[GRRiders] Re: Lights being perpendicular

[ERIC THERESA SIMMONS]

    This perpedicularity of lights seems like just so much BS to me.

1. As an anesthesiologist at a trauma hospital every cyclist I have taken care of who was hit riding at night had no head or tail lights, was wearing dark clothing and had no reflective material. Randonneurs present the antithesis of this model when riding at night.

2. The roads we ride are not flat. Therefore a cyclist with perpendicular tail lights, beginning to ascend a hill will have lights pointed well below the direct line of vision of a driver descending the hill just behind the cyclist. There are almost limitless variations between the direct beam of the tail light and the approaching observer. Regardless of the angle (within reason) I have no trouble seeing cyclists ahead of me in the dark 1/2 to 1 mile ahead (depending on the terrain)  unless I am blinded by the headlights of an on coming vehicle. 

3. Tail light lenses broadcast a wider beam of light than the headlights that we use. The headlight beams are focused for the rider to see where he/she is going and the taillights cast a broad beam for the rider to be seen. Some thought was give to visibility by the engineers who designed the taillights. Even at 145-160 degrees from the center of the beam most tail  lights are still very visible so, a few degrees off the perpendicular has little or no effect on ones overall visibility, especially if one has two or more tail lights.  

4. Bill, If you want to give a logical reason for having the lights perpendicular it should be so that the brightest beam of the tail light is not focused directly in the eyes of the cyclist behind you, just as the blinking mode becomes distracting and irritating the bright center is irritating and causes the night vision of the following cyclist to be reduced.

I would especially like to here from our engineering trained randonneurs on the subject as my diatribe is based on personal experience, observation and a limited knowledge of physics.

Eric Simmons


  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: goldrushriders-request at dbclist.org<mailto:goldrushriders-request at dbclist.org> 
  To: goldrushriders at dbclist.org<mailto:goldrushriders at dbclist.org> 
  Sent: Thursday, July 07, 2005 1:00 PM
  Subject: GoldRushRiders Digest, Vol 6, Issue 10


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