Are daytime bike lights a safety essential? Should you get daytime lights?

What is the world coming to when we feel the need to strap a flashy light to a 6ft tall lump of metal and meat in order for people nearby to be able to see it in the daytime?

We ride with Cateye Rapid Mini Rears (USB rechargeable) on during the daylight, especially on the commute when the roads are busier and drivers a little more tense about getting from A-B. It's even more important to have them on some Sundays as well, as the weather is often typically sh*t and drivers seem hell bent on speeding around lanes at stupid speeds with even less consideration than on a week day. Just my experience. I recommend that light, it's very low weight and the rapid mode is very visible.

In generally I strongly believe that it's the cyclist's right to choose either to use light's during any time of the day. As long as it's motorist's responsibility to drive with caution and be aware of cyclists.

I would have to disagree with Trek, because this would cause to be a mandatory law on cyclists. I would rather leave it up to the cyclists to choose whether to have his lights on or off.

In all the decades I've been riding, I've never been rear ended by a motor vehicle.

I've been side swiped by people being not aware that I'm still alongside them when they've turned in. I've had the usual dozy pillock pull out indicating right whilst looking left or with the phone over their eyes.... All the head-ons have been at night with relatively bright lights. But never had my back wheel driven onto.

I'm very sceptical at the usefullness of rear lights in daylight other than blind and annoy those behind.

Cue posting tomorrow morning ranting about the pillock that drove into the back of me.

If a lack of blinking red lights were the secret to making the UKs roads safer, this would be the perfect solution...

Look at the places in the world where cycling is safest, then ask yourself what impact this is likely to have, and how much more 'safety' stuff cyclists will become obliged to use to avoid contributory negligence claims while we gaze across the Channel at a country where you are more likely to die drowning than on a bicycle.

Makes perfect sense, particularly on club runs (not flashing though)! I can't find any argument against having day lights.

On most days I won't bother if it's very sunny out, in fact, all the "incidents/near misses" I've had recently have been due to cars pulling right across in front of me at a junction. I cycle in the middle of the lane at junctions and have a high viz orange helmet, I highly doubt a little LED light (on the front) would stop this happening (sadly).

After many years riding my motorcycle with lights on I have taken this on board when cycling to some degree using my rear light on a regular basis.

I would like to think drivers should be perfect but there not and I value my life.

Yes, I use lights all the time on road.
They weigh hardly anything, I don't need to worry about being caught out by bad weather etc as the lights are already there. They run on rechargeable batteries and last a week of commuting or a weekend of longer rides.

They're very useful in summer along sunlight dappled country lanes, they really stand out.

I urge everyone to react against this shameful piece of advertorialising by Trek by going out and getting a See Sense or Exposure FLARE instead................

There's EU studies to back up a net reduction in accidents on motor vehicles

http://ec.europa.eu/transport/road_safety/vehicles/doc/consultations/drl...

I run a flasher on the back all the time. Despite the argument that drivers should do the "right" thing, I'll take anything I can to make dying less likely.

There's been some (Danish, paywalled) research suggesting that DRLs lead to about a 50% reduction in bad crashes: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.aap.2012.07.006
It's not ironclad, but it's (ahem) way better methodology than any helmet research I've ever heard.

I ended up with hub driven DRLs, and put them on my kid's bikes. I ended up there not because of victim-blaming, as much but because removing the switch removed a point of both human and mechanical failure, and if I build mine like I build theirs, no arguments about kids vs grownups.

However, and this gets to awareness-test issues and poorly-trained drivers, it seems (anecdotally, not data at all) like I have had many fewer unpleasant interactions with drivers since turning on the DRLs. My pet theory is that a whole lot of driver irritation and bad behavior is caused by their "surprise" at cyclists "darting" (i.e., suddenly materializing where eyes were looking but brain was not) into the road, and DRLs do a lot to reduce that surprise. Note that some light manufacturers are *finally* using a minor flicker rather than an eye-popping flash to attract attention, and that is a very good thing. Hub driven DRLs with a good-sized cap on them will flicker at low speeds, but steady bright once you are moving (note -- mine are home-made, hence cheaper, also much more water-tolerant than the $$$ ones).

In terms of vs. helmets, I think DRLs are somewhat different:
(1) actual RCT study testing effectiveness, vs none for helmets.
(2) no extra effort for me to use; get on bike and go.
(3) obvious when they need replacement.
(4) don't get nasty and smelly with sweat.
(5) crash prevention, not crash mitigation.

I tend to always have my Smart LED with me even if it isn't attached. I tend to use it during daylight if I feel that light conditions are poor or if I'm going to be in a lot of traffic (such as commuting). I agree with another comment about running lights on other vehicles. More and more have them and this means not having some form of light makes bikes even less obvious. Which is why I'd run them in a heavily trafficked commute area.

It's all very well moaning about poor driving and roads, which I will continue to do, but that will change nothing. Having the "moral" high ground will do you no good when a 5 Series is parked on your legs.

I've ridden and driven thousands of miles in my 50 years. Two years ago, whilst driving, I was approaching an angled t junction near where I live, one I was very familiar with. I looked briefly and thought it was clear to go, so started to accelerate. For some unknown reason I checked again, and there was a cyclist maybe 3 m away on the main road. If I hadn't have looked again, I am sure I would have hit him, and the consequences for both of us would have been awful.
It's changed my approach to driving. Make yourself slow down and check everything properly the first time, and then check it again. If I, as a very keen cyclist and someone who is proud of his driving, could nearly take another cyclist out due to a moment of lax concentration, what about the rest of the numbnuts who shouldn't be driving anyway?
If I ever hear the phrase "Sorry mate I just didn't see you" it makes my blood boil. It isn't good enough to be getting behind the wheel of your car with that attitude.
What's this got to do with cyclists and lights? I don't at the moment run a light in the day time. I do have at least two front and rear for night riding though. I had a very unpleasant experience of a Sunday ride following someone with a Knog Blinder (I think it was) and it felt like my retinas were on fire. It made the ride more dangerous in my mind.
That isn't the same as a strobing light making a cyclist more visible and safer to traffic though. If it makes close passes less common, then it has to be a good thing.

I have been using a Magicshine MJ-818 rear light (85 lumens) in flash mode for the last few years. Very visible, even on a bright sunny day.

Battery is located in seat pack and gets charged once a week.

Does it make a difference? In my opinion it does and anything that makes you feel more confident on the road can only be a good thing.

I use an Exposure Flare R (same name, different manufacturer again) rear light on all but very bright days since noticing that cars give me more space when passing if the rear light is on.

Mandatory? Not for me, personal choice.

Much rather see helmets made law but that's another story................

I'll ride with a rear light when the weather conditions decree it, only when it's raining but then the vehicles are using their sidelights in such conditions too.

very interesting analysis here.

link is from a poster on another thread on this site.

http://www.slobc.org/safety/documents/road-survival-guide.pdf

I guess most rider leave their lights on their bikes most of the time, why not use them to give added visibility even during the day.

I bought several Cygolite hotshot rear lights and they are the brightest rear light I have come across. All my family use them. I also have Niterider lumina 750 front lights, again extremely bright, all are rechargeable, removable and compact.

For the truly curious, or the terminally bored at work, there's a long list of studies regarding day time running lights for vehicles on the Wikipedia page about them (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daytime_running_lamp).

I can understand the argument of "drivers shouldn't need a light to not hit someone", but it seems to me than a daytime running light is a bit like adopting primary position on the road and maximises your safety.

Always use lights, even in daylight, because conditions exist on the road where they help.

Bright sunlight means deep shadows, cars in the light cannot see riders in the shadows ahead of them. Rear lights help this.

Front lights are even more effective for cars pulling out of side streets. Typically they only give a quick glance when they pull out, but my urban-550 flasher means they never miss me. The difference is very noticeable, and probably measurable.

Making lights compulsory in daytime will just be another layer of victim blaming to distract from serious safety concerns. While people argue the toss about helmets, hi-viz, vehicular cycling etc the real changes to our streets cape that are required are not discussed.

Once we have safe routes then individuals can campaign for their personal safety hobby horse (lucky heather compulsory on all new bikes) but until then try to stick on message and not get sidetracked.

Hi all, great comments on here, and it's good to see people having a conversation about daytime visibility because ultimately, we at least want to get people thinking about it.

A few points:
-We are in no way advocating the idea that there should be regulation that mandates the use of lights during the day.
-We have not created the Flare R for the purposes of solely placing the responsibility for our safety on us as riders. We completely agree that the solution is better driver training, better infrastructure, and a more Dutch/Danish style transport culture in general.
-Please read the link Mat has provided to John Sullivan's report. It's a great read in general, but also provides really useful information about how we interpret visual inputs, and the speed at which we can process them.
-We wish we could point you to some peer-reviewed study that demonstrates the effects of the Flare R, but we can't. As far as we know, it doesn't exist. However, we do know about optics and how the brain processes various visual stimuli, so there are some elements of science behind why we know, albeit anecdotally, that using the light does have an impact.
-As Dave mentioned, even with the Flare R, you will still get people making terribly bad decisions when driving near you. This is not the be all/end all solution. It just makes you have a bit more of a say, and hopefully eliminates SMIDSY excuses.

A couple of technical notes:
-Using a light typically designed for night use is potentially not bright enough. It depends on the beam pattern, and how wide a viewing angle it has.
-There are brighter lights available, but this light was designed to maximise the visual output of the 65 lumen it has during daylight. The optics are designed to create the most visible beam pattern possible, so even though you can find lights with higher lumen count, the Flare will appear much brighter due to the lens design.
-The beam pattern range is 270 degrees, so quite wide.
-While runtime in full daytime mode is sub-6 hours, for longer rides you can get away with running the other mode, which has one flash that is as bright as full day mode. It will dramatically increase battery life and at least provide the same level of brightness in one interval of the flash pattern.

It's unfortunate that there are those who think the Flare R was created either as a way for us to make more money, or to solve a problem that doesn't exist. We are in the business of developing new products, both bikes and accessories, so of course we have a vested interest in being profitable so that we can continue to be on the leading edge of technology in the bike industry. We reinvest back into the R&D phase of everything we do, because costs a huge amount of money to engage in multi-year research projects for something like the Flare R. Then there is the prototype phase, and, in some cases, hiring people who have specialist knowledge of a product. In this case, optics.

As far as how much of a problem visibility actually is, that's where we do have a wealth of evidence to choose from. Anyone familiar with Rachel Aldred's Near Miss Project will understand that there is indeed an issue with not just visibility, but the perception that drivers have about cyclists.

As John Burke says in the video, even if you don't get a Flare R, get SOMETHING that makes it harder for drivers to not see you.

as a rule i generally ride with a rear light on flash during the day.
the way i look at it, people are less likely to drive into the back of me with it on, it's probably more effective than wearing a high-viz (and doesn't look crap), and it doesn't slow me down.

I do 25 commuting miles a day, and even though people shouldn't be on their phones, reading the paper, etc. they still do it and they're always going to.

at least a bright flashing red light might give me a chance of getting noticed out of the corner of someone's eye whilst they're updating their facebook status.

Quote:

I was in San Diego, and I’m driving along during the day,

Tells you most of what you need to know about this: a car driver that makes bike bits decided to make another bike bit.

No evidence presented as to the effectiveness of this at all.

I kill two birds with one stone and ride with my Fly6 on all the time, as it's the original version I have to have the light on.

Sods law, with my main bike in the shop for the day, I got knocked off my other bike that didn't have the fly6 on. Wouldn't have helped as someone decided to pull a u-turn as i overtook a traffic que.