To hate with a raging passion those flashing cycle lights

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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.

Also the reason I am commenting this is the context in which you have made that comment...on a thread complaining about bike lights. You seem more concerned by the stress it has caused you and the fact that cyclist had a flashing light. They are probably more stressed about it than you are

I think OP means the flashing front lights. Very high lumens. I have seen some blinding ones too (front only).

fwiw, as a cyclist on rural lanes, I often have to deal with being blinded by car headlights. Recently (only time ever) a driver stopped completely & took their lights down to parking lights -- amazing, I could actually see well enough to get by them using the tiny bit of paved road their vehicle didn't occupy.

Given so few drivers are that thoughtful, and I encounter a dozen drivers on the lanes for every 8 mile rural journey, I'm thinking OP can put up with the strobes. They can't be as blinding to me as the usual car is on country lanes. My tribe will lose the strobes when the average country lane driver learns to always stop and drop to parking lights to let cyclists by.

I agree they are too bright. And I don't like the current trend for pedestrians to wear them, either. A small light is fine.

However, the much bigger issue is the white lights on many cars which are far too bright and are dangerous.

oh, and let's not get started with drivers that don't think to take down their high beams when oncoming cyclists approach. That's a special joy of cycling on rural roads, especially when the tarmac merges into muddy leaf-litter verge and there is no clear boundary between them, or puddles hide massive pot holes.

let's not get started with drivers that don't think to take down their high beams when oncoming cyclists approach

or indeed when oncoming drivers approach! I flash my lights at them continuously until they do so. However, I think some of them rely on the car to do it for them. It does not happen soon enough - if you are driving in the dark, see someone's headlights ahead, take down your full beam immediately. Do not rely on the automatic lights.

Also - do not put your full beam on when you are following someone. You don't need it and it won't make me drive faster, quite the opposite.

Yanbu. Flashing lights make it harder to spot the cyclist. They should use a constant light. (Walker here).

I cycle with a bright light, albeit not flashing. I also wear high vis. It's important to be seen as a cyclist, and even with this I have drivers and pedestrians on the road who have near misses or overtake too close.

I'm sure if cyclists didn't have lights, people here would also be complaining about them.

Cycling is environmentally friendly, and reduces congestion on the roads and public transport, as well as pollution. It's healthy as well.

I cycle considerately, following the rules of the road, always have high vis and a helmet on, and have third party insurance.

I'm perplexed why there is so much anti-cyclist vitriol on Mumsnet.

As both a cyclist and a driver, I see a lot more bad behaviour from motorists than cyclists. Daily I have cars overtaking me while practically skimming my elbow.

Flashing lights make it harder to spot the cyclist

This is simply not true

They can cause problems with telling how far away they are, but a flashing light increases the chances of you being noticed (as a cyclist) much earlier in the encounter, rather than just another constant light

@megletthesecond

Yanbu. Flashing lights make it harder to spot the cyclist. They should use a constant light. (Walker here).

Not true.

Numerous studies have shown that flashing lights are spotted earlier than static lights, especially when against a backdrop of car headlights/ street lights etc.

When I commuted by bike I would run both flashing and static lights, angled appropriately. I couldn't care less if other people find them annoying. If they do, that means they have actually seen me.

I am both a cyclist and a driver, and I find them massively distracting. Yes, I can see you're there but I find it hard to see anything else due to the strobing. Perhaps it wouldn't be so bad if they had a continuous light as well.

I like the green cycle icon projection light that they have on the Boris Bikes in London. I find that works really well when I am a pedestrian!

@JuergenSchwarzwald

I agree they are too bright. And I don't like the current trend for pedestrians to wear them, either. A small light is fine.

However, the much bigger issue is the white lights on many cars which are far too bright and are dangerous.

Yes, what is it with these brilliant white lights all new cars seem to have? I'm sure they're lovely for the drivers and illuminate the road ahead but they're bloody awful for everyone else.

A car with those ultra bright headlights stopped to let me pass on a narrow stretch of road the other night, I was also driving uphill which somehow made it worse, I felt completely blinded and ended up passing him at about 2mph because I basically couldn't see (before anyone pipes up, I have my eyes tested regularly, wear glasses for reading only at a prescription of about +0.5. So no eyesight issues!)

Well, to be fair, they should have flashing and constant lights. They're vulnerable and should be lit up like an Xmas tree.

When we were in USA 2 weeks ago... someone on Freeway (very congested) was hassling other drivers by flashing... hunting lights? It was a giant light bar like this picture. Whole 'nother world out there...

YANBU and strobing lights could cause epileptic seizures for epileptics.

That's why there are warnings at functions/amusement park rides that some rides have 'strobing lights'. They're generally not used in everyday life anymore, and when they are there are warnings so people with Epilepsy know not to participate/view that display.

Legal bike lights do not flash fast enough and are not bright enough to cause problems to the vast majority of people at risk, and for the tiny minority where it may be a problem it's likely they cannot drive anyway.

The balance of risk is massively in favour of cyclists being seen.

YANBU when it's dark a flashing light pointed straight at you means you can't see anything. They're a bloody nightmare.

@WindyState

Legal bike lights do not flash fast enough and are not bright enough to cause problems to the vast majority of people at risk, and for the tiny minority where it may be a problem it's likely they cannot drive anyway.

The balance of risk is massively in favour of cyclists being seen.

Of course there is the risk to eg epileptics who are just going about their business not driving but still don’t want to have a fit brought on. (Although I appreciate the thread was originally about the effect of the lights on drivers).

Cars' ridiculously bright headlights bother me more.

Be grateful cyclists are using lights, so many don't.

Hate them as both a migraine sufferer and a driver. (The migraine generally arrives the day after the trigger before anyone says I shouldn’t be driving.)
They do definitely make the cyclist visible from further away but also make it harder to work out what they are doing.

Of course there is the risk to eg epileptics who are just going about their business not driving but still don’t want to have a fit brought on. (Although I appreciate the thread was originally about the effect of the lights on drivers).

Yes. This!

Passengers in cars, buses, pedestrians walking by

My DD has absence seizures and has huge issues with strobe lights like these. As posted earlier, we were in slow traffic and followed by a bike with a very, very bright, strobe-like front light. She had several seizures before I could pull over and let the bike pass.

The seizures are absence seizures so not particularly dangerous at the time, but when she has several she ends up with her muscles spasming and her hands lock into fists, her wrists lock, sometimes her knees or feet. Both hands locked after the above incident (3 weeks ago). One had unlocked after a couple of days, the other is still locked. It’s very painful, pretty disabling and causes lots of ongoing damage to tendons, etc.

I have mine on a sort of pulse setting rather than fully flashing, but they are not particularly bright as I ride almost exclusively on lit paths and roads if it's dark. I just have them to draw attention to myself but I know they aren't blinding as I can comfortably look at them myself.

I agree OP, I hate super bright lights on cars or bikes or anything else, and flashing is worse with that kind of high intensity light. I have a really bright light for riding on unlit paths, but I angle it down and have it on a steady setting. Those super bright lights are for seeing where you're going, not being seen, and should be used accordingly imo.

Again the number of people who are at risk of reactions to flashing lights at the kind of frequency that bike lights flash at is incredibly small, and these people will be at risk from flashing lights from all manner of sources. We can't legislate for everyone.

This is not to minimalise the problem; but the fact that a tiny number of people may be harmed by flashing lights is not massively relevant to a debate as to whether flashing lights should be run by cyclists or not. People have to manage the risk, we can't prevent cyclists being more visible to drivers by using appropriate lighting just on the off chance a pedestrian with a adversion to flashing lights might be walking past, for the same reason that we can't immediately ban ICE because someone with a noise sensitivity might need to walk next to traffic, or someone with asthma has issues with air pollution.

I'm perplexed why there is so much anti-cyclist vitriol on Mumsnet

goodness help you if you're a cycling step mum... you don't stand a chance on here

@ivykaty44

I'm perplexed why there is so much anti-cyclist vitriol on Mumsnet

goodness help you if you're a cycling step mum... you don't stand a chance on here

How is it anti-cyclist vitriol to state that strobing lights are more problematic than solid ones? I don't have such a problem with a flashing rear light as they are red so less intense. It's the strobing white lights that are a problem. The cycling article above suggested that flashing rear lights and solid front lights are a good option.