Really bright lighting can be counterproductive. A while ago I was riding at night on a dark, rural section of the Capital City Trail. I had a medium-strength Planet Bike headlight, and I was seeing well enough to stay on the path and avoid hitting anything big.
At one point, a biker approached from the other direction with a REALLY powerful high-intensity light, which made me very aware of his existence, but blinded me to everything else. As we met, he started yelling at me, and I couldn't figure out why. When he finally passed, and I could see again, I realized that I was one the left side of the center line -- right in his way. If he hadn't made an emergency maneuver to avoid me, we would have collided -- because he had a really good headlight. For the Southwest Path, I agree with Kathryn. I don't want bright lights, but I'd like enough light, even on dark nights, to see rabbits, pedestrians and stealth-mode bikers. If we did a careful study of the path, I think we'd find that some stretches have enough ambient light already, while others are much too dark for safe riding. My ideal solution for the darkest stretches would be those solar-powered LED lights that people use to illuminate paths in their gardens (maybe a little bit more light than that, but not much more). There are probably rules that would prevent the City from going to Menard's and picking up a few dozen lights for the Path, but maybe they can do something in that spirit. [email protected] wrote: > I'd like lights. Not bright lights -- just enough so that you can see if a > cat's about to jump out in front of you. Or a rabbit. I prefer not to have > roadkill (or Pathkill, I guess) on the paths. I realize some of the > current pathkill could from people going too fast during the day, but > having had a few close encounters at night when I thought I was going a > reasonable speed for the conditions, I think lighting could help. > > Dark sky lighting would be optimal. And lighting that wasn't so bright > that it becomes hard to adjust to the dark. The other added bonus of path > lighting is that the flashy lights of oncoming cyclists would no longer be > blinding. > > Also, I don't think it's a good idea to speed down from the bridge over > the beltine at night. Yes, I know it's exhilerating and I used to do it, > but as more people started to use the path, it dawned on me that the risk > for hitting pedestrians in dark clothes was there. I would be horrified if > I hit someone on that path just because I'd wanted the buzz of going 25 > mph downhill. And a collision at 25 mph would not be pretty. If you want > the buzz, ride Today between Midvale and Glenway! > > Kathryn_______________________________________________ > 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
