We’re a strange bunch.
Take a guy I encountered recently on a ride home as an example. I pulled up behind him at some traffic lights. Upon coming to a stop, I realised that he has an LED cycle light attached to his helmet. There wasn’t time to whip out my camera phone, so I have instead recreated the scene with my helmet, a light and a green balloon. I’m very happy with my work.
This quickly struck me as odd (the light on his helmet, not me making mock-ups with balloons). It then dawned on me why – it was 5:10pm on a balmy August Friday evening. It doesn’t get dark until 8pm at the earliest. So either this guy was in the early stages of a three hour commute (in which case, good luck to him), or the light was going to prove surplus to requirements.
Why is it there? Is it a permanent fixture? This bothered me all the way home. After a while, I realised that certain people enjoy creating enhanced robotic versions of themselves: handsfree kits strapped to their ears; sunglasses that play their ipods; watches that monitor their heart rates; Goths wearing massive steel capped boots covered with bolts and so on.
When this is applied to someone who cycles to work, I wonder if it just makes them feel a bit less vulnerable. By attaching a light to the back of their head, they start to resemble a car. If they are a car then, when they get mangled, they just have to change a wing or bumper, rather than spending an evening in A&E and six weeks recuperating.
R
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