cyclists at night

[smn159]

Draxindustries1 said:

The amount of cyclists I have to shout at out the n/s window to use the firkin cycle track is unreal...

Jesus wept

Hopefully your inevitable accident won't be too serious for the other road user

[Evanivitch]

Draxindustries1 said:

There's a dedicated very well paved newish cycle track which runs from Wroxham (,Norfolk) to Horning , around 5 miles. Its a B road and very twisty. Its used at weekends by the tour de France leftovers who seem to refuse the cycle track but use the pot holed road instead.
The amount of cyclists I have to shout at out the n/s window to use the firkin cycle track is unreal...

Can you point to it on Google maps?

[Rozzers]

Draxindustries1 said:

There's a dedicated very well paved newish cycle track which runs from Wroxham (,Norfolk) to Horning , around 5 miles. Its a B road and very twisty. Its used at weekends by the tour de France leftovers who seem to refuse the cycle track but use the pot holed road instead.
The amount of cyclists I have to shout at out the n/s window to use the firkin cycle track is unreal...

Keep your eyes on the road and control your own vehicle please.
They have more right to use the road than you do, you are there by licence.

Is this one of these paths that cycles share with pedestrians and you have to give way at every crossing road?

[numtumfutunch]

Evanivitch said:

Draxindustries1 said:

There's a dedicated very well paved newish cycle track which runs from Wroxham (,Norfolk) to Horning , around 5 miles. Its a B road and very twisty. Its used at weekends by the tour de France leftovers who seem to refuse the cycle track but use the pot holed road instead.
The amount of cyclists I have to shout at out the n/s window to use the firkin cycle track is unreal...

Can you point to it on Google maps?

Prepare for disappointment

[PH User]

gazza285 said:

VSKeith said:

Cyclist here.

I've noticed more and more out at night without lights in the last year and was wondering if it was just me and confirmation bias.

They obviously don't need lights if you've noticed them.

I must have past over a hundred cars on the road tonight, without any lights on at all...

So did the cars not need lights then if you noticed them without lights on?

[TGTiff]

I cycle so I think I can make a somewhat unbiased comment on this.
Some cyclists are knobs and disrespect the rules of the road, others are not.
Unfortunately most of them are knobs!

[ambuletz]

as a cyclist, i hate cyclists with no lights at night, so i can sympathise.

In my last job i used to cycle along the A13 cycle path near dagenham. There was a 1 mile portion that wasn't very lit very well. There was also this man and his 2 kids who would cycle home daily after school, in the winter months when this would be dark they would have absolutely NO lights on any of them. it seriously pissed me off as they had no road sense/hazard perception either. constant last second swerves from either me (or them) because they were impossilble to see until up close.

[giantdefy]

TGTiff said:

I cycle so I think I can make a somewhat unbiased comment on this.
Some cyclists are knobs and disrespect the rules of the road, others are not.
Unfortunately most of them are knobs!

So statistically you are a knob

[TGTiff]

There are lies, damn lies and statistics!

[Southerner]

captain.scarlet said:

However, without wishing to justify it or offer any excuse, the increasing prevalence of quote white LED street lighting does now mean that the roads are very well-illuminated, almost floodlight effect in places? So those more absent-minded drivers are going to be more easily tricked into forgetting to switch their headlights on.

Got to object to that; all the new LED streetlights that I've encountered are utter sh*te, you drive down most side streets at night now and you can see naff all! They seem to simply 'light up' rather than actually throwing any illumination over the surrounding area, resulting in it actually being harder to see the road as your eyes are fighting to see past the pointless balls of white light floating at lamppost height.

[Evanivitch]

numtumfutunch said:

Evanivitch said:

Draxindustries1 said:

There's a dedicated very well paved newish cycle track which runs from Wroxham (,Norfolk) to Horning , around 5 miles. Its a B road and very twisty. Its used at weekends by the tour de France leftovers who seem to refuse the cycle track but use the pot holed road instead.
The amount of cyclists I have to shout at out the n/s window to use the firkin cycle track is unreal...

Can you point to it on Google maps?

Prepare for disappointment

No, how could anyone be disappointed by a single width pavement on a single side of the road with a few painted symbols!?

[GranpaB]

Southerner said:

captain.scarlet said:

However, without wishing to justify it or offer any excuse, the increasing prevalence of quote white LED street lighting does now mean that the roads are very well-illuminated, almost floodlight effect in places? So those more absent-minded drivers are going to be more easily tricked into forgetting to switch their headlights on.

Got to object to that; all the new LED streetlights that I've encountered are utter sh*te, you drive down most side streets at night now and you can see naff all! They seem to simply 'light up' rather than actually throwing any illumination over the surrounding area, resulting in it actually being harder to see the road as your eyes are fighting to see past the pointless balls of white light floating at lamppost height.

When they were starting to replace all our street lamps with the LEDs i read up somewhere about them being better as they were anti-glare, and emitted less light pollution (ie crap).

[gazza285]

PH User said:

So did the cars not need lights then if you noticed them without lights on?

My lights were on.

[ScotHill]

So Wroxam to Horning is about 3 miles, not 5 miles, the cycle track probably runs for less than that, and this is an example of part of it:

https://www.google.com/maps/@52.712169,1.4235681,3...

If I was riding with my young son I would use it, no question. If I was on my own travelling at 20-25mph I wouldn't use it, no question.

Cycling infrastructure is built for the safety and convenience of cyclists, not the convenience of motorists.

[captain.scarlet]

GranpaB said:

Southerner said:

captain.scarlet said:

However, without wishing to justify it or offer any excuse, the increasing prevalence of quote white LED street lighting does now mean that the roads are very well-illuminated, almost floodlight effect in places? So those more absent-minded drivers are going to be more easily tricked into forgetting to switch their headlights on.

Got to object to that; all the new LED streetlights that I've encountered are utter sh*te, you drive down most side streets at night now and you can see naff all! They seem to simply 'light up' rather than actually throwing any illumination over the surrounding area, resulting in it actually being harder to see the road as your eyes are fighting to see past the pointless balls of white light floating at lamppost height.

When they were starting to replace all our street lamps with the LEDs i read up somewhere about them being better as they were anti-glare, and emitted less light pollution (ie crap).

My experience of them has been that they are exactly that and achieve that. Not the same levels of light pollution as before because the light is directed downwards unless adjusted otherwise. The older types would throw light everywhere by default.

I thought I'd taken more photos that had the new streetlights in my local area. These were actually taken early in January 2021 to report the shoddy road surface at a crossroads and the flooding whenever it was a bit wet...and the potholes on top of the speed table. A traffic-calming measure within a traffic-calming measure.

You can see the difference in light output and visibility.





Fair enough that we may have differing views on this topic, but I think a combination of DRLs, brighter street lighting, complacency on the part of some (but not all) cyclists and general absent-mindedness are factors in road users not switching on their lights.

[PH User]

gazza285 said:

PH User said:

So did the cars not need lights then if you noticed them without lights on?

My lights were on.

We weren't talking about your lights.

[ScotHill]

PH User said:

We weren't talking about your lights.

I think the point they were making is they could see all the parked cars even though they didn't have lights on, and in a built-up area it's actually not that difficult to see cyclists without lights on if you're observing properly. They should still have lights though as it makes things a lot easier.

[PH User]

ScotHill said:

They should still have lights though

Agreed, no excuse really.

[gazza285]

ScotHill said:

So Wroxam to Horning is about 3 miles, not 5 miles, the cycle track probably runs for less than that, and this is an example of part of it:

https://www.google.com/maps/@52.712169,1.4235681,3...

If I was riding with my young son I would use it, no question. If I was on my own travelling at 20-25mph I wouldn't use it, no question.

Cycling infrastructure is built for the safety and convenience of cyclists, not the convenience of motorists.

And there you have it. Why would anyone with a choice want to use a cycle path without priority at side roads?

[Evanivitch]

gazza285 said:

ScotHill said:

So Wroxam to Horning is about 3 miles, not 5 miles, the cycle track probably runs for less than that, and this is an example of part of it:

https://www.google.com/maps/@52.712169,1.4235681,3...

If I was riding with my young son I would use it, no question. If I was on my own travelling at 20-25mph I wouldn't use it, no question.

Cycling infrastructure is built for the safety and convenience of cyclists, not the convenience of motorists.

And there you have it. Why would anyone with a choice want to use a cycle path without priority at side roads?

Let's not pretend it's something it isn't. It's just a pavement with a dash of paint.