Author Topic: Pedalite and the SHE campaign  (Read 4657 times)

Regulator

  • That's Councillor Regulator to you...
Pedalite and the SHE campaign
« on: 31 December, 2009, 01:37:15 pm »
I thought I'd do a bit of cross-posting (sorry Mods  :-\)

Some of you may be aware of the company Pedalite.  They've started a new marketing campaign called SHE (Safety Health and the Environment) which was highlighted on the CTC forum.

I'm afraid that I find myself agreeing with the posters on the CTC forum:

"A beautiful illustration of the fact that you can't sell dubious "safety" equipment to someone without scaring the crap out of them first"

"Dealing with the victim and making them responsible for the accident.

A driver should be able to see a cyclist in good daylight and there is no excuse...... unless as this hype suggests you did not have lighting and the accident and ensuing injury is therefore your fault."

"My opinion is that that is a solution to a problem that doesnt exist"

"I'd go further to suggest that it creates a new problem....as has already been noted; starting a lighting 'arms race' means that drivers will become attuned to looking for exceedingly brightly lit cyclists, leaving those that are not as bright but still perfectly legally lit to be missed."

The Pedalite web-page in question can be found here.  

What think the Honorable Members?
Quote from: clarion
I completely agree with Reg.

Green Party Councillor

Re: Pedalite and the SHE campaign
« Reply #1 on: 31 December, 2009, 01:46:38 pm »
I briefly looked at the website in question.

I think it's people trying to make money by selling tat. I didn't read it all, but what I read, I thought was desperate salesman talk. The product looks like rubbish to me, that will have no effect. I'd wear a high vis vest if I believed their  sales pitch.
I don't think it's about victim blaming, but that would be a by-product.
I think it's more like, "Buy this, it will save your life."

Besides, I have stopped in adverse conditions to put my lights on in the daytime, so there. :P
Furthermore, you can get automatic cycle lights that come on if it gets a bit dark.

tonycollinet

  • No Longer a western province of Númenor
Re: Pedalite and the SHE campaign
« Reply #2 on: 31 December, 2009, 01:47:19 pm »
It's just another form of lighting. There are already plenty of lighting options available - this is just another.

The web page has far too much detail to keep most people interested - I gave up.

iakobski

Re: Pedalite and the SHE campaign
« Reply #3 on: 31 December, 2009, 02:04:36 pm »
Don't knock it - it's quite impressive what they've acheived.

For starters they've reversed the laws of physics:
Quote
the lens is designed to make them appear brighter the further away you get in both the daylight, shadow and darkness !

and a bit of Harry Potter style magic:
Quote
Consider how a single cloud passing in front of the sun affects the light; how quickly the sky can darken with a change in weather or how shadows from large buildings or bridges can affect a motorist’s vision and render walkers, joggers and cyclists without lights invisible.

The enviro stuff is quite good too, these must be extremely well made pedals. Rechargeable batteries last me many years, but most pedals I've had wear out in a year or two.

And so bright they can light up a 360 degree radius, in bright sunshine,  while using no energy at all. Incredible

Re: Pedalite and the SHE campaign
« Reply #4 on: 31 December, 2009, 02:37:29 pm »
I'm with you on this, DUG.
Your Royal Charles are belong to us.

John Henry

Re: Pedalite and the SHE campaign
« Reply #5 on: 31 December, 2009, 02:44:36 pm »
What a load of drivel.

I suppose if you are selling a load of pointless tat, you've got to convince people they need it. Attempting to convince them that if they don't buy the product, they'll DIE is a bit desperate, but probably as effective a technique as any other.

The bike half-way down their web page, on the right hand side, has clearly been vandalised rather than involved in an a******t. Government statistics reveal that the number of cyclists who get knocked off bikes which are chained to lamp-posts is very small indeed. If these new Pedalshite(TM) pedals can make your bike resistant to petty crime, I'd be more interested.

Jacomus

  • My favourite gender neutral pronoun is comrade
Re: Pedalite and the SHE campaign
« Reply #6 on: 31 December, 2009, 02:53:54 pm »
Holy crap! Those things are seriously effective - just look at that cyclist wearing them! I'm sure that I wouldn't have been able to pick him out without them.

"The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity." Amelia Earhart

Re: Pedalite and the SHE campaign
« Reply #7 on: 31 December, 2009, 03:16:33 pm »
I wasn't keen on daylight headlamps for my motorcycles but eventually accepted them.  I believe(d) that I stood out a bit against the rest of the traffic.  The idea was that a car driver would see a single light and know that it was a fairly close motorbike not a distant car.

When I bought a motorbike with twin headlamps (for the extra safety of having one working if one failed while riding at night) it arrived wired so that dipped was single only. 

Now many cars have permanent daylight headlamps and I no longer stand out as much.

Soon all road vehicles will have permanent lights so I guess it will work it's way down to cycles as well eventually.  By then nobody will be able to differentiate and accidents will start to rise again.

Back to the same old same old - road users should be taught to look AND see and give way to the more vulnerable users. 

hellymedic

  • Just do it!
Re: Pedalite and the SHE campaign
« Reply #8 on: 31 December, 2009, 03:19:59 pm »
<Lightweight and comfrotable (sic)>
Has rubbed me up the wrong way.

There should be no obligation for cyclists to dress up as dorks.

(Says she whose partner has just pedalled off to a pub in fluo yellow Tracksters she once bought...)

John Henry

Re: Pedalite and the SHE campaign
« Reply #9 on: 31 December, 2009, 03:26:35 pm »
There should be no obligation for cyclists to dress up as dorks.

Don't say that. Obligation is currently my only excuse.

hellymedic

  • Just do it!
Re: Pedalite and the SHE campaign
« Reply #10 on: 31 December, 2009, 03:37:03 pm »
I can dress like a dork without being a cyclist  ;) ;) ;D

I just think cyclists ought to be able to appear 'normal' without being blamed for any misfortune by inattentive motons.

John Henry

Re: Pedalite and the SHE campaign
« Reply #11 on: 31 December, 2009, 03:48:54 pm »
I just think cyclists ought to be able to appear 'normal' without being blamed for any misfortune by inattentive motons.

You're right, of course.

If I were a conspiracy theorist, I might suggest that the pressure on cyclists to dress up as highlighter pens was part of a SEEKRIT PLAN to marginalise cycling as a form of transport. But that's just paranoia, isn't it?  ;)

I don't think this 'SHE' business and these pedals are anything more sinister than an attempt to part us from our cash, though.

rogerzilla

  • When n+1 gets out of hand
Re: Pedalite and the SHE campaign
« Reply #12 on: 31 December, 2009, 04:02:35 pm »
I could pick holes in most of the claims on the website, but I'll stick to one; how often is a cyclist hit from the side when extra lighting or reflectors would have made any difference?  If the driver sees your side lights or reflectors with enough space and time to react and brake, you will be long gone by the time the car gets to the spot, and that's why spoke reflectors are pointless CPSC-crap.  The exception might be if the cyclist is stationary, but I can't recall a case of a driver coming out of a junction straight into the side of a stationary cyclist.
Hard work sometimes pays off in the end, but laziness ALWAYS pays off NOW.

Gandalf

  • Each snowflake in an avalanche pleads not guilty
Re: Pedalite and the SHE campaign
« Reply #13 on: 31 December, 2009, 04:05:39 pm »
Even if I were remotely interested in their tat I wouldn't buy it on principle.  

Call me old fashioned, but I never react positively when I'm patronised and have the piss taken so transparently and ham fistedly.

woollypigs

  • Mr Peli
    • woollypigs
Re: Pedalite and the SHE campaign
« Reply #14 on: 31 December, 2009, 04:44:23 pm »
Back to the same old same old - road users should be taught to look AND see and give way to the more vulnerable users. 

Bingo !

If another road user hits me it is not because that I didn't dress up as a chrimbo tree. it's because they didn't look, or drove without due care and attention. That goes in day light and at night where I have the light one that is needed by law.

BentWendyMikey or what ever his name is now of days :) have said it quite reflectors are only working when light is shined on them, edit Rogerzilla says it in a very good way.

Everyone on the roads need to learn how to be on the roads, and they also needs to be reminded about it, as in a test ever few years. Because I see dumb s#@t done by pedestrians, drivers and cyclist every day. And no matter what amount of light and reflectors you will have on will it not help when people aren't looking.
Current mood: AARRRGGGGHHHHH !!! #bollockstobrexit

Re: Pedalite and the SHE campaign
« Reply #15 on: 31 December, 2009, 06:08:43 pm »
I just got some pedalite pedals for my missus, not because of the campaign; I simply had leftover c2w money that needed  spending. Fwiw, whilst the are noticeable at night, they aren't bright enough to be any use in daylight. In fact, I'd say even my twin ixons are of marginal benefit during the day. If I had the cash, something like the amber dinotte flasher seems to be the point at which lights become usefulin daylight.

rogerzilla

  • When n+1 gets out of hand
Re: Pedalite and the SHE campaign
« Reply #16 on: 31 December, 2009, 06:23:12 pm »
If I had the cash, something like the amber dinotte flasher seems to be the point at which lights become usefulin daylight.

The only review I've seen of it is so-so.  The trouble is that not much investment has gone into developing really bright amber LEDs, just red and white ones.    They use plenty of battery power but aren't as efficient as other colours.  The automotive indicators that use LEDs have big clusters of them, and VW's ones are pretty rubbish - very hard to see if the brake lights are on at the same time.
Hard work sometimes pays off in the end, but laziness ALWAYS pays off NOW.

Re: Pedalite and the SHE campaign
« Reply #17 on: 31 December, 2009, 10:49:56 pm »
Hmm, was just out in the garage and one of the amber leds in the pedalites is dead already / shipped dead. That'll be going back.

Jacomus

  • My favourite gender neutral pronoun is comrade
Re: Pedalite and the SHE campaign
« Reply #18 on: 01 January, 2010, 01:02:09 am »
Hmm, was just out in the garage and one of the amber leds in the pedalites is dead already / shipped dead. That'll be going back.

Are you sure that you aren't simply standing too close?

Quote
Tip: Try viewing the Anklelite or Baglite from 50 or 100 metres away in the light or shadow - the lens is designed to make them appear brighter the further away you get in both the daylight, shadow and darkness !

"The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity." Amelia Earhart

clarion

  • Tyke
Re: Pedalite and the SHE campaign
« Reply #19 on: 01 January, 2010, 05:53:31 pm »
;D  That is marvellous BS, isn't it? ;D
Getting there...

Tourist Tony

  • Supermassive mobile flesh-toned black hole
Re: Pedalite and the SHE campaign
« Reply #20 on: 02 January, 2010, 09:18:52 pm »
"In most countries it is the law that when a motorbike is moving it must have its lights on regardless of the time of day or if it is light or dark"

Rubbish.

Charlotte

  • Dissolute libertine
  • Here's to ol' D.H. Lawrence...
    • charlottebarnes.co.uk
Re: Pedalite and the SHE campaign
« Reply #21 on: 02 January, 2010, 10:05:33 pm »
I spoke to the MD of Pedalite at the bike show a couple of years ago.  I was walking past his stand and he tried his sales patter on me.

After realising what it was that he was selling (and quite how much money he wanted for his product) I tried to explain that very few people would want to buy them.  Serious cyclists who use clipless are obviously out, as are people who want proper lights (forty quid bought you some great lights even a couple of years ago - these days you can have frikkin' lasers for that sort of money).

Parents won't buy 'em for their kids when they find out that they cost nearly half as much as they paid for their little darlings' bikes and people looking for replacement pedals will baulk at paying four or five times the cost of some basic plastic flatties.  Oh - and it goes without saying that OEMs will piss themselves laughing.

Much like bicycle indicators, the Pedalite is full of FAIL and will die a death when whoever is backing it decides to stop throwing good money after bad.
Commercial, Editorial and PR Photographer - www.charlottebarnes.co.uk

Tourist Tony

  • Supermassive mobile flesh-toned black hole
Re: Pedalite and the SHE campaign
« Reply #22 on: 03 January, 2010, 02:00:35 am »
Further to Charlotte's post above almost the first thought I had on seeing the pictures was "SPDs?"

andygates

  • Peroxide Viking
Re: Pedalite and the SHE campaign
« Reply #23 on: 03 January, 2010, 09:52:43 am »
Remind me again what's wrong with pedal reflectors, which are still the most bright and obvious thing on most bikes?

The threat of being run down by an unlit motorist is damn near zero. 
It takes blood and guts to be this cool but I'm still just a cliché.
OpenStreetMap UK & IRL Streetmap & Topo: ravenfamily.org/andyg/maps updates weekly.

Re: Pedalite and the SHE campaign
« Reply #24 on: 03 January, 2010, 10:37:25 am »
I spoke with the MD at The Cycle Show 4 years ago and accepted his offer to test a pair when the SPD compatible ones became available. When I reminded him of this a year later, he said something about licencing as I recall.
[Quote/]Adrian, you're living proof that bandwidth is far too cheap.[/Quote]