Years ago I read an article on some research that was done regarding what makes
people visable to other drivers. It was found that a light pulsing at 4 cycles
per second would effect your subconsious drawing your attention to it and it
was basically not possible to ignore. The article went on to say that pulsing
the headlight between 80 and 100% power was all that was needed. At the time
the pulsing seemed to make sense but I was skeptical that 80 to 100% was enough
of a variation to work. Some time latter I was driving down a long straight
section of two lane road when all of a sudden something caught my attention. I
staired down the road for a second or two before the motorcyle that was
approaching from the other direction was close enough that I could pick it out
of the background and could actually see the slight pulsing in the brightness
of the headlight.
Was not long before I had fab up a little circuit to pulse the headlight on my
cycle. I am suprised that you do not see more of these being used, when I do
see them it's mostly on touring bikes and I see it on the brake light too.
Guess it's not cool if you ride a croch rocket.
Dave Clement
99 SLT+ CC 4x4
In article <bu90ai$rut$1@bent.twistedbits.net>, robert_schultz@yahoo.com (Rob
S) writes:
>
>
> I second that.
>
> The last left turn before you get to my house is in a bit of a valley.
> In the summer you have to look through the tall grass at the side of the
> road to see if there are cars coming (because you're basically looking
> up). DRLs make it far easier to spot oncoming traffic. Probably saved me
> from more than a few embarrassing driving mistakes.
>
> I do agree that motorcycles and bicycles seem to be invisible to a vast
> majority of drivers. From motorcyclist friends I have I would say that
> DRLs do not help. Some drivers just can't conceive of anything smaller
> than them on the road.
>
> Rob S.
>
> droo wrote:
> >
> > On Thu, 15 Jan 2004 22:52:23 +0000 (UTC), <jon@dakota-truck.net> wrote:
> >
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> - The theory isn't quite sound. Here is what I mean... There
> >> is certainly no arguing that a vehicle with its lights on is
> >> more visible than one with the lights off (under most circumstances).
> >> However, this is an advantage that should be
> >> exploited carefully; not employed en-masse. If everyone has their
> >> lights on, the advantage is lost. Consider a law that says everyone
> >> has to wear orange shirts because it makes them more visible. All you
> >> get is a sea of orange! Similarly, all DRLs give you is a sea of
> >> light. It only adds to the confusion, its a lot of noise without an
> >> improvement in signal. There are certain vehicles which use
> >> headlights all the time such as motorcycles, school busses, emergency
> >> vehicles, etc. These vehicles now just dissapear into the mass, and
> >> any advantage they might have had is lost. Its as if everyone was
> >> driving with their lights off. As a biker, DRLs make the highways
> >> less safe for me, and I don't like that. With the idiot drivers out
> >> there, I need all the help I can get when I'm not surrounded by 2 tons
> >> of steel!
> >
> >
> > The idea isn't to make you stand out from other vehicles. It is to make
> > you stand out from the background.
> >
> >
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sun Feb 01 2004 - 16:29:50 EST