We asked everyone outside a car to be safe so that drivers can be dangerous
In several US states, the Amish are required to have lights on their buggies because asking drivers to maintain a speed where they can avoid collision with an object the size of a shed is just too burdensome.
Maybe cosplaying as settlers from 200 years ago in a giant black box 3 feet from the main lanes at night is dangerous?
The Amish are required to have lights during the daytime also.
So is every other trailer and wagon on the road. Sometimes it rains, and occasionally the sun goes down. Someone shouldn’t be exempt from laws impacting public safety because of their religion.
LOL, next you’ll be in here saying we need to hang lights on all the deer that might run out into the road, because drivers are special snowflakes who cannot possibly be expected to actually pay even the slightest fucking attention to where they’re going or slow down enough not to overdrive their headlights.
In defense of most drivers, it isn’t their fault. Most drivers, myself included, often don’t know how to use headlights safely and in fact, smart headlights are not accounted for in the US. Meaning that on highways you can either have brights on and see things, but piss people off, or you can go without them and be in constant danger between those
What’s worse is that US law, afaik, does not let you drive with your brights on when incoming traffic is present. The result is that you’re forced to outrun your headlights on most highways in the US AND a lack of headlight regulation has led to LED headlights blinding drivers constantly. US driving visibility is awful and it makes our cars death traps.
Yes it is their fault! The solution is incredibly simple and taught right at the beginning of driver’s ed: it’s called SLOW THE FUCK DOWN.
The result is that you’re forced to outrun your headlights on most highways
Absolutely fucking not. Nobody is “forcing” you to do 55 fucking miles per hour in the middle of the goddamn night just because that’s what the speed limit sign says when your headlights only have enough throw for you to safely do 40 (or whatever). You do the fucking 40!
IF YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND, COMPREHEND, AND FOLLOW THIS RULE, YOU ARE A NEGLIGENT DRIVER. END FUCKING OF!
And while I’m at it, I’m gonna go ahead and reiterate: it’s not about other vehicles, and what lights they may or may not have has absolutely fuck-all to do with it! Maybe there’s a disabled car with a dead battery (lights not working) in the middle of the road. Maybe there’s an animal – or a human! – lying in the lane. Maybe there’s a big-ass fucking boulder in the way, either because of a landslide or because it fell off a landscaping truck. Maybe there’s a flood or a sinkhole and the road itself is gone!
Overdriving your headlights – under ANY FUCKING CIRCUMSTANCES WHATSOVER — is as absolutely catastrophically irresponsible as high-off-his-gourd Tony Shaloub in Galaxy Quest: “It’s pitch black out there! Is there road?! You don’t know!”
If there are other cars going in the same direction on a 55 mph highway, the other lights do “combine” and allow you to see much farther then your own lights alone.
We can’t hang lights on deer. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to be safe elsewhere.
Also, people talking about driving slow enough to avoid deer are delusional.
A 65mph rural highway may have a 60 ft ROW, making it 23’9" from the trees to the middle of the near lane (30 feet to the center minus 6’3" for a standard 12’6"lane).
A white-tail deer can sprint 35mph, which comes out to just over 50 feet per second. So you have half a second between the trees.
A professional driver on a closed course with new tires and a dry road can control a car braking car at about 32 fpsps (1g). Clearly everyone who says deer can be avoided easily ate perfect drivers, so let’s go with that. Let’s also assume they have an absolutely perfect reaction time of zero.
Assuming you have impossible reaction times, the skills of a professional, and all other perfect conditions… you can certainly avoid hitting any deer - so long as you’re driving under 9 mph at all times.
So do bikes. It’s just common sense safety for all when on the roads at dusk or night.
Here in California, bike lights are optional. A good thing since motorists are more dangerous to us when they are aware of us.
Lights and reflectors are required at night. During the day, they are optional, but highly recommended.
The second part of your statement is patently false; a visible, predictable bicyclist is safest.
The second part of your statement is patently false; a visible, predictable bicyclist is safest.
That has been entirely contrary to my personal experience of twenty years of bicycling. I can’t help but wonder if you’re trying to get bicyclists killed.
Oh knock off the drama. Like I’ve never ridden or own bikes. Advocating lights and safety equipment isn’t “trying to get bicyclists killed”. What backwards bizarro logic.
News flash, cars aren’t responsible for your safety; you are. Being proactive is the best advice.
But go ahead, you do you; wear that camo vest. Lmao.
Speed limiters in cars when?
Yes, and also why the fuck not already?
