To hate with a raging passion those flashing cycle lights

[turnaroundtime]

Why in anyone's God's name are those things allowed. They are so bright and distracting that if some one walked out in front of my car I wouldn't see them due to being blinded by an oncoming cyclist with their flashing strobes of death.

Don't be ridiculous they don't blind you!

I suppose we haven't had a cyclist hating thread for 45 mins, so good to start one,

Yes we had one behind us today, majorly distracting. They shouldn't be allowed.

I have one because half my commute home is along an unlit route and I can’t see the potholes. I don’t have it on strobe and I have it on a slight tilt downwards but it is very powerful. I need to both see and be seen.

I agree with you on one level because blinking lights give me migraines. However it keeps cyclists safe.

Totally agree. But then cyclists can use whatever lights they please; ignore traffic lights; ignore pedestrians rights of way; cycle on pavements, footpaths etc; and apparently expect me to step into the road with my dogs then get abusive when I suggest they think again.

I’m a cyclist and to be honest I kind of agree, a little. I cycle commute in London and on the way home for a good few miles, I am usually in a throng of cyclists. When I’m behind someone with a flashing back light, it really hurts my eyes and I can’t always see properly.

@WhiteXmas21

Totally agree. But then cyclists can use whatever lights they please; ignore traffic lights; ignore pedestrians rights of way; cycle on pavements, footpaths etc; and apparently expect me to step into the road with my dogs then get abusive when I suggest they think again.

I rest my case 🙄

@WhatDidISayAlan

I have one because half my commute home is along an unlit route and I can’t see the potholes. I don’t have it on strobe and I have it on a slight tilt downwards but it is very powerful. I need to both see and be seen.

Then yours aren't a problem. It's the strobing. They are so insanely bright and strobe at such a distracting pulse frequency that I literally can not see anything else until the light has gone past. I was driving down a darkish road today and I swear if a child or dog or person stepped out in front of me I would have had no hope of seeing them as the oncoming strobe was so blinding. I think there must be different ones if so beige upthread thinks they aren't blinding. The ones around me are! There is no reason for them to flash at the rate they pulse either. A more moderately paced pulse with a normal brightness lamp wouldn't be a problem.

@turnaroundtime

Why in anyone's God's name are those things allowed. They are so bright and distracting that if some one walked out in front of my car I wouldn't see them due to being blinded by an oncoming cyclist with their flashing strobes of death.

YABU. If you have poor vision you shouldn't be driving.

I have one for running, the dogs have them as well. In my defence, we live rurally in the middle of nowhere so I'm pissing of relatively few drivers, but also in my defence most of the people who drive on the roads around here are cockwombles using them as a rat run to the a road or to the pre school and actually they could do with a bit of blinding from time to time.

They are so so dangerous!! In rain, blinded by others huge suv blinding lights it's astonishing.

Yet in France we have too wear special dimmer things on lights?

It's terrible!!

I hate car drivers who keep their fog lights on permanently, much more dazzling than a bike light

Daisy, being lit as a runner is obviously hugely important but actually blinding drivers isn't a good safe idea. At all.

It's probably not fog lights though, blinding led lights are normal new car lights now.

You don’t miss them. That’s the point of them. A small static light among larger headlights would be lost, and a cyclist potentially hit.

I am v pro cyclist but agree I don't like these lights. I find them very distracting and too bright. I also have a similar problem with some car headlights though but have always seen had pretty poor night vision and struggle to adjust my vision between car headlights and dark stretches of road so maybe it depends on the individual and most people don't have this problem.

Yanbu. They were discussed on a thread about strobing Xmas lights recently. They are totally inconsiderate to migraine sufferers and serve no real purpose. We can see you with a static light, no need for the strobing!

I don't think any kind of flashing front or rear light is legal (not indicators of course)? (I'm prepared to be shot down in flames by someone who can tell me differently.)
I've recently bought new lights for my bike, and the only setting I will ever use in them is 'constantly on'.

DH told me it's against the highway code to have flashing lights on a bike. Apparently its actually harder to see how far away they are.

cyclists use them so they don't get berated by drivers for not being bright enough to be seen, then others come along and berate them for using a flashing light so drivers can see them.

Cyclists go to slow, until they are hurtling along at great speed and then they are travelling fast like the TdF peloton as no drivers ever heard of the Paris Roubaux, though most uk roads are beginning to feel the same. Cyclists will always be in the wrong regardless of what they do. So a bit like teenagers - they just get on with it as whats the fucking point

@RagzReturnedUnwrapped if its so then tell us which number rule it is?

@RagzReturnedUnwrapped

DH told me it's against the highway code to have flashing lights on a bike. Apparently its actually harder to see how far away they are.

Whereabouts is it in the Highway Code, do ask your husband!

@Newyearoldyou

They are so so dangerous!! In rain, blinded by others huge suv blinding lights it's astonishing.

Yet in France we have too wear special dimmer things on lights?

It's terrible!!

The reason you put tape on your headlamps when you go to France is because they drive on the opposite side of the road, so your headlamps need to be angled towards the verge and not the opposite carriageway, where they’d point if you didn’t direct them.

A Honda sold in France has the same bulbs in as one sold in the UK.

over-bright lights off all kinds are just distracting and dangerous. If they dazzle you it’s easy to hit black ice or a pothole.

I don't have a problem with cyclists and there are thousands around here. I live on the 2012 cycle route so it's cycle city. They generally don't bother me. It's the strobe lights. Anyone who thinks a strobing LED is safe on a road is not thinking straight.