My observations from the UK, formerly almost 'Europe':
Boomers need cataract operations! A huge part of the car dependent population are elderly. These folks need ten times the light to see anything when compared to the seventeen year old learner driver (that doesn't go out at night, because their driving instructor clocked off hours ago).
My thoughts regarding this are somewhat anecdotal, however, I have heard a mystery boomer rant and rave about the headlights on his 'Italian car' (they make them in Eastern Europe and slap an Italian flag on). My observation from being in the offending car, shouting here because aforementioned elderly person had hearing issues too: I CAN SEE EVERYTHING FOR MILES!!!
Next: state of the roads
As a pesky cyclist, I used to prefer roads to cycle paths because of the smoother riding experience and improved speed. Not nowadays. In the UK, and dare I say it, the West, we have a problem with potholes. Cars also come with low profile tyres and they weigh 50%+ more than the cars we had before airbags and electronic safety systems came along. This is a combination that results in frequent flat tyres.
What was something that rarely happened is now practically inevitable. As a pesky cyclist, I should be the one getting punctures and fixing tyres, not the motorist. To compound the misery, few cars come with a genuine spare wheel, partly because of the weight problem with today's cars. My bicycle with kit and caboodle weighs far less than that spare wheel, so this nobbling of the spare wheel makes sense to me, but still, a normal car is two orders of magnitude heavier than what I roll with.
Back to the headlights, the elderly cohort with money for new cars, the boomers, don't live in cities, they have nice places in the countryside that require car dependency. With this, and the usage of B-roads, there is a genuine requirement for super-bright lights. Some brands, such as Audi, sell into the market for those that want innovative lights, where the primary innovation is yet more light.
As for built up areas, the lighting situation has also changed. Even as a cyclist, I am running what amounts to 'daytime running lights' because of the light pollution. I put my lights on well before sundown, whereas I never used to. The law is 'after sundown' and I used to be okay with that, but if it is four in the afternoon, mid-summer, I am putting the rear light on, at least.
It does not seem that I am alone in this, many cars have full lighting rather than what we used to call 'sidelights' on.
It is no longer pitch black inside a car, SAAB style. There is so much lighting going on, with a glowing iPad style screen at the minimum, ambient lighting strips on the deluxe cars. The headlights have to compete with this. So more brightness, please!
As I see it, we are caught in a cycle of degrading roads, heavier cars, brighter lights and an elderly cohort that actually needs massive amount of light to see anything. Sure there is clever tech so nobody has to dim their lights, and we have it on posh AUDIs and the like, but this is the spiral we are in, and the good old USA shows where it is going, what the end game looks like.
Into the mix we also have cyclists playing the stupid-lights game. Nowadays cycling is conspicuous leisure, not transport, and plenty of the carbon fibre crew spend hundreds on these stupid lights. Obviously I am somewhat 'shadow fleet' so I don't do that, I just have what heavy goods drivers 'want' from the well-behaved cyclist, which is standard issue, basic flashing lights, a complement of reflectors, high viz and manners.
I yearn for being able to see the Milky Way and the moon providing variable amounts of light throughout the night, with anything moving at night having modest levels of lighting. The situation as it stands means that, along with pedestrians, pets and other animals, I am as good as invisible at night on my bicycle.
Fortunately it looks like we will be losing cheap oil thanks to the tangerine person, unfortunately many millions will starve, but a lot of lights will be getting turned off soonly and the age of car dependency will be over.
Where do you get your data on flat tires? I get flats in a car every couple of years or so and not from potholes but from the screws and nails. How a pothole can even puncture a car tire in principle? It's not a tubed bicycle tire where you can pinch inner tube with the rim. As for "missing" spares - all cars without a spare I owned were using run-flat tires, those are better than a typical "doughnut" spare when flat.
Also, as a cyclist myself I commend your bravery for riding without lights. It's in the driver handbook so it's missing from the TFA and the discussion here, but the lights on the vehicles are not just to see something but to be seen as well. Especially on a bike.
Tangential - in the case of low profile tires, I've seen pothole damage where the rim itself was broken. That causes a "flat tire" even if the rubber tire itself survived.
Sure, you can break the rim with a big enough pothole on regular tires, but normally people refer to such an event as "wheel broken/fucked up/gone/etc" not "a flat".
I explicitly stated that I do ride with lights, reflectors and high visibility clothing. The lights aren't on midday unless there is an eclipse.
I explicitly stated that my experience is from UK roads, not American. Our roads go back to Roman times, yours date back to Henry Ford, give or take a century or two, kind of brand new, when compared.
Let me describe the last 'puncture'. Car: Toyota Yaris, three occupants. Road: narrow not-even-B road. Pothole hit at roughly 30 mph. No air in tyre shortly after that.
You could witter on about whether this was a puncture or not, all I know is that I was the one crawling in the mud, swapping to the emergency spare tyre in falling light conditions, with one of those stupid scissor jacks that just wants to buckle and bend.
In the UK run-flat tyres are rare on new vehicles and even rarer on second hand vehicles. Winter tyres are also rare in the UK. Maybe we are just cheap in the UK, not needing to haul untold un-metric tonnes as Americans spend their time doing, and not needing to go at 155mph plus as Germans spend their time doing.
As for bicycle tyres, I am not riding for 'conspicuous leisure', which is the American way. Normal tyres with some puncture prevention layer in the carcass works for me, until I get that first puncture. When I get that second puncture, I take that as my cue to replace them, since it is the carcass that has gone, with the puncture prevention going too.
The fashion in 'conspicuous leisure cycling' is for lightweight 'tubeless' tyres filled with sealant that has to be replaced every few months. The idea is to have lower pressure, wider tyres for better rolling resistance. Allegedly these miracle tyres solve punctures, yet people with these tyres go to the local bike shop on the regular, which is not an option for me, since I need my bicycle.
Hence I use normal tyres and tubes, with a track pump by the door. I keep them inflated to the value written on the sidewall, which means relatively high pressure and minimal carcass flex, thereby keeping them good for longer. My goal is to get places with safety and ease, so it isn't about 'conspicuous leisure' or keeping up with the latest trends.
Weight also comes into it, and force = mass * acceleration. As a 'stick-man', envious of those with visceral fat, never in a race to get anywhere, always on rock-hard tyres, I don't get 'pinch flats'.
Anyway, I am off to do some plant buying, to see what fits in the panniers. Hopefully I will be back with some lovely new house plants, riding back with a mini-forest, which will be 'conspicuous leisure cycling' of sorts.
Keep on riding, your own way, and come to the UK some time to enjoy the wonders of our National Cycling Network, taking trains as needed. I am sure you will also enjoy studying the automotive curiosities that the car dependent have over here too. American car culture is far more interesting, nobody modifies their cars over here, it is always 'bone stock' in boring colours of white or grey.
>I explicitly stated that I do ride with lights, reflectors and high visibility clothing. The lights aren't on midday unless there is an eclipse.
Sorry I was vague, by "without lights" I meant "without lights turned on and pointing in the direction where they can be seen by other vehicles".
> Allegedly these miracle tyres solve punctures, yet people with these tyres go to the local bike shop on the regular, which is not an option for me, since I need my bicycle.
Yes, tubeless bike tires are pretty good wrt of punctures and ride quality, you can maintain them at home but I imagine many people indeed don't bother. Same as many people go to bike shops to replace tubes.
Boomers need cataract operations! A huge part of the car dependent population are elderly. These folks need ten times the light to see anything when compared to the seventeen year old learner driver (that doesn't go out at night, because their driving instructor clocked off hours ago).
My thoughts regarding this are somewhat anecdotal, however, I have heard a mystery boomer rant and rave about the headlights on his 'Italian car' (they make them in Eastern Europe and slap an Italian flag on). My observation from being in the offending car, shouting here because aforementioned elderly person had hearing issues too: I CAN SEE EVERYTHING FOR MILES!!!
Next: state of the roads
As a pesky cyclist, I used to prefer roads to cycle paths because of the smoother riding experience and improved speed. Not nowadays. In the UK, and dare I say it, the West, we have a problem with potholes. Cars also come with low profile tyres and they weigh 50%+ more than the cars we had before airbags and electronic safety systems came along. This is a combination that results in frequent flat tyres.
What was something that rarely happened is now practically inevitable. As a pesky cyclist, I should be the one getting punctures and fixing tyres, not the motorist. To compound the misery, few cars come with a genuine spare wheel, partly because of the weight problem with today's cars. My bicycle with kit and caboodle weighs far less than that spare wheel, so this nobbling of the spare wheel makes sense to me, but still, a normal car is two orders of magnitude heavier than what I roll with.
Back to the headlights, the elderly cohort with money for new cars, the boomers, don't live in cities, they have nice places in the countryside that require car dependency. With this, and the usage of B-roads, there is a genuine requirement for super-bright lights. Some brands, such as Audi, sell into the market for those that want innovative lights, where the primary innovation is yet more light.
As for built up areas, the lighting situation has also changed. Even as a cyclist, I am running what amounts to 'daytime running lights' because of the light pollution. I put my lights on well before sundown, whereas I never used to. The law is 'after sundown' and I used to be okay with that, but if it is four in the afternoon, mid-summer, I am putting the rear light on, at least.
It does not seem that I am alone in this, many cars have full lighting rather than what we used to call 'sidelights' on.
It is no longer pitch black inside a car, SAAB style. There is so much lighting going on, with a glowing iPad style screen at the minimum, ambient lighting strips on the deluxe cars. The headlights have to compete with this. So more brightness, please!
As I see it, we are caught in a cycle of degrading roads, heavier cars, brighter lights and an elderly cohort that actually needs massive amount of light to see anything. Sure there is clever tech so nobody has to dim their lights, and we have it on posh AUDIs and the like, but this is the spiral we are in, and the good old USA shows where it is going, what the end game looks like.
Into the mix we also have cyclists playing the stupid-lights game. Nowadays cycling is conspicuous leisure, not transport, and plenty of the carbon fibre crew spend hundreds on these stupid lights. Obviously I am somewhat 'shadow fleet' so I don't do that, I just have what heavy goods drivers 'want' from the well-behaved cyclist, which is standard issue, basic flashing lights, a complement of reflectors, high viz and manners.
I yearn for being able to see the Milky Way and the moon providing variable amounts of light throughout the night, with anything moving at night having modest levels of lighting. The situation as it stands means that, along with pedestrians, pets and other animals, I am as good as invisible at night on my bicycle.
Fortunately it looks like we will be losing cheap oil thanks to the tangerine person, unfortunately many millions will starve, but a lot of lights will be getting turned off soonly and the age of car dependency will be over.