In hatred of helmet lights.

[steveindenmark]

I have 4 frog lights on my helmet but there is nobody to look at when I am on the way to work. It is too much out in the sticks and too early.

 

[mjr]

how many people people seem to have nowhere near as much trouble spotting cars as they do smaller vehicles

Quite often it's not that they can't see you, it's that they don't look, don't care or don't know how to drive around you. If you have a light on your head, you're probably also giving them an "I was dazzled" excuse. Practising your emergency turns and stops and checking your road position is far more useful than becoming lightheaded.

 

[crazyjoe101]

Quite often it's not that they can't see you, it's that they don't look, don't care or don't know how to drive around you. If you have a light on your head, you're probably also giving them an "I was dazzled" excuse. Practising your emergency turns and stops and checking your road position is far more useful than becoming lightheaded.

"Lightheaded" I like that.
If they weren't looking they'd miss cars as much as cyclists - they look or glance, but they do not see. I agree that if you've already got decent bike mounted lights that having good 'roadcraft' is more useful than additional lighting however it's hardly as though the two are mutually exclusive; I know what I'm doing on my bike and I'll be lightheaded too if I want to. As for dazzling, any driver who claims that they were dazzled and so pulled out is just essentially saying 'I knew something was there because it was dazzling me meaning that my vision was obscured so I decided to pull out not knowing what was there' - that sounds convincing.

 

[al78]

Quite often it's not that they can't see you, it's that they don't look, don't care or don't know how to drive around you. If you have a light on your head, you're probably also giving them an "I was dazzled" excuse. Practising your emergency turns and stops and checking your road position is far more useful than becoming lightheaded.

I think it is more because cyclists are sufficiently smaller than motor vehicles that the human brain registers them as part of the background noise rather than something to be aware of. The driver that hit me last spring told the police he didn't see me but could not offer any explanation as to why. I strongly suspect that he was so focused on looking for a gap in the traffic that he was concentrating on motor vehicles and I was like some irrelevance in the background and therefore ignored. Unfortunately this is one of many human biases that cause us to do stupid and careless things, the only thing to do is be aware of the bias and try to use ones intelligence to counter it by consciously looking around more than you think you need too. I have heard of an observation technique for doing this at junctions which is typically where a lot is going on to the point where the brain can't process everything so it has to filter out some information, but I can't recall the method now.

http://www.dailyom.com/library/000/001/000001801.html

 

[mjr]

Lovely, but if they're really looking for motor vehicles, nothing short of cycling with a car bodyshell on is going to work.

 

[al78]

Lovely, but if they're really looking for motor vehicles, nothing short of cycling with a car bodyshell on is going to work.

Possibly in the absolute worst case scenario but I highly doubt the situation is so bifurcated as there to be only two possible situations, either everyone will see you or no-one will see you. It is possible that somehow increasing your contrast against the background will make it more likely for drivers to register your presence. It is when the brain is overloaded with information that it eliminates any information it can't make sense of, so making oneself stand out more against the background may help, I don't know. Other than that, the best defence is anticipation and avoidance, although that is not a guarantee, for example I don't know what I could have done to avoid the driver who, at the moment I passed an entry point on a roundabout, smashed into the rear of my bike side on whilst I was heading for the next exit. I haven't used that roundabout on my route to work since.

 

[glasgowcyclist]

bifurcated

Word of the month that.

GC

 

[mjr]

It is when the brain is overloaded with information that it eliminates any information it can't make sense of, so making oneself stand out more against the background may help, I don't know.

Nor do I. There doesn't seem to be much data on this sort of thing but I don't think that putting lights on our heads is going to provide more sensible information to motorists. Seems more like it would contribute to confusion and overload.

for example I don't know what I could have done to avoid the driver who, at the moment I passed an entry point on a roundabout, smashed into the rear of my bike side on whilst I was heading for the next exit. I haven't used that roundabout on my route to work since.

Possibly accelerate but sometimes there's nothing we can do, sadly. Bad road design and/or bad driving can be too much. A forward-facing light on your head wouldn't add much to a driver smashing into your side, as they should have seen the side-illumination of your headlight, tail light and wheel reflectors anyway! But please get in touch with your local cycling campaign and keep kicking the highway authority if you think there's a road layout improvement that will help!