From: JForester@cup.portal.com (John - Forester)
Newsgroups: rec.bicycles.soc
Subject: Shoullights be req. Std. Equipment?
Date: Fri, 13 Nov 92 18:43:47 PST
Organization: The Portal System (TM)

   I agree with the arguments against requiring bicycles to be sold
with lights installed. The kind of light that you need depends on the
type of nighttime cycling you do, and whether you need lights at all
on that bicycle depends on whether you will do any nighttime cycling
on that bicycle. 

   Commuting cyclists can use rechargeable batteries, but occasional
cyclists or touring cyclists cannot because the battery will not be
charged when they need it. Occasional cyclists can use dry cells.
Long distance cyclists cannot use batteries at all, because no usable
battery has sufficient endurance. I find that generators provide the
best combination of availability, weight, economy, and reliability
for cycling on roads. Naturally, you carry a lightweight flashlight
for reading maps, street signs, and for patching tires. For paths,
only bright, wide-beam battery lamps are adequate. 

   On the other hand I disagree with those who say that only very
fancy lighting systems are adequate for cycling on normal roads. For
example, the person who says that bicycle lamps are hard to see when
alongside motor-vehicle headlamps may be correct, but he forgets that
under these circumstances it doesn't matter because the cyclist is
protected by the presence of the motor vehicle. In any case, I have
tested this situation by looking for people for whom I was waiting,
and I have seen the standard Union U100 headlamp and generator set
when blocks away, even when accompanied by a steady stream of cars.
Nobody is going to come out of a stop sign in front of a cyclist when
that cyclist is accompanied by a motor vehicle with bright lamps. It
is true that bicycle lamps don't light up all the small items on the
road, so you will get more flat tires at night than in daylight, but
I consider this a minor problem. One rainy night when following a
bike-lane stripe on an unfamiliar road I ended up in the mud of an
orchard, but that was because the bike-lane stripe so directed me.
For normal roads the illumination is quite adequate for normal
cycling speeds.

   Dutch and German laws require lamps at time of sale, as pointed
out. On the other hand, look at the cycling that is done in those
nations -- most is slow, with heavy utility bikes on slow and
dangerous bikepaths. The word that I have from cyclists in those
nations is that the law is not enforced against the minority of
sporting cyclists. In nations where cyclists are not so oppressed,
such as England, France, and Italy, the laws are as here: use lights
at night, but you don't need them in the daytinme.

   The slow speed of cycling in Holland and Germany is why their
generators are calibrated for low speeds and tend to burn out bulbs
at the speeds at which we ride. The cure for this is to install a
drive pulley with twice the diameter, raising the usable speed range
from 2.5 - 15 mph to 5 - 30 mph, and incidentally decreasing the drag
and increasing the life of the bearings.

   We have the useless nighttime safety equipment installed (the all-
reflector system), that several writers have remarked, because the
American bicycle manufacturers were afraid that they would otherwise
have to provide good lights, with laws like Holland but fancy
standards. They argued that something as bad as the all-reflector
system was better than the nothing that would result because idiot
cyclists couldn't keep their lights operating. Having got the all-
reflector system into the US CPSC regulation, the Bicycle Manufactur-
ers Association then tried to eliminate the requirement in American
traffic law for headlamps at night, saying that the all-reflector
system was a federal law that the states had no power to alter. I
argued the opposite and beat them down by pointing out to the
motorists, the constituency of those who write traffic law, that if
that were so then they would be financially responsible for hitting
cyclists who they had no chance of seeing. With that prospect, they
refused to repeal the requirement for headlamps, no matter how valid
the constitutional legal question.

   The idea that cyclists cannot keep their lights operating is
disproved by European experience. There, you get a ticket for riding
at night without a light and most lights work. It just takes a bit of
care by someone above the age of childhood.

JForester@cup.portal.com               John Forester
                                       726 Madrone Ave
408-734-9426                           Sunnyvale CA 94086 USA
Newsgroups: rec.bicycles.soc