[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.

[jandrese]

That is still very much not my experiance. I ride on the roads a bit and usually cars are fine, although there are people with aftermarket lights and people who just leave high beams on all the time in heavy traffic. But I've experienced riding down the road with oncoming traffic in the other direction and doing just fine until a bicycle comes and blinds me just like the high intensity high beam guys. They are generally much brigter in terms of light delivered directly to the eyeballs of oncoming traffic. Are you sure people aren't seeing you because your lights are too dim, or because you're making it impossible to see anything around them?

[crazygringo]

Fascinating. I'm honestly quite confused -- most of the bike headlights I see simply run on 2-3 AA or AAA batteries, and it doesn't seem physically possible for them to output the kind of bright light you're talking about. I personally am very careful to angle them downwards, because the entire point is to illuminate the ground in front of me -- if I'm shining in people's eyes, then it's not illuminating the ground. And they're already so weak, you need all the illumination you can get.

E-bike rentals don't have anything adjustable, and where I am, they're quite fixed at illuminating the ground.

Maybe there are people with e-bikes who can draw a lot more power and have higher-powered headlights? Are you talking about e-bikes specifically? But it's just not something I've ever seen. I'm certainly blinded by vehicles while cycling under certain circumstances, but I've never once in my life felt blinded by cyclists or even anywhere close. That's why I'm so confused by what you're describing. When you say "blow away your vision from half a mile away easily", I honestly can't even begin to imagine what you're talking about.

[jandrese]

You apparently have a bunch of old stock incandescent AA powered bike lights in your area? Around here it's all LiPo or LiFe+ powered LEDs that easily put out 1,000 lumens (not an exaggeration).

Stuff like this:

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=bike+headlight

You can even see people posting pictures of the light where it's clearly illuminating 10' up the tree on the side of the path.

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61a2EhfJeeL.jpg

[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.