phoning in to the local radio station whilst tinkering with the satnav and changing the CD.

 

[hackbike 6]

Ironically the other day I was cycling home in the dark and I had the Fenix and another light on the handlebars,working as I was approaching a car coming out of a turning I knew he didn't see me till late as he hadn't bothered looking.

 

[mr_cellophane]

I was a cyclist with yellow lights on the front. He was walking with the bike and it was daylight so wasn't able to see how effective they were.

 

[tdr1nka]

Ironically the other day I was cycling home in the dark and I had the Fenix and another light on the handlebars,working as I was approaching a car coming out of a turning I knew he didn't see me till late as he hadn't bothered looking.

I get this a lot, even my AyUp's get missed by drivers that simply don't look.

 

[Maizie]

Because you can see the light from a car well before you see the headlights themselves, I think sometimes at night drivers are looking for the light thrown from headlights - if they can't see that coming down the road, then it must be clear and they can go...

 

[Wolf04]

Dinotte's website have an amber daylight running headlight.
http://store.dinottelighting.com/sh...nt2=358420968&ProductID=8&Target=products.asp

 

[hackbike 6]

I get this a lot, even my AyUp's get missed by drivers that simply don't look.

But this was in [look at me]Bangkok[/look at me]