From: Quinn <quinn@cs.uwa.edu.au>
Subject: Re: Accident rates up 10% following compulsory helmet legislation?
X-Xxdate: Wed, 2 Sep 92 01: 57:03 GMT
Organization: The University of Western Australia
X-Useragent: Nuntius v1.1.1d9
Date: Wed, 2 Sep 1992 02:10:03 GMT

In article <1992Aug31.114038.6000@bohra.cpg.oz.au> Daavid Turnbull,
daavid@bohra.cpg.oz.au writes:
>
>In article <1992Aug31.024014.25611@bilby.cs.uwa.edu.au>
quinn@cs.uwa.edu.au 
>(Quinn) writes:
>>
>> Yeah and when you do get on them you find your bike shaken to bits
>> by the silly rubber separators between the concrete slabs.
>>
>> Damn the expense, bring back tarmac bike paths!!!
>>
>Ever tried to ride on a bitumen bike path at night?

By a curious coincidence, yes.  I ride three different bitumen paths,
one every weeknight and the other often at night.  One of them is
well lit and others are totally unlit which can be a bit hairy
when there's no moon/clouds (the clouds reflect the light of the
city).  Riding by starlight (and a headlight obviously) is so much
fun.

>White lines at the edge/middle of a bitumen path could go a long way in
>addressing this issue.

One of my unlit paths has them and I've found that white lines help a
lot.  I wish more of them would appear.  

>It does not have to be
>very dark (and there are not many sections of bike paths that are lit!)
>before it merges into the inky blackness,  illumination from one's
headlamp
>is absorbed into bitumen like a sponge.

True.  I've recently retrofitted my headlight with a halogen globe
which has two advantages:
  o more light in total
  o a wider dispersal pattern which gives good sidelobes for path
    tracking using the contrast between the grass and the track
    (pretty feeble but it helps)
But I'm definitely going to go out and by a second light with a tight
beam for picking up those objects sitting on the path at long range.

>White paths on the other hand do not suffer from the
>same problem.  They require very little light to see where you are going
>effectively, and obsticals on the path to be easily detected.

All very true but how can you stand being shaken apart by all those
rubber things between the slabs?

>(Ever come
>across a shopping trolley on a dark corner of a bitumen path and you
>will understand what am talking about.

Not quite a shopping trolley but I did have Them (tm) decide to
rip up a section of path just before I tried to ride home on it at night.
None of those courtesy blinking lights that cars get, just a path that
falls about 15cms into sand.  Took some avoiding that one (-:

>Of course the pedestrians will not stick to the middle but they would
have
>a better chance of knowing where to go in order to get out of your way
>when you yell out... in my experience, without such cues, they seem to
>to have this uncanny knack of jumping directly into your path when you
>make them aware of your presence.
>
>As for the pedestrians/joggers I do not try and alert them to my presence
>anymore, they are far more predictable moving objects if you do not.
>Can scare the pants off them however as you whizz past at 30K... they
>obvious do not hear a thing, with or without walkman.

Yep, if you warn pedestrians they general become more of a nuisance.
Like you I go straight past.  I'm sure the people who wrote the
"Cyclists please ring bell" signs would have something to say about
that (-;

Quinn "The Eskimo!"      <quinn@cs.uwa.edu.au>     "Support HAVOC!"
Department of Computer Science, The University of Western Australia
  -- Going "straight past" can be difficult when there's more than
     one (-: