Several ideas have come to mind regarding the lighting along several stretches in Madison. Generally I like riding at night because it's quieter, you can see traffic lights approaching beyond corners, the traffic is lighter both automotive, cycles and pedestrian. But there are those stealth walkers and cyclists that catch me by surprise. While you can't force people to have lights unless it is law and putting up street lights is expensive and causes light pollution, a possible alternative was demonstrated by mountain biker Gary Fischer at the Saris Gala. For those of you who weren't there, the iconoclastic Fischer was wearing an old-fashioned style pennyfarthing tweed outfit with sport jacket, vest, knickers just past the knee and argyle knee-length stockings. If that doesn't stop traffic by itself...But the trick was that the jacket and pants had highly reflective threads sown in that lit up his outfit like a traffic sign when I used my camera's flash. Legally, you can't impose a fashion police on the bike trails and cyclists will wear black because that's what's sold in bike stores and it hides bike grease. But the city may consider highly reflective paint along the path and regular strips across the path. You may not see detail of the oncoming obstruction but you can see a silhouette of something on the path. Just an idea for consideration. But until then I'll use stronger lights. For headlights I have Cateye LED light and a MiNewt. I also have Planet Bike rear lights and small blinky Planet Bike lights on my helmut and frame as position lights. I can be pretty well lit up and still be sober. Under regular street lights the Cateye is enough to see with and be seen by. On the SW bike path and Capitol City Trail I'll use the MiNewt. My headlights use batteries. the MiNewt has rechargable battery unit which needs to be regularly recharged. Usually I try to turn down my strong light when there is an approaching cyclist either by switch or tilting my riser on my recumbent. But sometimes I forget. Oops. When in doubt have the lights on full. On the way home from the gala, I was riding shot gun with three other cyclists and I thought I'd be nice not to have the MiNewt on. But when we turned on the Cap City Trail I lost track of the path even though I saw the cyclists turn ahead of me. The problem was, besides being momentarily spastic, was that I had not given my eyes time to readjust to night vision and I was partly blinded by the rear tail lights. So, another suggestion is to wear sunglasses indoors before going out at night. It works for pilots flying at night and it'll work for cyclists. And what says "cool" more than wearing sunglasses at night? My three cents.Darryl --- On Thu, 10/15/09, India Rose Viola <[email protected]> wrote:
From: India Rose Viola <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [Bikies] Southwest Path- is it too dark at night? To: "George Perkins" <[email protected]> Cc: [email protected] Date: Thursday, October 15, 2009, 8:30 PM George, Thank you for the support. I was just going to ask what we should do next. I'll see if anyone on this list who is perhaps more motivated, has more time on their hands, or who has experience getting the ball rolling comes up with suggestions by Monday- at which point I'll try to put some time into looking into moving forward on this. -India ----- Original Message ----- From: George Perkins <[email protected]> Date: Thursday, October 15, 2009 8:19 pm Subject: Re: [Bikies] Southwest Path- is it too dark at night? To: Dane County Bicycle Transportation Alliance <[email protected]> > I agree. I am frequently startled when I meet or overtake pedestrians > and > joggers who carry no lights with them. I have two lights on my bike (double > the light but also in case a battery dies) and it isn't enough. There > aren't > enough clear nights with lots of moonlight to fill in the gaps. > > I know the path was built with conduit for future lighting and I also > know > the lighting was eliminated as a compromise to wary neighbors who feared > swarms of evil-doers travelling along a well-lit path as their means of > attack and escape. But now many in the neighborhood also use the path > at > night and would probably be in favor of lighting. > > Does anyone on this list know where this goes next? By the time a lighting > proposal passes through the city committees and gets on the project list, > the economy may well be on the mend and the budget support it. > > > _______________________________________________ > Bikies mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.danenet.org/listinfo.cgi/bikies-danenet.org _______________________________________________ Bikies mailing list [email protected] http://lists.danenet.org/listinfo.cgi/bikies-danenet.org
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