A few times a week, I go out for a night walk. Right after my children are in bed (my spouse is present in the house if you ask ). The area is very quiet, but also very dark because there are no streetlights. I wear a reflective vest and of course… I bring a flashlight.
So we are a few weeks ago. I’m on my way home. My eyes are perfectly adapted to the dark. My Zebralight SC5w MK II runs dim at around 3 lumens. There’s this car coming around the corner about 100 yards away. He’s heading my direction. He’s not going fast, but he is too close to the edge of the road to give me a chance. I’m a moving biped with a flashlight and reflectors on me: can’t be missed. At less than three cars away from me, he has the brilliant idea of using his high beams on me. What the poor guy didn’t know was that on my right-hand side I had a SC600w Mk IV Plus with a fresh battery. So, one click after, he got back 2300 lumens. He immediately turned off the high beams and really distanced himself from me.
If you can explain to me why some people are doing this ? Don’t know if it’s in the law, but I was once told never to use high beams in a residential area.
Not satisfying, in fact the opposite… I carry my quad EDC built from scratch with about 3200 lumens. I was in a brightly lit store, daytime, and a sales girl noticed the light and asked about it. I showed it to her, explained it a bit, and shined it at the overhead lights, sort of eclipsing them to show it’s brightness. Then I aimed it towards my open hand from about 6” away and hit Turbo, as that really makes a statement! Poor girl got an instant painful migraine headache! I felt so bad!
The driver can see that “floating” vest from a long ways away but it does not help them determine how far away you are from them or where you are in the road. Without street lights the best thing you can do with your light is Crank it up considerably above three lumens and keep it down in your swinging hand and arm. You want to light up the road where you are and a little tiny bit of the side of the road. Let the beam swing naturally as your arm moves from lighting up near your feet to 10 to 15 ft out in front of you. That way they can immediately see the road and the side of the road where you are long before their headlights illuminate that on low beam. Otherwise they are just focusing on the floating vest with no reference to where you are in relation to the road edge. There’s a reason why street lights generally aim light downward. If they had already been on high beam when they came around the corner there’s no law that requires them to dim them for you. If you want to keep dark adapted eyes at three lumens go walk in the woods.
I wouldn’t pedestrian bash. I live out in a rural area. Very very few street lights and narrow roads. Makes it quite difficult to spot pedestrians. Cranking on the high beams to try and make out a reflection was probably the best thing he did. I would rather him do that than not take the time to make out what I was at all. Shining a bright light into the eyes of somebody (though I understand why you did) driving a three thousand pound vehicle your way was probably not a wise decision. You just made it more difficult to make out what he was seeing. But whatever. Whoever is telling a story like this always thinks they are the one in the right and king of the road. 220 pound me and a 3000 pound car? I am getting the hell out of the way. Right of way or not.
Reflective vest and triangles make it easy to spot something up ahead but it is quite difficult to judge the distance away from that object. It has only 1 dimension so depth of field is hard to establish. During the day it’s not so bad. There are folks who ride their bikes and walk on the roads at night around here in the summer. I assume to escape the heat of the day. I watch out for them and I would hope they watch out for me. Don’t just assume the guy driving the big car is paying as much attention as you want him to.
). The area is very quiet, but also very dark because there are no streetlights. I wear a reflective vest and of course… I bring a flashlight.