CityCyclingEdinburgh was launched on the 27th of October 2009 as "an experiment".
IT’S TRUE!
CCE is 16years old!
Well done to ALL posters
It soon became useful and entertaining. There are regular posters, people who add useful info occasionally and plenty more who drop by to watch. That's fine. If you want to add news/comments it's easy to register and become a member.
RULES No personal insults. No swearing.
Perhaps taking inspiration from our nascent Does My Lumen Look Big In This?, Edinburgh Bicycle has produced a little video (filmed Tuesday this week) about how (in)visible certain cyclists can be, even if they're legal for lights.
http://www.edinburghbicycle.com/blog/2012/12/to-see-ourselves-as-others-see-us/
It does rather show up the usefulness of retroreflective materials and the suicidalness of dark clothing and poor lights.
If a first year did that experiment I'd be giving them null points. The lights on the bikes weren't the same so they didn't do a fair test. it looks like the same red bike but in the last run they have switched off the front flasher.
Could they be trying to sell us something?
Retinas don't work like a CCD but that's a different point.
I do carry reflective things but I don't like cheating adverts.
Oh, I'm glad someone posted this. I agree, there is no light at all on the non-reflective bike, so it isn't a fair comparison.
I was a little wary of posting it, actually. Not because of the light-fiddling, which I didn't realise at first, but because of its thinly veiled message, "and we know just the place for you to buy these things!"
If 'the law' says you need a front light and a rear light, you're compliant. The gradual increase in light levels (cars, shops, bicycles, signs, etc.) means that a little light that would've been adequate before becomes less than adequate now.
I'm sure some of the forumites could produce better ;-)
It's an interesting idea, but badly let down by the blatant propoganda style change of lighting used.
Some of the PY crowd saw me in full hi-vi plastic hat mode this morning, it's unusual and reserved for the poorest conditions, normally I just have a steady and blinky front and a couple of offensively bright rear blinkies allied to retro-reflectives on the rear mudguard and pedals. That and defensive riding is more than enough for 95% of Edinburgh commuting in the dark.
But that doesn't sell expensive cycling jackets does it.....!
As a cyclist who has kids who also cycle, I think it's a brilliant message and video. I think I cycle with even more reflective stuff than the guy in video #1 and I didn't think I was as obvious as he is. Now I know I truly am going to be spotted in the dark, or at least, if I'm not, then it's not my fault. I also didn't realise that a cyclist without reflective stuff on was as invisible as the video showed. I'm now very glad I got my daughter a ruck-sack reflective cover a few weeks ago.
Spotted a chap riding down the A75 in what looked like road worker clothes the other day. I suspect he actually was a road worker too. Those reflective bands on the legs are quite striking - the way they go up and down with the pedal stroke makes it very clear it's a cyclists from a long way off...
Yes, mkns, but the non-reflective cyclist also had no lights and therefore was not an accurate reflection (sorry) of what a legal but non-reflective cyclist would look like.
Rider 3 does have lights, they are on his bike and switched on. I think it is a pretty good way to show that reflectives and good lights are much more visible than no reflectives and not-such-good lights.
Although the front one looks pretty good to me. The back one not so much.
3 has lights but not the same as the others. The first one has a flasher on the handlebars.
It's not a fair test I'd send them back to redraft.
Retinas don't behave the same way as a CCD. If they did I'd not be able to see all the unlit, non retro reflective pedestrians and other street items.
I was lazy and rode in at 8am today, so there was a whopping five cyclists ahead of me at one of the junctions. I hung back to see how their lights caught the eye. Somewhat gratifying that the easiest to spot was the one at the very front, since he had a Smart light which I think is one model down from mine.
Of the other four, two were visible from ~50m the other two were so weak I spotted them by silhouette.
When out driving recently, I have noticed numerous cyclists with what seem to me to be pitifully weak front lights. I'm not sure what type of lights they're using but they appear to manage to comply with the law without actually making themselves very much more visible. But I have, however, actually seen them - so perhaps they can't be that bad and it may just be my perception.
Quite frequently I spot other cyclists initially by their shape and position, only later discerning the pitfully weak blink of a substandard light somewhere to their rear. Differences between human-made electronic photosensitive devices and the powerful combination of the retina and visual cortex notwithstanding, EBC ought to try the same thing with their stoogeclists against a street-like background of lots of different still and moving lights.
I popped out yesterday afternoon to retrieve my bike from the office car park after leaving it there over the weekend, unfortunately forgetting all my lights except those attached to my helmet - a ½W Cherry Bomb and one of those rubbery Revolution USB things. This may have contributed to the two dooring attempts along the Cowgate.
Vaguely relatedly, I had to drive from southern Glasgow to Ayr on Sunday morning which involved several instances of driving up a slight slope with the sun directly ahead a couple of degrees above the shiny-damp road in front. It was still possible to spot cyclists on the road, contrary to the reported legal pleas of murderers.
Sigh.
Reaslied I'd left my decent rear light at home today - only had time to pop to Evans and splashed out, since there was 30% off, on an Exposure Flare.
'cept it's just flashing away very very very weakly, and the mode won't change. Probably just a duff battery, but means having to go back before going home etc etc. Not the best of starts...
@SRD, that front is pretty good, I use it as a stand light/blinky but its better than most.
@WC, Good grief they had something in you were vaguely looking for! Wonder how long that battery has been sitting in the shop, just waiting on you.
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