Observation from the driver’s seat

I actually do use my bike for most of my travels these days. There are maybe 2 or 3 days a week that I drive a car, and those are trips that, logistically, can’t be accomplished any other way.

It is interesting from this perspective to observe other cyclists. Try and understand why other drivers might do what they do. Well… here’s my observation from my drive last night (in the dark):

  1. Bright headlight that can be seen many blocks away: good.
  2. Flashy bright headlight that can be seen many blocks away: distracting and hard to focus on. Bad.
  3. Flashy bright headlight that can be seen many blocks away, on a bike salmoning the wrong way in my lane: potentially disastrous.

Seriously. Don’t do this. I pretty much came to a complete stop in the road. Flashing light definitely get attention, but they also make it damn near impossible for people to judge distance, and thus speed and direction. Even if this guy or gal hadn’t been riding on the wrong side of the road into oncoming traffic, this creates a real problem at intersections.