Oh those naughty motorcyclists

[jellywrestler]

How can they check your licence status without stopping you and requiring you to produce it?

number plate recognition cameras will give a good indication, yep I know it might not be the registered owner...

[Ocean1]

Are we allowed to extrapolate from studies about DRLs (Daytime Running Lights) on cars?

Yes.

Except these ones:

A study examining the effect of Norway's DRL law .... A Danish study reported.... Denmark's law.... A 1994 Transport Canada study ....

Where "Daytime" doesn't mean much in terms of "Daylight" for a significant part of the year.

[Berries]

Don't be so bloody precious.

Yeah good idea, lets just keep riding any way we want while we wait for everyone else to change.

Remember everyone. Whatever goes wrong, it's someone else's fault.Blame SOE. SomeOne Else.

Did someone get out of the wrong side of bed this morning?

[rastuscat]

Did someone get out of the wrong side of bed this morning?

Yes. Me. Now sod off.

Sorry, getting cheesed of with the blame-everyone-else-brigade.

Things have improved though, just hugged a tree.

[bluninja]

Are we allowed to extrapolate from studies about DRLs (Daytime Running Lights) on cars?



Nearly all published reports indicate DRLs reduce multiple-vehicle daytime crashes. (edited for brevity by bluninja)

Figures look great, but I would want to compare crash figures on a bright clear day for those with lights on and those off. I would suggest that the reduction is down to the drongos who don't bother turning on their lights when visibility reduces, and are involved in a collision where other road users haven't seen them.

[pritch]

Things have improved though, just hugged a tree.

If you lived in the North Island you could hug Katman.

[Berries]

But would you get wood?

[rastuscat]

Figures look great, but I would want to compare crash figures on a bright clear day for those with lights on and those off. I would suggest that the reduction is down to the drongos who don't bother turning on their lights when visibility reduces, and are involved in a collision where other road users haven't seen them.

I've been banging on about this for months..........

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inattentional_blindness

It's hard to imagine, but once you understand it, you'll wonder how to solve it.

Donuts.

[Ocean1]

I've been banging on about this for months..........

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inattentional_blindness

It's hard to imagine, but once you understand it, you'll wonder how to solve it.

Donuts.

So. You missed the gorilla, and an ancient piece of trivia is suddenly inspiration for a crusade.

[rastuscat]

If you lived in the North Island you could hug Katman.

Does he discriminate against mainlanders?

Scum.

[bluninja]

I've been banging on about this for months..........

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inattentional_blindness

It's hard to imagine, but once you understand it, you'll wonder how to solve it.

Donuts.

I can't think why I haven't seen any of your posts about this before

[rastuscat]

So. You missed the gorilla, and an ancient piece of trivia is suddenly inspiration for a crusade.

Sorry to bore you.

We attend hundreds of crashes each month where the offending driver says he/she didn't see the other vehicle.

I guess it could all just be a coincidence.

But I think not.

I dealt with a young guy who U-turned across the path of a red XR6 this week. He wasn't blind, just blind to something he didn't expect to see.

[Ocean1]

We attend hundreds of crashes each month where the offending driver says he/she didn't see the other vehicle.

I don't doubt it, but it's hardly news to motorcyclists.

How about you suggest some proven strategies for dealing with it, or are they not officially sanctioned?

[chasio]

Are we allowed to extrapolate from studies about DRLs (Daytime Running Lights) on cars?

I vote no.

This next is only my vague recollections and crackpot rambling so if you want some facts, do some Google-fu. But anyway...

A significant part of our depth perception and therefore our perception of whether the distance to an object is increasing or decreasing and at what rate comes from having binocular vision.

It is rather difficult to accurately estimate the distance to a single bright object (e.g. a bike headlight, especially on high beam), particularly if the brightness of the object overwhelms the other visual information that we may receive about its source (e.g. it overwhelms the fairly small front profile of a bike). Basically our binocular vision cannot provide enough information about the bright light for the brain to figure out what is happening unless it has other information to mitigate the 'shiny thing with no distinct edges' effect.

If there are two bright lights approaching us on a single object that are arranged on a plane at right angles to where we are looking, our eyes provide information that our brain can process much better in terms of inferring how quickly the object is moving, even though our binocular vision has been compromised. E.g. two lights slowly seeming to become further apart may be interpreted as a slow moving pair of car headlights, while two lights more rapidly appearing to be further apart means warp factor 9, Mr Sulu. (And for last second "looming" effects: the effect is dramatically more noticeable as long to medium range becomes short range, of course).

So while a pair of DRL's on a car may provide information that is useful in terms of speed and distance, a single headlight does not do this for motorbikes. Perhaps it might catch the attention of someone who is looking for it. But "bright thing" is not as compelling a message as "rapidly approaching object", and so the "bright thing" is assigned a lower priority.

I've thought about getting a pair of DRL's to assist with this, but I certainly wouldn't get a round pair and mount them low down, for fear that my bike at 50 metres could be mistaken for a car 200 metres away. I reckon bikes with two round headlights side by side would do better in this regard (on low beam).

By way of unscientific evidence, I used to cycle a lot at night (quite fast) and got fed up with people pulling out in front of me. My thinking was as above, so I mounted two 1W LED lights about 20cm apart on my bars and set them both to a steady beam (flashing is harder to judge speed), angled very slightly down so as not to dazzle. I reckon I had about an 80% reduction in emergencies as a result.

YMMV

Chasio

Edit: So I ride assuming that I have not been noticed until I see clear evidence to the contrary. And then I still don't actually trust them.

[caseye]

Sensible idea that Neil. Can't imagine why it wouldn't work, obviously it DID Work, %80 is damned impressive.
So does this mean that those pesky Hardly riders might be onto something in bolting on those hideous side lights?
Pin Lock works %100 mate, many thanks again.