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>Blinking lights makes the bicycle driver more visible. Blinking lights are not legal according to road code in Germany and I assume many other EU countries no

>Blinking lights makes the bicycle driver more visible. Blinking lights are not legal according to road code in Germany and I assume many other EU countries nor do they necessary improve your safety. Yes, strobing lights do draw more attention at a glance (which is why they are reserved for emergency vehicles and signaling an emergency) making you think you'd be safer, but actually not since it makes it very difficult for the human eye to determine the distance to/from that object in motion on the road if it's always blinking, making the use of only strobing lights on the road unsafe and therefore banned for non emergency purposes. That's why your front and tail lights must be in a constant state. It's for your own safety too, hence why emergency vehicles don't strobe their running lights/brake lights but have additional strobes for that.

kataklasm 2y ago
I agree with the underlying logic here. However, when street maintenance trucks are driving around normally with their extremely bright orange strobes enabled (mind you, not parked in the street doing repairs, I'd totally understand that! Oftentimes they are just driving normally with the strobes on) I fail to see the logic applied consistently. In my opinion a good compromise for cyclists would be to allow strobing rear lights that only have power cycle of at least 90% and power periods of at least 2500ms, meaning they are on for 2500ms and then off for ~280ms, creating a strobing effect that is not as overpowering as normal strobing rear lights, which I'd agree are overbearing in commute traffic.
- Cumpiler69 2y ago
  >when street maintenance trucks are driving around normally with their extremely bright orange strobes enabled Street maintenance trucks and all such vehicles, at least in Europe, don't strobe their running lights which are constant-ON as on all road vehicles and the strobes are additional warning lights. So they get the best of both worlds. But for cycling, blinking lights are stupid because you're strobing your only running light you need to see and be seen.
  - mulmen 2y ago
    I have both. My bicycle has a headlight and taillight. My helmet has built in front and rear lights, which can flash.
    - robertlagrant 2y ago
      Fixed mixed with flashing or pulsing is fine. It's the strobing lights that do 5 super-short staccato flashes and then nothing for a moment that are the bad ones.
  - kataklasm 2y ago
    Same thing for bicycles btw. Strobing rear lights are allowed as long as they are on your person (i.e. clothing/helmet or backpack), only on the bike itself they are not permitted.
KennyBlanken 2y ago
Germany also has the most cyclist deaths of any country in the EU (~450/year), twice as many as the next country. The UK has one quarter the deaths despite having ~3/4 of the population of Germany...
- Cumpiler69 2y ago
  Such statistics without the full context are meaningless. How many people per capita cycle in the UK vs DE. It's expected that if a lot more people cycle, you're gonna have more cycling deaths than in countries where fewer people cycle. If nobody would cycle you'd have zero cycling deaths, hooray problem solved, you successfully gamed the metrics, if wining arbitrary metrics is the goal.
  - dgfitz 2y ago
    I mean, the numbers are the numbers. Sounds like the point you wanted to make, accidentally, is that cycling has a linear growth rate of death if more of the population cycles. Was that your goal?
    - Cumpiler69 2y ago
      >I mean, the numbers are the numbers. Random numbers alone mean nothing if they're meaningless and out of context. More people are killed every year by cows than by sharks. Does that make cows more dangerous than sharks or just that people are more likely to be around cows more often than around sharks? If Germany has a higher population than UK, and also a higher percentage of people of that population cycle, then yeah you're gonna have more dead cyclists. D'uh! Show me deaths per capita and cycling rates per capita, then we can talk about drawing a conclusion.
  - supermatt 2y ago
    In terms of urban distance travelled: DE 5.5%: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=File:Travel_distance_per_person_per_day_by_main_travel_mode_for_urban_mobility_on_all_days_(%25)_v3.png https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php... UK 1.7%: https://www.cyclinguk.org/statistics https://www.cyclinguk.org/statistics

kataklasm 2y ago

I agree with the underlying logic here. However, when street maintenance trucks are driving around normally with their extremely bright orange strobes enabled (mind you, not parked in the street doing repairs, I'd totally understand that! Oftentimes they are just driving normally with the strobes on) I fail to see the logic applied consistently. In my opinion a good compromise for cyclists would be to allow strobing rear lights that only have power cycle of at least 90% and power periods of at least 2500ms, meaning they are on for 2500ms and then off for ~280ms, creating a strobing effect that is not as overpowering as normal strobing rear lights, which I'd agree are overbearing in commute traffic.

Cumpiler69 2y ago
>when street maintenance trucks are driving around normally with their extremely bright orange strobes enabled Street maintenance trucks and all such vehicles, at least in Europe, don't strobe their running lights which are constant-ON as on all road vehicles and the strobes are additional warning lights. So they get the best of both worlds. But for cycling, blinking lights are stupid because you're strobing your only running light you need to see and be seen.
- mulmen 2y ago
  I have both. My bicycle has a headlight and taillight. My helmet has built in front and rear lights, which can flash.
  - robertlagrant 2y ago
    Fixed mixed with flashing or pulsing is fine. It's the strobing lights that do 5 super-short staccato flashes and then nothing for a moment that are the bad ones.
- kataklasm 2y ago
  Same thing for bicycles btw. Strobing rear lights are allowed as long as they are on your person (i.e. clothing/helmet or backpack), only on the bike itself they are not permitted.

KennyBlanken 2y ago

Germany also has the most cyclist deaths of any country in the EU (~450/year), twice as many as the next country. The UK has one quarter the deaths despite having ~3/4 of the population of Germany...

Cumpiler69 2y ago
Such statistics without the full context are meaningless. How many people per capita cycle in the UK vs DE. It's expected that if a lot more people cycle, you're gonna have more cycling deaths than in countries where fewer people cycle. If nobody would cycle you'd have zero cycling deaths, hooray problem solved, you successfully gamed the metrics, if wining arbitrary metrics is the goal.
- dgfitz 2y ago
  I mean, the numbers are the numbers. Sounds like the point you wanted to make, accidentally, is that cycling has a linear growth rate of death if more of the population cycles. Was that your goal?
  - Cumpiler69 2y ago
    >I mean, the numbers are the numbers. Random numbers alone mean nothing if they're meaningless and out of context. More people are killed every year by cows than by sharks. Does that make cows more dangerous than sharks or just that people are more likely to be around cows more often than around sharks? If Germany has a higher population than UK, and also a higher percentage of people of that population cycle, then yeah you're gonna have more dead cyclists. D'uh! Show me deaths per capita and cycling rates per capita, then we can talk about drawing a conclusion.
- supermatt 2y ago
  In terms of urban distance travelled: DE 5.5%: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=File:Travel_distance_per_person_per_day_by_main_travel_mode_for_urban_mobility_on_all_days_(%25)_v3.png https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php... UK 1.7%: https://www.cyclinguk.org/statistics https://www.cyclinguk.org/statistics