Posted: Thu Mar 20, 2008 6:34 am
To be honest I'm of the belief that the best safety mod you can do, is to get your brain going properly.
Yes the percentages may be that such and such style has less accidents but that may also be due to the mental setup of the type of people who like them, not the actual item themselves.
For example if someone said Toyota Prius have less accidents than Ferrari's, that doesn't mean Toyotas are more visible, just that the average owner is probably more conscientious of the way they drive.
In stead, when in the car/on a push bike/walking, make sure you're constantly scanning around, looking at the state of the tarmac, is there anything on it? gravel prehaps? Look at cars pulling up to junctions, train your brain to look at their wheels, thats the first indicator they show of their iminant motion. Get used to traffic paterns, watch how people are driving. Aggressively? Passively? Weaving across their lane a little? What does that mean, how could it effect you on the bike, what would you do if you were in the lane next to someone you deem to be driving agressively?
Think and train your brain, it would most likely be a better use of your time than changing the amount of lights you have when they're still going to be right next to each other. At night 2 lights right next to each other can look to be one single light anyway.
Howvere many mods you do, short of fitting a permanently on siren to your bike, most people still won't notice you unless you place your bike in the most visible location you can. Riding in the drivers side tyre track may seem sensible for example in the wet, but you're actually putting yourself in a blind spot in the mirrors of the vehicle you're following.
You will have to get used to the fact people will not see you whatever you do, its better to prepare yourself for that eventuality in-my-not-so-humble-opinion
Err didn't mean to be quite verbose on this issue, apologies for length
****EDIT****
Whoops somehow I completely missed Loonettes post here, didn't mean to repeat previous bits here...
Yes the percentages may be that such and such style has less accidents but that may also be due to the mental setup of the type of people who like them, not the actual item themselves.
For example if someone said Toyota Prius have less accidents than Ferrari's, that doesn't mean Toyotas are more visible, just that the average owner is probably more conscientious of the way they drive.
In stead, when in the car/on a push bike/walking, make sure you're constantly scanning around, looking at the state of the tarmac, is there anything on it? gravel prehaps? Look at cars pulling up to junctions, train your brain to look at their wheels, thats the first indicator they show of their iminant motion. Get used to traffic paterns, watch how people are driving. Aggressively? Passively? Weaving across their lane a little? What does that mean, how could it effect you on the bike, what would you do if you were in the lane next to someone you deem to be driving agressively?
Think and train your brain, it would most likely be a better use of your time than changing the amount of lights you have when they're still going to be right next to each other. At night 2 lights right next to each other can look to be one single light anyway.
Howvere many mods you do, short of fitting a permanently on siren to your bike, most people still won't notice you unless you place your bike in the most visible location you can. Riding in the drivers side tyre track may seem sensible for example in the wet, but you're actually putting yourself in a blind spot in the mirrors of the vehicle you're following.
You will have to get used to the fact people will not see you whatever you do, its better to prepare yourself for that eventuality in-my-not-so-humble-opinion
Err didn't mean to be quite verbose on this issue, apologies for length
****EDIT****
Whoops somehow I completely missed Loonettes post here, didn't mean to repeat previous bits here...
