light question

[glasgowcyclist]

in all honesty i dont want to match a motor vehicle because people are careless when there is essentially a rolling shield between them, on a bicycle thats not a possibility, for a while i did use just white in the front and red in the back, sadly people where still getting dangerously close. i prefer having enough light on my bike to where a person driving can clearly see im peddling not driving

I can only tell you what I've found in respect of your legal responsibilities, sadly these don't always coincide with what you'd like to do.

Are you allowed flashing LED lights in Texas? Over here we are, and they're an easy way to signify you are on a bicycle*. Maybe you could try those in the conventional white/front and red/rear combination. I really would completely avoid adding any other colour to the setup, it will only confuse others and the highway is not a place to introduce confusion.
Drivers will more easily know your pedalling (at night) if you wear reflective ankle bands like these, as the biomechanical motion of them going up and down is so distinctive. Those are probably the cheapest way to achieve your goal of being a road user who is clearly pedalling.


(* Bear in mind that this can equally work against you with some drivers as they will treat your presence as an irrelevance in their manoeuvrings.)

 

[confusedcyclist]

I quite like yellow foglights, even though the jury's out on their effectiveness (fog doesn't cause Rayleigh scattering of light, so yellow doesn't penetrate better in a measurable way, but the human eye responds differently to yellow light and it may *apparently* give better penetration and less reflection than white light; a bit like bluish bike LEDs being crap on wet roads when the old halogen lights weren't swallowed up as badly).

I call BS. If anything more light reaches the retina with white light than yellow. Yay physics.

 

[rogerzilla]

According to Wikipedia, "The intent of selective yellow is to improve vision by removing short, blue to violet wavelengths from the projected light. These wavelengths are difficult for the human visual system to process properly, and they cause perceived dazzle and glare effects in rain, fog and snow.[7] Removing the blue-violet portion of a lamp's output to obtain selective yellow light can entail filter losses of around 15%,[8] though the effect of this reduction is said to be mitigated or countervailed by the increased visual acuity available with yellow rather than white light in bad weather.[7]

A research experiment done in the UK in 1968 using tungsten (non-halogen) lamps found that visual acuity is about 3% better with selective yellow headlamps than with white ones of equal intensity.[9] Research done in the Netherlands in 1976 concluded that yellow and white headlamps are equivalent as regards traffic safety, though yellow light causes less discomfort glare than white light.[10] Researchers note that tungsten filament lamps emit only a small amount of the blue light blocked by a selective-yellow filter[9], so such filtration makes only a small difference in the characteristics of the light output[".

Is it just me that finds LED bike lights (and LED car headlights) pretty hopeless on wet roads? I (shamefully) have two cars, one with halogen headlamps and one with LED headlamps. Both are modern projector beam types. The halogen ones are much better; the LED light just gets lost except on dry pale tarmac. I'm sure the LED ones put more lux on the road, but it's what the eye sees that matters.

 

[Tail End Charlie]

I understood that in the UK you could only have red to the rear, but could have anything but red to the front (apart from the usual exceptions for indicators etc).

 

[Vantage]

Is it just me that finds LED bike lights (and LED car headlights) pretty hopeless on wet roads? I (shamefully) have two cars, one with halogen headlamps and one with LED headlamps. Both are modern projector beam types. The halogen ones are much better; the LED light just gets lost except on dry pale tarmac. I'm sure the LED ones put more lux on the road, but it's what the eye sees that matters.

Nope, me too. And not just with car or bike lights. Camping lanterns/lights also I find completely useless generally.
I went through the trouble of tracking down these for camping which are utterly brilliant and actually light stuff up. Wish I could find similar with regard to bike lights.

 

[mjr]

I understood that in the UK you could only have red to the rear, but could have anything but red to the front (apart from the usual exceptions for indicators etc).

You must have at least a white or yellow (not amber) to the front because of table 3 of https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1989/1796/schedule/1/made

 

[Tail End Charlie]

You must have at least a white or yellow (not amber) to the front because of table 3 of https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1989/1796/schedule/1/made

Doesn't table 3 just state that you must have lights? Whereas the colours are specified elsewhere (if I knew how to post a link I would). Anyway, it's just an exercise for the legal bods, since, like you say the odds of being stopped if you have lights of some kind are infinitesimally small.

 

[classic33]

Doesn't table 3 just state that you must have lights? Whereas the colours are specified elsewhere (if I knew how to post a link I would). Anyway, it's just an exercise for the legal bods, since, like you say the odds of being stopped if you have lights of some kind are infinitesimally small.

Updated in 2005. I've been to the local Road Police Unit(before they were relocated) and the colour of the lights and placement regulations weren't the best worded document they'd come across.

The question asked relates to Texas, where the law concerning lights on bicycles, isn't the same across the state. Cross a city or county line and the regulations can differ quite a bit, it would appear.

 

[DCBassman]

Is it just me that finds LED bike lights (and LED car headlights) pretty hopeless on wet roads? I (shamefully) have two cars, one with halogen headlamps and one with LED headlamps. Both are modern projector beam types. The halogen ones are much better; the LED light just gets lost except on dry pale tarmac. I'm sure the LED ones put more lux on the road, but it's what the eye sees that matters.

No, not just you. My car has HID dips and halogen mains, and the HIDs just vanish into the surface, because they are too blue, on a blue-black surface. Turning on the halogen mains is a whole different story, much more like sunlight. Modern lighting in general is simply too blue.