Ninja cyclists

[BentMikey]

Calm down dear, it's only a joke.

More seriously, I don't like 'em any more than you do.

 

[summerdays]

Well I don't have problems seeing either so I would agree with bentmikey in that respect, but it's more difficult, obviously. I'm glad someone else gives a toss about car lights, it makes a change.

I hate cars with broken lights... I see them far more often than cyclists without lights... last night at one set of traffic lights there were 5 cars in front of me... of which 2 only had one working back light.

I'm sure when I was a kid I remember my dad getting pulled over by the police for having only one working light and he had to report to the police station with it fixed within 5 days. The attitude nowadays seems to be ... oh it will get fixed at the next MOT.

 

[grhm]

The number of cars I saw this morning either without lights on, or one broken light, was silly. It's freezing fog here. Visibility is not great - probably not bad enough to warrant using fog lights (but close).

I only saw one car at the last moment as I was filtering on the right past traffic stopped at roadworks. Silly berk was driving a grey/silver car (i.e. fog coloured) at speed with no lights. Fortunately, the road is wide there, plus I could pull into a gap between two cars on my side of the road.


On a side point, I wear glasses. I wondered if my glasses misting up in the freezing fog was limiting my vision more than a drivers - but I could see as far when I looked over my glasses. Anyone have any tips on stopping glasses fogging up? Using the terry wipe on my gloves just smears everything around (meaning I have to stop and wipe them on a dry bit on baselayer to see clearly again).
My office is

 

[grhm]

last night at one set of traffic lights there were 5 cars in front of me... of which 2 only had one working back light.

If practical, I knock on their window and tell them their light is out. When I used to drive to work, I drove round with a broken tail light completely unaware until a colleague said "Are you going to fix that light? Is been over a month!" Fixed it that night.

Several people have seemed happy to be told. One WVM gave a gruff "I know" and looked irritated - so I tend to not bother telling WVM anymore.

Once, I told a woman who had her window wound down by an inch or two. She thanked me and then worried how long I'd been by her window and if I'd heard her singing along to the radio

 

[goo_mason]

Coming home in the dark tonight, did notice there were more cars with broken lights than cyclist without lights, but driver consider that to be more acceptable for some reason...

For the last two Saturdays, my Dad and I have taken to counting the number of cars with non-working lights that we see on the 10 miles between Dalkeith & Leith. Both weeks we've counted 9, as well as 3 with only sidelights on in week 1 and two in week 2.

This is after 7pm, and it's been dark since around 4.30.

Are car headlight bulbs being made on the cheap these days ? You certainly didn't see so many duds a few years ago.


Anyway - back to the OP. I came across one last night on Ferry Road - more of a twenty-something Chav on a clunker of a MTB. He was in black, no lights, hopping on and off the pavement etc etc. At one stage he jumped onto the pavement to get through some red lights, but stayed on there long after the lights went green. He then jumped off the pavement right behind a parked car and swerved around it, directly into the traffic flow and in front of the car in front of me. Poor woman must have got a fright and swerved wildy to avoid flattening him.

He's not going to live much longer if he keeps that kind of cycling up !

 

[pwh91]

Goo - I believe the reason you see so many cars with broken headlights these days is that a lot of modern cars need a garage visit just to replace the bulb. Our 2003 Ford Focus is like that - complete pain in the a** to replace a bulb on one side. You can see why people will put off replacing the bulb if it costs plenty time and money... Mad!

 

[fossyant]

I really can't be bothered telling cyclists that their lights are crap.... see to many.... todays was what I thought was a ninja, but the lass had one dimly lit led (read multi led lamp that was buggered) - couldn't see the light until I was sat behind her at traffic light.....

They seem to fair better than 'christmas tree' cyclists in survival chances....grrr

 

[Lazy-Commuter]

I was out and about early in the car this morning .. around six o clock so still proper dark. I saw 5 cyclists: three "grown ups" on their way to work with proper lights and hi-vis and all the rest of it, and two paper boys (presumably teenagers) who were both dressed in black and had no lights. Their paper bags were quite bright .. which is why I saw them: they were both on the path and hiding in shadows when I passed, though presumably they had to go on the road at some point. Makes you wonder what mummy and daddy were thinking of??

 

[hackbike 666]

Calm down dear, it's only a joke.

More seriously, I don't like 'em any more than you do.

Sorry,perhaps I have got a problem during the night with my night vision.Was cycling home last night and I didn't see the two peds at the ped lights till I was within ten yards of them,scary.They were dressed in black and I was shocked I saw them so late.

Would guess that peoples have different vision abilities.

I have good eyesight during the day...could there be a problem during the night or was my attention on the road taken up with other things like cars and stuff of which I was concentrating on?


Also I came very close to a collision last year with that cyclist who cycled off the pavement into the road right in front of me and I was going fast for once I was coming down from Whipps Cross towards Leyton.I saw him very late and had to make an instinctive manoeuvre as he had no light and dressed in black.This is so common it seems.

 

[BentMikey]

That makes me think of a near incident I had recently - a grannie in all hiviz gear, booties, trousers, jacket, and hiviz hat was bimbling along the pavement, and as I got near her she swerved off the pavement and into the road in front of me without even looking back. That was unexpected! Lucky I knew there was no-one behind me so I could simply go around her without needing to brake.

 

[Origamist]

Sorry,perhaps I have got a problem during the night with my night vision.Was cycling home last night and I didn't see the two peds at the ped lights till I was within ten yards of them,scary.They were dressed in black and I was shocked I saw them so late.

Would guess that peoples have different vision abilities.

You're not alone. The amount of glare, particularly in wet conditions at night make it much harder to see and there's not a lot physiologically you can do about it. I try to avoid staring direcly at any light source, but even so, things get a bit blurry from time to time due to being dazzled (and I have good visual acuity).

 

[PrettyboyTim]

 

[thomas]

I'm sure when I was a kid I remember my dad getting pulled over by the police for having only one working light and he had to report to the police station with it fixed within 5 days. The attitude nowadays seems to be ... oh it will get fixed at the next MOT.

The police would still pull you over. When I was reporting something he told me how he'd pulled a car over earlier for not having it's lights on. My uncle got pulled over because he had fog lights on when he didn't need them. It was a mistake, he didn't realise they were on. He got breathalysed and everything! They just asked him to turn it off and explained it is usually boy racers with their fogs on.

As for broken lights, I don't think people realise rather than being lazy! I would tell people if I had a safe time to come along side, so often you can see it but cannot tell people. In a car I used to drive the rear lights started just flashing on and off randomly. Thankfully a friend told me as he was driving behind me! Then a few months later someone at a roundabout came up along side really quickly trying to get my attention. It turned out neither brake light was working!! It was an electrical problem, but the last mile home was very scary!!

Usually the only time I check the lights is when reversing at night, because they reflect nicely off the car I park in front of. Nothing worst than broken lights, especially when they're on your own car!

Obviously, some people are just lazy but I do think a main part of it is just people being unaware, so I would always try to tell people (assuming I don't think they'll get all arsey like the WVM).

 

[silverbow]

Would guess that peoples have different vision abilities.

You are right. It has to do with rods and cones. Basically rods work in low light but can't sense colour but are very sensative. Cones see colour, and there are 3 types of cones red, green and blue! but they need alot more light to work. Its the reason why you only see in black and white in low light situations by that I mean night time i.e. walking across a field at night with no light around apart from referred light from the sky. Obviusly if someone turns on a green light in the distance it will be seen as green!

I remember something about rods being in the centre of the eye which means you have to look off centre to see things clearly at night - but I can't remember why that is..... and that's all the school biology I know on eyes pretty much exhaused!

 

[silverbow]

Oh and not everones rods and cones work the same and not everyone has the same number of rods and cones, which explains why you may feel others can see better in the dark than you. Also explains why cyclists favour different lights I guess.

I must confess I was married to a clinical biologist - the nights just flew by!