I'm not normally one to rant, so please indulge me this once.
<rant>
It was very misty this morning in York as I rode in to work, thick white mist. I imagine conditions were similar elsewhere in the country. Visibility when I set out was about 100-150m, although it had cleared up a little by the time I arrived.
I passed a lot of cyclists on my way in, but despite the poor visbility less than a third of them had lights on!
I'm sure this comes as no surprise to any of you - we're all used to cyclists at night without lights, and if they don't have lights on in the dark it's hardly likely that they're going to have lights on for mist or fog.
But what surprised me was that most of the cyclists I passed had lights on their bikes - they just weren't using them. I wonder if any of them actually gave it a second thought... or is it so hard-wired into people's brains that 'lights are for when it's dark, innit?'
No, lights are so that other people can see you before you come billowing out of the fog bearing down on them like a bat out of Hell. Look! Look at the cars! They have their lights on! Care to guess why? Because it's fscking misty and they can't see!
</rant> Apologies.
<rant>
It was very misty this morning in York as I rode in to work, thick white mist. I imagine conditions were similar elsewhere in the country. Visibility when I set out was about 100-150m, although it had cleared up a little by the time I arrived.
I passed a lot of cyclists on my way in, but despite the poor visbility less than a third of them had lights on!
I'm sure this comes as no surprise to any of you - we're all used to cyclists at night without lights, and if they don't have lights on in the dark it's hardly likely that they're going to have lights on for mist or fog.
But what surprised me was that most of the cyclists I passed had lights on their bikes - they just weren't using them. I wonder if any of them actually gave it a second thought... or is it so hard-wired into people's brains that 'lights are for when it's dark, innit?'
No, lights are so that other people can see you before you come billowing out of the fog bearing down on them like a bat out of Hell. Look! Look at the cars! They have their lights on! Care to guess why? Because it's fscking misty and they can't see!
</rant> Apologies.