I have a Bontrager rear light that is 'only' 90 lumens and it is rediculously bright.

Well, if you saw the setup for my TT bike or road bike......it might make more sense. Both positions are pretty darn aggressive. On the TT bike my eyes are probably 30 yards ahead of the bike. One glance down road as approaching each driveway or t-junction. On the road bike.......I can hold a line or path and know the potholes coming enough that I'd rather see what the car is doing. I wouldn't do this in town. In town, the speed limit differential is small enough that mostly I'm only going slightly slower than a car anyway. At least half the time. In town, I tend to go uphill in low traffic neighborhoods. If I need or want downhill, I avoid the thousand corners and stop signs by descending on a busier road where my speed is within 5mph of the cars. Or the same.

Either way, I see what I see. Maybe mine is at an angle on the seat tube that it reads out pretty far. But if I'm going up a small hill at like 15mph and a car is coming at 50.......it gives the more "urgent" approach and the distance from bottom of screen to top of the little car image moves quick. If they see me and slow down, I notice that the rate the car is moving up the screen slows.

There are not so many obstacles that I can't look down for 2 seconds every little bit while a car is behind me. I have good vision and can see pot holes and such pretty far ahead.

I don't advocate for anyone to do anything they aren't comfortable with, to be clear. I'm just stating what I see, and what I do.

My 40 dollar rear light crushes the varia and in daytime frankly the varia tail light sucks. It's essentially useless in broad daylight.

if I am going to ride with one rear light it will always be the varia. It is not a prevention device it is an awareness device. As for brightness it seems fine from what I see but I do have a second light which might be a bit more intense. Also worth noting the varia light pattern changes when a vehicle is approaching. I have had others in group rides note that it help them as well with approaching vehicle awareness. I think it also catches the eye of the approaching driver. As for protection the only way you will be protected is if you have a light armoured vehicle following and "protecting " you. I like that the varia uses different beeps to help indicate different approaching speeds. So from my perspective if there is one light I will use it is the varia. BTW you can get just the radar alone and buy a separate light if that floats your boat. So I think it does what it is supposed to do fairly well. If you won one as has been said here before chances are you like it.

I'm glad your wife is ok. Having been hit by a car before, I know how scary that is and how even after if you seem "ok" you should go get completely checked out. It took me months to realize I'd herniated a disc...

Anyway, I disagree with your statements about the Varia.

I think of it like a helmet. If I went and ride without a helmet, chances are I would be fine. I could probably go 100 times and probably be fine. But the helmet adds yet another layer of safety to something that is inherently dangerous. It's not going to prevent some dummy from hitting me or from me wrecking on a tight corner.

I believe the same can be said for the Varia. It's just another layer of safety. 1st, I get far more warning about cars behind me than I would simply by listening or using a mirror. 2nd, I'm not constantly taking my eyes off the road in front of me to look back and see if there is a car coming. 3rd it tells me if there are multiple cars instead of me just hearing one.

It's not going to prevent some distracted driving from hitting me. But if I see cars coming I can take action. I can move over more, and if I'm coming into an area with no shoulder or blind corners - I'll pull over and let them pass. It's additional information that adds to the overall risk mitigation for the ride.

Sorry to hear about your wife. That sucks. Having recently recovered from a bad bike accident, I can empathize.

Adding my 2 cents, as a recent Varia convert.... I don't expect the Varia to help prevent issues/accidents caused by bad behavior on motorists' part. I expect the Varia to help prevent issues/accidents due to my lack of information or my poor decision making. It lets me know when I can (relatively) safely be more in the lane, and when I should be to the side as much as I can, or on the shoulder (as space allows). I don't think any cycling device, real or yet-to-be-invented, could prevent accidents caused by inattentive, irresponsible, or bad drivers.

Does your $40 light tell you when a car, or cars, are coming, how fast, and when they are about to pass you? Didn't think so.

And I'll still bet that my $40 light is STILL objectively much safer than a Varia, even if the Varia makes me mentally 'feel' more aware of cars.

Give me a premium $80+ superbright taillight,and I will absolutely guarantee it's wayyy safer than a Varia in ALL situations. And STILL costs less than the Varia.

Again, this is coming from someone who still thinks the Varia is totally worth it, and I enjoy riding with it. And yes, even I get those feelings of 'maybe I shouldn't ride without it?' since I like the added awareness of rear cars. But I'm also objective, and it's critical for safety to distinguish between something that just makes you FEEL safe as supposed to something that actually DOES make you a lot safer. Varia improves safety, but for sure not as much as all the 'I won't ride without it' folks are claiming,as in the vast majority of situations, the info that the Varia gives you won't change anything you can do.

I agree with your assessment of the Varia. It helps, and anything extra, particularly different modalities of car warnings, are a welcome addition, and is most helpful when you as a rider want to make a move into the car lane.

It's the overstating of the safety effects, particularly the "I won't ride without it because I'm so much safe with it" that I think hugely overstates how safe you are with the Varia.

Add the reality that in most risky situations, you will double check visually anyway, and you could easily make the argument that the Varia is much more bark instead of bite with regards to actual safety, especially compared to a $40 taillight, and absolutely compared to a similarly-priced $100 tail-light.

But is it more FUN to ride with a Varia compared to a dumb tail-light? Heck yeah! Makes you feel like you have eyes in the back of your head, which absolutely feels great (especially compared to - ummmm, is my light even on back there...?) Honestly, I think this should be the real selling point of the Varia, and one that's totally legit. I will absolutely spend $100 on a Varia if it makes my all-around riding more FUN, even if it's objectively safer to get the blindingly bright $100 rear tail-light (that adds zero fun to my riding experience.)

Exactly my point. People are confusing something that makes you safer (a helmet, light, or bright colored clothing) with something that provides data that you can use to do safe things. The Varia provides exactly the data that it claims to provide. The problem is that data, as good as it is, does not provide you the kind of information you can do anything with.

People talk about getting a warning before a car sneaks up on them. Here that is possible in my housing community, but the moment we leave the HOA area we are in traffic, sometimes only a car every 30 seconds and sometimes a steady stream of cars. If you live and ride here and you are not constantly aware of your surroundings you are in big trouble.

There is an intersection that I have to go through that has 2 lanes with a 3rd lane merging from the left (crossing on coming traffic) that turns into 2 lanes turning left, 1 lane going straight, and 2 lanes turning right at the light 100 feet after the merge. I need to go straight so I have to cross 2 lanes of traffic that is coming from behind me while watching for traffic coming from the side and traffic that wants to cross all the lanes to get into one of the turn lanes. There is also a gas station on the that corner. My Varia goes absolutely bat shit crazy when I enter that area. Even after I clear that intersection, for the next 5 miles I will have 5 to 7 contacts on the Varia at all times. All that overtaking traffic is going (hopefully) to pass me on the left going about 25 to 35 mph faster than me. The data is useless. I know those cars are there, you have to be an idiot to not know. My original point was that the data, in those situations, is worthless. All it takes is one car not paying attention and that next dot on the Varia will get you, and that is what happened to my wife.

It won't change my bike riding, me and a couple of friends are going out tonight. Nothing will detour us from doing that, and we will all be running either the Varia or the Flare RT (I actually run a Flare and the RTL315), but none of us are going to believe we are being kept safe by that device. We are safe because we are skilled and experienced, and make smart decisions (usually, but there have been times...)

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"...the street finds its own uses for things"

I agree with you that in heavy traffic areas...it's not as valuable. Though not without value. ie, in my town I will have times where there are no cars behind me on a busy road.

The varia DOES increase my safety when I'm riding in the more rural areas of my county. Why? Because I might go 20 minutes between cars. In most cases on a road with no shoulder I ride in the dominant position in the road. Because it's safer than riding right along the edge of an irrigation ditch.

Before I had my varia I basically had to look over my shoulder every 30 seconds or hope I heard a car coming. Now I get a nice warning 150 yards and and a bigger warning if they are moving quickly. It gives me the opportunity to sit up out of aero (if I'm on TT bike) and get as far over as possible. That increases my safety significantly.

It's not going to save me if the person simply isn't staying inside their lane or is staring at their phone. But nothing is going to help with that. But, just like a helmet - it's going to help mitigate some of the risk. And even it's it's a tiny amount, the $120.00 I paid for the light is well worth it.

Varia is simply another piece of equipment that adds to safety. It's not 100% going to safe your life. Neither will a helmet, brightly colored clothing, defensive riding, or situational awareness. But add them all together and they might be the difference between riding home and getting a ride home.