Rear lights on helmets.

[Grendel]

Watch out for ALDI selling bike helmets. They crop up regularly and have a built in rear light (with a battery which many shops don't stock, but can be bought on Amazon, etc).
https://www.aldi.co.uk/bikemate-adult's-bike-helmet/p/094575151852500

 

[BoldonLad]

Mrs @BoldonLad has a built-in light at rear of helmet. Helmet came from Lidl.

We were in Spain at time of purchase, about 15Euro, so, no need to spend silly money, just need to wait until the next Lidl "cycling gear special", and hope it includes helmets with lights built in.

Difficult to comment objectively on it's effectiveness, it is certainly bright, and "should" make her more visible, when combined with "on bike" lights.

Without accurate statistics on accident numbers and lighting modes, anything else is simply an opinion.

So, for what it is worth, my opinion is, you cannot be "too visible". However, the "he/she MUST have seen me" argument is of little use, if you are lying on the ground with broken bones or worse.

 

[pjd57]

I expect such information is readily found in the highway code.

Section 60 leaves it open to interpretation with its use of "recommended " and " permitted"

 

[Drago]

Recommended by those renowned road safety experts, Her Majesty's Stationery Office.

 

[furball]

If you intend fixing any light to your lid it needs to be something that won't affect the integrity of the helmet.
If you have good rear lights there isn't really a need for a rear helmet light, it would be an addition, perhaps used in flashing mode with the main one steady.
I find that a front helmet mounted light (small and doesn't affect the helmet) is more useful than a rear mounted one particularly at roundabouts because the light can be made visible to traffic to my left and right by turning my head.
There are small helmet front and back lights on the market that come as single unit.

 

[Sharky]

As well as rear light, reflective slap bands round the ankles are extremely effective.

 

[biggs682]

I think they are good. The odd driver still appears to try his best to pretend not to see you but I think it seems to happen less. The first 20 minutes of my commute is unlit country roads, and I feel even oncoming drivers are now more prone to dipping their headlights as they usually are for "Just a Cyclist".

At first glance it look's expensive but what price do you put on trying to stay alive , will have to do some investigation

 

[Welsh wheels]

Hi to all.
Its only me again and hope you've all had a good day.
This coming winter I'm determined to try and continue to cycle in the dark evenings after work. There's nothing worse than coming home to an empty house and just sitting there all night vegetating in front of the tv. Cycling has been great this summer and its a shame for it to simply end because the dark nights have arrived. The one though that puts me off about night time rides ,is the fear of not being seen by motorists. I'm not concerned about what goes one in front as I feel I have some control if a situation arises. Its more of a fear of will the car behind see me , especially on some fast A roads that I use from time to time. Tonight was a good example when a bus made a close pass scaring me witless. I feel that my lights are plenty bright enough and very noticeable but after tonight,s little scare I'm thinking of upping the Aunty with another rear light.I would be quite happy to dress my bike in an array of christmas light if it were to ease my paranoia of not being seen, but we all know this is not really the right way forward. Looking in my box of bike spares I've dug out a moon comet rear light and it fits rather nicely to my helmet. Would you agree or differ that a rear light on a helmet is a good safe guard to use in conjunction with my seat post mounted light.
All the very best,
Johnny :-)

I wear a hi-viz jacket with the words "Hard and I knows it" emblazoned on the back. I rarely get close passes.

 

[vickster]

I wear a hi-viz jacket with the words "Hard and I knows it" emblazoned on the back. I rarely get close passes.

Probably everyone else does too if you wear Lycra Cycling shorts

 

[Welsh wheels]

Probably everyone else does too if you wear Lycra Cycling shorts

 

[mjr]

At first glance it look's expensive but what price do you put on trying to stay alive , will have to do some investigation

Investigate whether you'd be spending your money on making yourself less safe. Some of these "common sense" safety measures actually seem to reduce safety, while most have no evidence... and why would they if the manufacturers can sell them as "common sense"? Why risk killing the goose by discovering scientifically that it's detrimental?

 

[mjr]

Section 60 leaves it open to interpretation with its use of "recommended " and " permitted"

It does refer to the Road Vehicles Lighting Regs which you can piece together with amendments to find that flashing lights are permitted as long as they're regular flashes (not varying length) of 1 to 4 times a second of at least two Ronnies brightness... sorry, 4 candela. If the light has steady modes then it must meet the regs in those modes too, which usually means German K marking (aka StVZO) as there's fewer than ten BS marked lights still on sale. In practice, as long as a flashing light isn't obviously obnoxious (strobing or dazzling), I'd be amazed if it was challenged by traffic police or insurers.

 

[Jody]

I have a Knog Blinder 4 on my lid, set on eco flash to compliment the one on my seat post and also act as a back up should the batteries go. Great on run times and not too bright. It might just be my take but cars do seem to pass wider when a light is used on the lid.

 

[mjr]

Just one steady red light is enough. Please stop littering yourself with lights. You are not safer. […]
Plenty of evidence from around the world that less lighting is better. Try cycling in Japan, […]

Try cycling in the UK, where unlit cycling is a factor in fewer than 3% of collisions which even after correcting for other factors seems disproportionately low compared to the numbers cycling without lights. IMO the most plausible theory is that drivers not looking properly is a big factor and unlit cyclists ride assuming they've not been seen so give way even when it shouldn't be necessary, whereas lit cyclists will generally assume motorists will give way when they ought.

A special circle of hell should be reserved for people walking and cycling with lights on their heads, misleadingly showing red to the front or white to the rear when they turn their head. Please at least use amber lights or something.

 

[Bazzer]

I'm not exactly sure what I look lime to other drivers but I'm lit up lime a Christmas tree so as long as your lights are steady and not dazzling I think the more the better. I always tell my mates, if anyone hits me they are going down for it as there is no way they could argue they couldn't see me.

Good luck with that argument. The police have failed to take any action against drivers who have taken me out (twice), in broad day light, the first of which I was wearing a hi viz jacket. And there are many others on here who will have had similar experiences and had far more serious injuries than I suffered.

The OP referenced a bus making a close pass. Personal opinion, but if a driver can't see a modern LED bulb or array mounted to a seat post or seat bag and pass the rider accordingly, I don't see that distracting them by being lit up like a Christmas tree is going to make any difference. - Particularly when commonly there are other reflective elements on the bike or on your person, whether they be seat post reflector, mudguards, pedals, rain jacket, back of your shoes, back of your leggings etc, all which are designed and incorporated into the item to bring a cyclist to a driver's attention.

The same lack of attention by some motorists to cyclists, can also be experienced by oncoming traffic. For example, there are sections of road on my commute which for quite long stretches have very little street lighting and a long section with no street lighting at all. IME, whether I have illuminated one front light, or two, (one with 5 LEDs which produces a light scatter and one with a powerful single bulb, with a directed beam), or one with a flasher and one fixed, makes no difference to the oncoming tw@ts, who decide that my retinas should feel the force of their headlight full beams.