"Truepurple" <
[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Apparently you 've never had a car ride your fender. As i'm going down a road its common for cars
> to come up drive right behind you for a bit then pass you, if they can(as in no traffic the other
> way) If I were to suddenly stop i'd get hit by said car riding my fender.
As if a driver would be able to see or understand what the illumination of a dim red light on the
back of a bike is supposed to mean.
As I said, having such a light might do no harm, as long as you don't actually depend on it to have
any benefit.
I've been in the situation you describe many times. If I've needed to signal to the following
driver, my hands are far more expressive and visible. If I've needed to come to such a sudden stop
that I had no time to signal, the need was just as obvious to the driver. And if they didn't see the
hazard, they're even less likely to see a little red bike light go on.
> What difference does it make whether they expect you to go slow or not? If they don't expect you
> to stop and you do you could be in trouble. Hopefully a light letting them know your stopping
> would help with that.
What reason to stop while riding in a thru lane could possibly apply to you but not the driver
behind you? It's not like you're blocking his view of anything.
>
> @steve knight And whats hard to understand or risky about a flashing turn light?(not talking about
> the first link I posted) If a driver can't understand that then they should get off the road and
> go back to driving school since just about every car out there uses such a system. How often do
> you see cars signal a left hand turn with there arm? Or a motorbike signal a turn by sticking
> there arm out?
Again, flashing lights on bikes mean something different to drivers than do flashing lights on cars.
They *expect* cyclists to signal with their hands (if they signal at all).
The single most important principle of vehicular cycling safety is to do what's expected, to be
predictable.
> And it is somewhat hard and risky to stick your arm out. Sure it would get easier with practice
> but your still taking your hand off the break, not to mention risking some car trying to pass you
> taking your arm off.
You're imagining dangers that don't exist. First, if you lack the skill to execute a turn signal
with your arm I question whether you should be riding in traffic at all. Second, don't you have a
mirror? Or at least a head that turns? If you're trying to move left across traffic and worried
about your arm being injured, you're not looking behind you sufficiently. Third, under what
circumstances would you be moving left across traffic in a situation where you'd need to signal
*and* be braking at the same time?
It obviously doesn't affect me whether you buy turn signal lights or brake lights. Be my guest. But
as a fellow cyclist I'd be very concerned if you then relied on such lights to protect you in any
way, or substituted them for improved cycling skills.
RichC
