Bicycle Flashing Lights Are Illegal? Really?

[classic33]

As I said a lifetime of living with it, epilepsy, and comments such as this

I shouldn't laugh but that did make me giggle I do sympathise though, my dad is epileptic and I have a very high chance of developing. Will serve me right for laughing I suppose....

I don't find funny. I did say that I hope he never has to find out what its like to live with it, at a personal level.
It wasn't an attack by me on the use of flashing lights on bikes, I use them on the rear of my own. The guidance with regards the flash rate triggering a fit/seizure is simply that guidance. I've had one whilst undergoing the stroble light testing at Pinderfields many years ago and the flash rate was only 2 per second. Even they were uncertain if it caused it.

 

[Jezston]

As I understand it, he wasn't banned - he flounced because we weren't taking his utterances seriously enough and giving him enough respect... or some such excuse.

Be interested in getting the full story then - I remember coming online and seeing TD had posted three new threads and one of the mods calling him out on it accusing him of not participating in any other threads than his own, and then I noticed TD's profile picture had vanished and status marked as 'guest', so guessed he got banned for spamming.

 

[Cyclopathic]

I use one or two small front lights and one or two small rear ones. Both LEDs (Cateye Cube?).



My front lamp (or lamps) never flash. As a motorist I find it harder to gauge the position, spped and direction of a flashing front cycle lamp. Part of the reason I use lamps as a cyclist is to alert other road users to my presence for my own safety.

As a motorist I find flashing front lamps on bicycles unhelpful but wouldn't criticise their use.

.

I agree. A flashing front light makes it harder to determine the speed of an oncoming bike. When the light is constant it is easier to discern whether it has a slightly blue or slightly red tinge which, if one applies the Doppler theory will tell you if it is coming towards or going away. The degree of "tinge" determines the speed. A flashing light makes this observation almost impossible and renders subsequent calculations unreliable.
Of course mistakes can be made and a bike you thought was travelling away from you at phenomenal speed could just turn out to be the red rear light of a cyclist going away from you. Or the other way around. It is important to know what each "tinge" denotes before commiting oneself to this system.
Flashing lights can be used to calculate speed but it requires measuring the time each pulse takes to get from the light to your eyes and using the difference in those times to work it out.

 

[snorri]

TBH I don't give a fig if my lights are "f*ckin' irritating" to a small percentage of drivers (1%), as long as they prevented a large percentage (99%) of drivers from driving into the back of me in a smidsy like fashion! .

I would be looking for a much higher level of protection than 99%, best dump the flashers at that rate.

 

[ComedyPilot]

A flashing light has the effect of grabbing the eye's attention against the rest of the background.

IMO a permenantly flashing light is irritating both to me as a rider (in the dark) and to the recipients of it (car drivers, peds, other cyclists etc) all the time.

Wouldn't it be better to have a solid light, with a built in switching ability to flash (for attention) on demand depending on situation? This could be triggered by a button on the bars, a bit like a visual horn?

 

[BentMikey]

There's no need for this argument. A lot of lights like the Exposure series have a pulse mode, where the front light is permanently on low, and strobes over the top of this.

For me, that's a good daylight setting. At night I want a powerful light on constantly, as drivers then treat me more the way they should, like I'm a motorcycle, and less like a cyclist that can be pulled out in front of with impunity.

 

[classic33]

A bit OT but I'll tell you anyway
Last winter, on entering the darkest of dark parks part of my commute, I had my cateye on (only does steady beam, aimed at the ground for me to see) and a wee cheapy handle bar light, ah, and my helmet light to be seen at junctions.
So this loiterer kind of guy - what else could he have been? standing near the river side on a dark night, hauling wind, drizzling rain, watching ... complains my lights are too bright, that I have almost blinded him!
Well, I thought, serves you right for lurking in dark places!

Sure he was a he! Not a she. Hauling that lot it makes him sound more like Mother Nature in a bad mood.

 

[BlackPanther]

I would be looking for a much higher level of protection than 99%, best dump the flashers at that rate.

99.999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999% then.

 

[Pat "5mph"]

Sure he was a he! Not a she. Hauling that lot it makes him sound more like Mother Nature in a bad mood.

He was a he for sure, spoke to me on the shared path ...

 

[sabian92]

I've sufferred lifelong with .it, epilepsy, and to put it in simple terms comments like that are not in the least bit funny.
Have your laugh now, but I hope you never find out what its like to live with, at a personal level.

Don't think for a moment I'm mocking you - I'm not and I'm have the utmost sympathy (without pitying in that patronising way) for epileptics. I've seen fits and spent many hours in hospitals with my dad, including 3 days in Arizona Heart Hospital when we were on holiday. It was just what you said that humoured me, not the epilepsy.

I know full well what it is like and although I personally don't suffer with it I probably will (80% chance if not higher) by the time I am 40, which is only 19 and a bit years from now. I already suffer with a learning disability anyway so I have a better understanding than most of struggling day to day with a lifelong condition.

I do apologise if I offended you - that certainly wasn't my intention.

 

[classic33]

Don't think for a moment I'm mocking you - I'm not and I'm have the utmost sympathy (without pitying in that patronising way) for epileptics. I've seen fits and spent many hours in hospitals with my dad, including 3 days in Arizona Heart Hospital when we were on holiday. It was just what you said that humoured me, not the epilepsy.

I know full well what it is like and although I personally don't suffer with it I probably will (80% chance if not higher) by the time I am 40, which is only 19 and a bit years from now. I already suffer with a learning disability anyway so I have a better understanding than most of struggling day to day with a lifelong condition.

I do apologise if I offended you - that certainly wasn't my intention.

I accept the apology you've offerred.
I get annoyed when others treat something I have to live with as joke. For me its not a joke, its a life sentence.

 

[sabian92]

I accept the apology you've offerred.
I get annoyed when others treat something I have to live with as joke. For me its not a joke, its a life sentence.

Nah, I understand. My dyspraxia is the same and makes life a pain in the arse most (actually, all) days. I wasn't mocking your condition it was just the image of what you described, and to be honest I feel a bit of a prick now.