Riding at (or past) the edges of daylight

[xeney]

My husband is convinced that the blinking light is more visible, but my Cateye EL300 does not blink, and last week I had a driver roll down his window and thank me for using such a bright light. I do use a smaller blinking Cateye sometimes because this one is so big that I worry about it falling off, though.

Lately I have been doing most of my riding in the dark, and I always use front and rear lights, but I'm going to tack on to Denise's advice and say that lights aren't enough, either; you also need the reflectors and light clothing. When my husband got hit by a car, he had front and rear lights, and the left-turning car was coming from the other direction, and the driver still never saw him and drove right into him. Every jacket my husband owns is black or dark blue, his bike is dark blue, he doesn't wear reflective clothing, and basically he is relying on what amounts to a flashlight to alert drivers to his presence. (I'm pretty sure the guy who hit him was a little drunk, because I think a sober person would have seen the light, but you have to account for drunks and people who are distracted, too.)

The jacket I wear most of the winter is a bright yellow, but it has no reflective points. I'm thinking of putting some reflector strips on my helmet and maybe on the rear baskets on my commuter. I've started wearing a red light on my helmet as well as on the back of the bike, but I worry about front illumination, and about cars seeing me from the side. I really like riding at night, and in some ways I feel safer because I can see cars a lot better even if they don't see me, and in my neighborhood it is certainly safer to ride at night than to walk at night, which is my other option. But I have been thinking about the reflector issue a lot.

[SadieKate]

I have a Cateye EL400 on my helmet and run a L&M HID on my bars. One of the things I've noticed in town is how often lights mounted low on the bike are invisible. So, I've got a Cateye safety light on the back of my helmet and added reflective strips for side visibility. This puts a lot of stuff up high and less likely to be blocked. Lights mounted low on a fork or chain stay can be good some of the time but I've seen cyclists become invisible when something else blocked view of those lights.

I also just switched to a Blackburn Mars3 tail light for its side visibility.

Fortunately, I don't commute in the rain and heavy traffic, but if I did I think I would invest in one of the lighted safety vests