if a cyclist lights dazzle a driver, its worth it...

[Vipers]

scoobster999 said:

MysteryLemon said:

The whole point in the light is to get the cyclist seen. By dazzling the driver, its doing it's job. A moment of inconvenience for the driver is far less important than a dead cyclist that driver probably wouldn't have otherwise seen...

Really? Tell you what, stand in front of a car and blind the driver....

So the car driver loses his night vision even for a few seconds while their eyes re-adjust they has moved 30/40/50 feet at speed and potentially missed seeing an object, other road user or other hazard.

Apt name BTW.....

Badly adjusted car headlight do it all the time.......

[Andy ap]

I ride to work everyday and the difference between not having a bright flashing light on your bike and having a bright light aimed squarely at peoples wing mirrors is stark.

Without the light i'm constantly getting cut up or jammed against the kerb. With the light the driver is momentarily startled to see something approaching in the mirror but the road positioning then is usually such that they know i'm there. (That is of course until they get in front of you and then suddenly forget your there again).

Unless they're one of the pricks that either seemingly deliberately steer towards the kerb once they've noticed me or one of the hapless morons that turns left every time they look in their nearside wing mirror without realizing.

[fangio]

Andy ap said:

constantly jammed against the kerb.

Stupid place to be. Then again, you're a cyclist!

[Munich]

GC8 said:

hairyben said:

Would a cyclist with a dazzle light face the manslaughter rap in this instance?

Youre being a silly boy.

+1

[Munich]

AngledSocks said:

I would have thought as a driver you would rather be dazzled by a cyclist, think they're a dick, and slow down a bit rather than run someone over because you didn't see them? Equally... As a cyclist you would rather be thought a dick than killed...

Maybe my driving style is different to a lot of people but generally speaking if I get dazzled by something I don't find myself steering towards it and accellerating.

tend to agree with you here. If I'm being blinded by someone in an on-coming car and therefore cannot see the road in front of me properly, I tend to slow down and even come to a standstill if the road is particularly narrow, which is often the case where I grow up.

As for all the bhing in this thread about cyclists with too bright lights, it is often the person in the car driving with main beam on blinding the cyclist and not adjust the lights for the cyclist.