[whitehexagon]

The curse of modern super bright LEDs. Add to that list; super bright red brake lights, and a new trend for animated turning lights / indicators. Looks like something we'd have installed as teenagers after watching Knight Rider. Really distracting.

Some of the towns here also started scattering flashing LEDs over every road sign they can find. Some areas feel like driving through Blackpool Illuminations. The worst offender locally is a roundabout light that flashes blue, which of course you assume to be an emergency vehicle approaching.

[Y_Y]

Add to that rental bikes that have always-on flashing lights. My neurospice is relatively mild, but flashing lights and animations in my field of view really fuck up my ability to focus on other things. I can't be the only one with this issue, but it doesn't seem to garner much sympathy.

I still drive when I have to, but I had to give up watching soccer on tv when they added animated ads to all the pitches. I'm honestly considering some kind of AR filtering at this point.

Also shoutouts to the places in South America (esp. Guayaquil) where people modify cars and buses to have constantly flashing lights, animated screens etc. It's like having a little Times Square in every traffic jam!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LOdfcJpvps

[crazygringo]

To be fair, the flashing on bicycles is intentional, precisely to make sure you are aware of them, since they're so much smaller and vulnerable, and the light itself is so much smaller than the rear light on a vehicle. It's not just on rentals, it's a standard feature of bicycle rear lights that is there for safety.

[martijnvds]

In the Netherlands, bike lights _must not_ flash. The law very explicitly states that they need to be "always on" (in the dark).

The main reason seems to be that it's hard for others to to gauge your speed when your lights are flashing.

[crazygringo]

Fascinating. I just looked up a bit of research on it, and it seems there are two contradicting phenomena at play. Flashing helps in seeing cyclists further away and helps with visibility generally -- but it also makes it harder to estimate speed and distance.

Apparently, the absolute safest solution is to have two rear lights side-by-side -- one that is always on and one that is always flashing.

It doesn't seem like there's clear data on which is safer if you have to pick only one. Different countries/states have chosen differently.

[exmadscientist]

Flashing on-off and always on aren't the only options. I wish more designers went with flashing bright-dim, because it solves a lot of problems.

I once worked on a device where we were required to blink the Important Safety Light™ on-off. I often glanced at this light out of the corner of my eye, and saw that it was off, so we were Safe™. We were not Safe™: it was just in the off phase of its blink.

I am very glad I never got hurt by trusting that light.

I wanted to blink it bright-dim but was denied by people who said that IEC 61010 required it to blink, and blinking bright-dim isn't blinking. I didn't quite understand that objection.

[crazygringo]

Having a third brightness state feels confusing.

If a safety indicator needs to be visible at a glance, why did it blink at all?

Blinking only works for things that are in your vision and need to be the primary focus.

It seems like blinking to begin with is terrible design for something like this, or else having it be in the corner of your eye is the terrible design decision.

[Y_Y]

This is a strong point. Nobody likes a rapidly flashing light (extra annoying, seems broken, can be hard to differentiate from "on but dim"). Then again if you flash slowly then you'll have some appreiable amount of time when it's off and that can include the entire opportunity you have to look at something.

Ideally (for me) you could have smooth high-low alternation or colour alternation.

(I recognize that something that looks like emergency services, e.g. alternating blue/white may be illegal, and that colour-blindness may limit this approach.)

[arccy]

but also there are so many bikes there already that they didn't need to raise general awareness that much

[Y_Y]

I dunno man, I'm a cyclist, and I live in a big city full of cyclists. I've also used and seen a lot of bike lights in my time. Flashing is often an option, but the default is usually "always on".

Also flashing is really fucking annoying, and I my own experience is that it does notale cyclista more visible or safe. I don't use flashing lights myself, even though I can't see the rear one and eould probably rather be annoying than dead.

[crazygringo]

It seems like it depends a lot on the city/country.

To be clear, I'm talking about rear lights only. The front light is white and always-on so you can see the ground. Plus you can see what's in front of you, so you avoid things, people don't need to avoid you as much.

It's the rear red light that flashes. You yourself don't see the flashing, but it increases visibility so people don't run into you, when you can't see them behind you.

When I'm behind a cyclist with a flashing red rear light, it doesn't bother me. It feels safe. It probably encourages me to keep a little extra distance from them, which is a good thing.

[RandallBrown]

Flashing lights on bicycles are illegal in a lot of places.

If bikes didn't move, a blinking light would be fine. But they do move and it makes it really hard to tell where the bike is in the dark.

[jandrese]

Blinding and dazzling oncoming traffic in the name of safety is outright stupid.

If you are riding a bike and you're lighting up the heads of oncoming riders or pedestrians you are being dangerous and obnoxious. Never shine a flashlight above someone's shoulders at night if you can help it.

[crazygringo]

What are you talking about? Did you mean to reply to a different comment?

Bicycle lights aren't blinding anybody. At least none I've ever seen. They're powered by little batteries usually.

The subject at hand was whether they flash or not. Not their brightness, which I've never heard anybody complain about.

[jandrese]

You definitely don't ride around here if you have not been blinded by a bike headlight. They can blow away your vision from half a mile away easily. I can't even see the trail in front of me without putting my hand up to block the light. I call it the nighttime salute.

They are much worse if they flash. That blinds and disorients. Even after they pass you won't be able to see anything for some time.

[crazygringo]

True, I'm referring to places where there are already car headlights. The bike lamps are so dim by comparison, there's nothing to complain about.

If you're somewhere without any other lighting and your eyes have adjusted to the darkness, then I can understand how they might seem bright. But I'm not really sure what you think the solution is. They're already vastly dimmer than cars, but make them any dimmer and the cyclist won't be able to see the ground and it won't be safe.

[4ggr0]

while walking i frequently get blinded by eBikes which for some reason decide to point the lamp towards the sky to contact far-away civilizations, or whatever their plan is. happens quite frequent that i have to shield my eyes with a hand because i don't see anything until the eBike is past me.

[MobiusHorizons]

They 100% are. I’m a cyclists in Seattle ride to and from work 4-5 days a week. This time of year it’s dark by 5pm so bike lights are on full force on the home commute. Being dazzled by oncoming bikes happens almost every trip. I absolutely hate it, it’s sometimes even worse than the cars, although car headlights have caught up in awfulness in the last few years. My least favorite type of overly bright bike lights are the blinding and also blinking rear red lights.

People do it for safety, but it doesn’t help. I literally can’t see where you are if you have a bright light shining in my face. The same thing is true if I’m in a car. As long as you have lights I can see you. If your lights are obnoxiously bright and especially if they are blinking you have succeeded in making people want to harm you, not increased your safety. The drivers who aren’t paying attention will not be more likely to see you if you are just a blinding glow of light.

[elric]

> Bicycle lights aren't blinding anybody.

They absolutely are. They suffer from the same phenomenon as car headlights. They're often poorly aimed (at an upwards angle instead of downwards) and have adopted an insanely bright white colour. I frequently yell at other cyclists when they blind me.

[Zak]

Another problem is LED lights using low-frequency PWM to control brightness. If they're moving in someone's field of view, there's a strobe effect.

[BobaFloutist]

The thing that really irritates me about the animated turning lights is that they still do it when hazards are on. The one and only possible use case would be differentiating between hazards and turn signals, and they don't do it.

[thewebguyd]

I've seen flashing third brake lights too.

I don't get adding flashing lights to brake and tail lights. It's actually worse, flashing lights make it harder for us to judge distance as now there's no steady queue needed for depth perception. It's why when cycling I've always opted for a solid taillight instead of the flashing ones.

[toast0]

Flashing third brake light (in the US) is usually a dealer profit addon. Personally, I think these violate federal vehicle safety law. I'll add a link to a federal letter that I think agrees with me [1]... But no enforcement means dealers alter the wiring harness to add these on to all their inventory and add a line item on the bill. They'll remove it if you complain, but the wiring harness has been altered.

I'm ok with factory strobing on hard braking, and I think that is permitted generally.

[1] https://www.nhtsa.gov/interpretations/20288ztv

[potato3732842]

They're not altering anything. This isn't a stereo shop in 1990. They're literally just getting paid to plug something in.

[toast0]

From the install guide [1] under "Installation Instructions, General", step 5 is:

> Cut the positive wire to the third brake light and strip the insulation from both ends of the cut.

That's altering the factory wiring harness. That's an extra junction the factory didn't authorize and when it fails, the factory warranty won't cover it, because the wiring harness modification lead to the failure. All so the dealer can make about $250 extra on a sale.

If these were built as a module you plugged in between the wiring harness plug and the light module socket, I'd have a smidge less hate for them; but there's too many plug types for that, and there might not be enough room anyway, so the dealer has to cut into the wiring harness for this ... if there's a real benefit to flashing brake lights, it should be standardized and done by the manufacturers.

[1] https://pulseprotects.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Sales-R...

[potato3732842]

They literally make drop in bulbs

https://www.ebay.com/itm/184234748289

[sokoloff]

I’ve seen a few cars that have strobe-then-solid brake lights from the factory, where the strobe only fires under hard deceleration. That seems like a safety win to me. (Remember it being on a high-spec Mercedes SL, and I’m pretty sure it was stock; looked it up and Mercedes calls it part of “Adaptive Braking”.)

[mikkupikku]

Those radar speed limit signs that blink at what seems like 50 times a second if you go 36 in a 35 zone are very annoying. To be fair the blink threshold must be configurable, but whoever installed them around here didn't have any common sense and set them all to the speed limit exactly.

[potato3732842]

There's one near me that's set to 45 in a 55. Every time I drive past it it gets a little closer to going missing. It's a minimum effort install on a wood post and it's right near the road to enter a new bougie subdivision in an otherwise rural area so it's almost certainly a cheap attempt to make a complainer go away.

[sobjornstad]

I also hate the ones that are exactly at the spot where the speed limit changes and still flash you aggressively in the distance. Yeah, I'm going faster than 35 because the speed limit is 55 where I am and I'm still slowing down.

[moltopoco]

Not just flashing but also flickering, some headlights that I've seen in the wild look quite aggressive if they are in the periphery; dimming gone wrong? Anything that flickers or flashes will be brighter at peak than if it was a constant light source.

[ethagnawl]

> The curse of modern super bright LEDs

I don't understand why people are allowed to drive around with blinding LED light bars which affect other drivers ability to see the road and and _oh so conveniently_ obscure their front license plates.

[mr_toad]

Housings on indicators that reflect so much sunlight you can’t see that they’re on.

[jimnotgym]

Plus some cars have tiny indicators now, or weird led stripes around the brake lights