Originally Posted by rachel120

Riding home tonight, I was stopped at a red light and a guy pulled up in the lane next to me. He said "I didn't see you." Whoa, scary, I called back "Is my light not working?" He said, "It's working but I didn't see you, I almost ran into you." (Weird, since no set of headlights got that close in my mirror.)

At the first place I could stop, I started checking everything. My rear blinky light was indeed blinking brightly. My rear helmet light was blinking brightly. I checked my backpack, the reflective strips were still attached. Since my bike light is equal lumens to a car's low beams I held my backpack in front of it. The reflective strips dazzled like a disco ball and the orange strips for day time also were attention grabbing. Since I'm short and my seat is low, I went back about 8 feet, then looked at the back of my bike. The light was clearly visible when I was standing straight, no bending at all, my eyes about 2½ feet above the light.

Near home I take a shortcut across a sidewalk and it has a bit of a hump to it. So I left my bike in a low area and checked the rear light visibility about 20 feet away with my eyes 3½-4 feet above the light, still clearly visible.

So what is it I'm missing? Why wouldn't I be visible to traffic from behind?