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I run a cycling forum in London and a Volvo dealer recently approached us to advertise this and offer it for free for some cyclists to try. Whilst we don't do

• tomjen3 11y ago
  People get angry on the internet. Doesn't seen to matter what the subject is, you can nearly always find somebody angry about it.
• tetraodonpuffer 11y ago
  as somebody who bike commutes a little over 2 hours every day, I really don't understand why anybody would be angry about this, I mean, I would be wearing a strobing whole body orange flashing laser vest if it was available and the batteries lasted long enough. In the end bikes are a lot less visible than a car, especially at night, and even more so when it's raining, and despite this I still see several times a week cyclists dressed in black with no lights: of course if a car hits a cyclist the car is at fault, but if you think about it as a car driver you are rolling the dice at times at night because there is no way you can see somebody dressed like that until it's too late if they decide to ride in front of you. I am not saying all car drivers are blameless, despite using TWO 1000+ lumens led lights (one on my handlebar, one on my helmet) I still often get cut off by cars turning in front of me, or despite having a 500+ lumens red rear light cars passing me and cutting me off by turning right in front of me, so as a cyclist one has to ride defensively at all times, but I really don't see why one would not immediately jump at something that makes them more visible (and that will make any "I didn't see him" defense by a car driver in an accident moot)
  • mikestew 11y ago
    despite using TWO 1000+ lumens led lights (one on my handlebar, one on my helmet) I still often get cut off by cars turning in front of me Wow, I'd be kind of curious where you live. Way back in the day when I got my first HID (which put out something like 600-ish lumens, IIRC), getting cut off and cars turning in front of me just stopped. I can think of one incident where a car wasn't yielding the right-of-way, and I'm convinced that guy was just being a dick. And even Mr. Dick stopped dead in his tracks when I whipped the helmet light around into his eyes. With the new 1000+ lumen LED lights (one of which I have), it hasn't been an issue for me at all. But I live in the Seattle area, where one would like to think the drivers are a little more aware of cyclists (and there's more of them, which helps increase awareness). Your mileage will most likely vary.
• johansch 11y ago
  Wow, just wow. I'm a cyclist myself and this kind of immature attitude just gets to me. I simply cannot fathom how to begin to justify it.
  • buro9 11y ago
    Perhaps it's just a London bias. We're averaging a cyclist fatality every month with severe injuries every week and a significant number of minor injuries daily. I personally think it's the infrastructure more than anything else, and the prevailing TfL policies promoting high flow of traffic over liveable and calm environments.
    • johansch 11y ago
      As an outsider who has has visited London a couple of times: yes, it is obviously an infrastructure thing. I wouldn't dream of cycling on the streets of London; I don't have a death wish. (I'm in Sweden. Most of the time there's dedicated bike lanes/roads, but sometimes in the inner city parts we have to share the roads with cars.) I still think your fellow cyclists are being silly/immature. You should lobby for more isolation of car/bike traffic. However... Rejecting this kind of safety spray out of political reasons would be like rejecting bike helmets out of political reasons. You're wearing it to protect yourself...
  • rdiddly 11y ago
    I'll give you some help justifying it and fathoming it: 30,000 people are dying on roads in the US every year. Because of cars, not because of invisible cyclists. Most of which, there is already a law in place that would've prevented it, i.e. when a crash takes place there has typically already been a law broken. 30,000 people, that's TEN 9/11's every year. Enough to justify ten wars, some would say. So it's well more than enough to justify politely telling you to go fuck off with your glow-in-the-dark spraypaint. People in cars - YOU go paint yourself. YOU grow up. YOU take responsibility and be mature.
    • johansch 11y ago
      Yeah, that's just batshit insane. Sorry. Some sort of symbolic protest against car drivers is not going to help your cause. Your target should be the designers of the road system. Until you fix that, this is a stop-gap. Either way, in case you are more interested in surviving rather making a political point (the wrong audience), it makes no sense to reject something that can protect you.
• mikestew 11y ago
  Holy smokes, this epitomizes why I don't hang out with cyclists anymore: too much whining, about everything. No good deed goes unpunished in the eyes of the cycling community, including this one. A company comes out with an arguably good idea, and the response? "Victim blaming!" Yeesh, grow up already. As a current life-long hardcore motorcycle rider, and former hardcore cyclist, let me clue the rest of you riders into a little fact: you/we are hard to see, and the faster you come to terms with that, the longer you'll live or remain uninjured. There is no injustice in a company presenting a product and saying, "try this, it will make you more visible." Signed, Former Cat 2 racer, 40 mile/day commuter, and USAC race official
  • buro9 11y ago
    > too much whining, about everything To be fair, that's the UK for you :) But I drive too, I know as a cyclist I'm not visible by default. But 250 lumens of rear light, and 7,000 lumens of front light set that right simply enough.
    • mikestew 11y ago
      To be fair, that's the UK for you I'm in the U. S., in one of the most cyclist-friendly cities in the country. We get the same here. It knows no national boundaries. :-)