I’ve been cycling in NYC for about 20 years now. Crazy stuff happens all the time - crazy drivers, unsafe cyclists, wandering pedestrians…and historically those near-miss incidents leave me irritated and ruminating for a while afterwards.
In parallel with this, there has been a “crackdown” on cyclists in NYC, where the cops were giving criminal summonses to cyclists for minor traffic infractions, and the city set an absurd 15mph speed limit for all cyclists in Central Park. It was driving me nuts how my main hobby was constantly under attack. Like, people should see that “all cyclists” aren’t unsafe, it’s more the new Citibikers who are texting while riding. etc, etc.
I got it in my head that I should get a “dash cam” to grab clips of all the insanity I see every day and put them on social media or something. I thought that maybe if I knew I had a recording, I could stop thinking about these incidents sooner and not ruin rides. So I ordered a Cycliq Fly12 for about $400 and it’s shipped.
But now I’m thinking that this may not be good for my mental health. I should probably be working to be less bothered by others’ unsafe behaivior than documenting it. Really, should I be spending time cutting video down into montages of people cutting me off and driving in the bike lane? Will video evidence of bad drivers change anyone’s minds about bikes? Probably not.
So when the camera arrives I will probably just send it back. Interested in anyone’s thoughts on this.
This is just an opinion, but I agree with you. I know I would have better things to spend my time on but having the footage would probably push me to do something about it, get annoyed again, maybe even face threats from the people on the footage.
it’s definitely harder to work on oneself to be less stressed out about what’s going on around, but I think that will make a bigger impact in your life and for the people around you
I really dislike these types of cameras. They can’t and won’t change driver behavior because any footage is after the fact. From both social media posts and people I know with them it seems to make the rider more confrontational as if they’re actively looking for conflict to record and behavior to get angry at. It’s amazing how much more often the few guys I know locally with cameras supposedly get cut up and punishment passed than I do on the exact same roads. They’re either looking for it, over reacting, or have really poor road positioning awareness.
You don’t need to turn into a paranoid vigilante. I haven’t used my cameras for a while, but they’re a good idea. They are most useful for serious incidents. Don’t bother cutting up footage of minor ones. Use them to avoid confronting drivers - safe in the knowledge you can use footage to pursue action if necessary.
They do work. Drivers are aware cyclists have cameras are worried about it. Obviously some don’t know or care, but some do.
I have one of these cameras, have been using it for 1.5 years and so far I haven’t created any montages, nor have I experienced detrimental impacts to my mental health
I purchased mine after actually being hit by a truck, where the driver was at fault. I wasn’t injured badly enough to need an ambulance, but I had to miss the Tour Down Under and associated week of events. There was also quite a bit of damage to the bike, which was covered by my insurance. What drove me to acquire the Cycliq was the police not charging the truck driver (despite me providing their details) as I “wasn’t injured badly enough.” I feel if I had video evidence of the incident, it would’ve been different as the police would’ve had clear evidence to charge the driver, rather than just witness testimony
In my State (South Australia) video evidence of driver behaviour cannot be submitted online. This means I’m only going to bother downloading footage and taking it to the police where something significant has occurred, likely an actual accident involving myself or others.
My advice: keep the camera, use it as a light and as an evidence gathering tool for when an actual incident occurs.
I’ve had a cycliq rear light camera for a decade and a front one for about 5yrs. I only look at the footage if there’s something interesting. Might be a close pass where I want to assess my road position, maybe I’ve been down a new road, and something caught my eye.
It’s a useful tool if there’s evidence required in case of an event. Ive passed footage to police after a pedestrian assualted someone on a group ride.
The fornt light is good enough for riding in the rural dark ocassionally and is certainly fine around town.
Your plan to make montages and post on social media sounds like a whole lot of strife.
I use a cycliq camera front and rear when out on a ride. I don’t post any footage on social media, it doesn’t do any good. All I see is abuse from drivers who think cyclists are fair game.
What I use the footage for is if I have a close pass, some dangerous driving that endangers me, I report it to the police and I have had reports of succesful prosecutions.
The initial reason I got a camera was if I was ever knocked off, my family could see I wasn’t riding like a knob and if possible, find the culprit who knocked me off.
Use the camera, but don’t worry about the footage. In the best case scenario, you’ll never need it.
But as a regular bike commuter for a decade in the years before the pandemic, I was glad to have had the footage on a small handful of occasions:
sending video onto the local transit agency when once a bus cut in front of me, nearly taking me out; another time when I saw a bus clearly run a red light. I don’t know ultimately what happened to the bus drivers, but I will take at face value the response from the transit agency which stated that an investigation would be opened.
Another time, I was closely cut off and almost taken out by a car close to the office, and I could see of in the distance which parking garage s/he went into. I rode into the garage, found the car (driver already gone), and then later during the lunch hour, went back with some printouts of screen grabs of the close call and a polite but firm note that his/her rush to get to the morning meeting nearly killed or seriously hurt a fellow employee. Again, no idea whether that person changed their outlook and behavior, but I can hope.
Meanwhile, one of the few times I didn’t have a camera running was when I was sideswiped by a truck while riding in San Francisco - the a**hole drove off into the distance without me catching a license plate number since I was too busy dragging myself out of the street. I was seriously hurt in that accident but didn’t get a police report at the scene - it was only because of my Garmin and Strava GPS recording that enabled the officer to fill in a report based on my testimony in the hospital. Time/data stamped video evidence would have been better, and this is why when Garmin came out with the camera/light Varia combo, I got one and have been running it ever since despite the video being mediocre quality.
I got a cycliq after getting hit by a car a few years ago. The whole thing took over 2 years to get the drivers insurance to cover my medical bills since it was the drivers word against mine, and no real evidence/shoddy police work. Figured the camera would have saved me lots of time, headache, depositions. Luckily haven’t needed it yet, but I feel assured to know it’s there and recording. Definitely don’t spend time going though the footage, although there have been a few times it’s caught some shenanigans amongst friends that I’ve clipped for posterity
Well done, Guido. The fact you’re seeking confirmation in a trusted community indicates you’re self aware; if you think it’s not going to be positive, give the endeavour away.
It’s more common for people to head online for validation of purchases they’ve already committed to make, this one’s a little different.
Update - the Cycliq Fly12 Sport arrived last night and I used it on a ride this morning.
The device is nice. Video quality is decent at 4K, although less great in low light. After 1 hour at 4K it recorded 20GB of data; recording + constant light on high dropped it down to 75% battery. It records audio, but it’s dominated by tire hum. The unit is smaller than I thought it would be, and there’s a Karoo extension that I was able to beta test so it will have computer integration. I was able to cut a clip and sync with Strava/GPS and add an overlay with their software easily. Really no complaints so far.
As luck would have it, I had an “incident” this morning- cars driving in the bike lane, straight at me. Pretty egregious - they clearly saw me coming, but both accelerated to make sure I, as the cyclist, would have to jump on to the curb to let them pass. Wildly illegal. I stopped, the video captured their license plates, I said some words to them, and I left. This is the EXACT situation that motivated me to buy the camera in the first place. Screenshots below.
So now I have my evidence video. What am I going to do with it?
I’m not going to send it to the cops - they will not care.
I’m not going to show it to my wife - it’ll just make her worry about me on the bike.
I’m not going to post it on social media - it’ll just draw comments from cyclist haters blaming me, or saying “This is why we shouldn’t have bike lanes”, or similar.
I have a 30-day test period but, after my first ride, I am starting to think my original feelings were confirmed - that this is not going to be empowering, but if anything more frustrating.
You do you, but for me as a regular commuter it’s been valuable on the odd occasion I have a complete birdbrain driver and need to lodge a report. You are correct that it doesn’t do anything in moment but drivers are becoming more and more aware they are being recorded (imo). And I’m all for using the police/legal system until breaks.
Fortunately my incident rate is pretty low (one every few years?) and the QLD police have generally been pretty helpful to me. Definitely more responsive now compared to 10 yrs ago.
Ahhh. Riding on roads in the US. In Italy and France at least the penalty for injuring a cyclist is steep! You could lose your license or go to jail. In the US there is much more fear and violence coming from everywhere and when directed at cyclists it seems there is no recourse. I have elected to do little road cycling and instead gravitated to gravel and mountain bike in the US. I think a helmet cam is like shouting at the wind. It is a useless battle that for me would only leave me more frustrated. Do what you can. Choose different roads, ride on the sidewalk, or I don’t know what. But it’s not worth your life - your body and soul - frustration at angry people. Good luck!!
Yea, and the NYPD is a whole other level. They will literally tell you “if we didn’t witness it, there’s nothing we can do.” Which, as a former prosecutor, I can say is very much not the way it works.
I mean just the thought of me walking into the 114th precinct in queens and saying “look at my video, see this car was in the bike lane! it almost hit me!” is laughable if I’m being honest with myself.
Laughter is good medicine. The best medicine! Just be careful. And find some gravel. You’ll find a different sort of idiot bike rider. But less threatening. Politics aside spend effort to make the US a “kinder and more gentle nation” which it is NOT now. Maybe some day we will see more acceptance of biking. But until then…
