Comments on: Are bike lights becoming too bright?

By: Jan Jakob

Jan Jakob — Wed, 01 May 2019 04:24:47 +0000

I noticed this is a real issue here, and I came across this old post because of the reminder about lighting send out by the council today. I used to live in Germany, which in turn used to have sensible regulations about bike lights, namely that the light must be attached to bike (not the helmet), must be non-flashing, and must be angled in a way that the middle line of the light cone is half-way down after 5 m (in essence, the light is pointing downwards, not upwards). Unfortunately, they got rid of the last requirement and replaced that with “non-blinding”, but I think it made sense, and every bicycle sold in Germany would meet the requirements or not be street-legal. Being blinded by oncoming cyclists was much less of an issue here. I do wonder whether NZ will consider similar regulations, particularly with the increase in cycling traffic. Incidentally, this is one of my issues with the Lime scooters: they have an upward-pointing light. I sincerely hope that the scooter traffic will drastically decrease in the winter months, because I am not looking forward to being blinded by scooters while riding as well.

By: Mike

Mike — Mon, 29 Aug 2016 02:39:08 +0000

Hi I Think the big problem is the lights worn on the head as people seem to look at the driver to see what the next move is, in our family we have all got the CL1800L 1800Lum lights from http://www.bikeforlife.co.nz and that has 7 settings and on the brighter roads we keep them on lowest settings, Now worries.

Cheers

Mike

By: kim

kim — Sun, 12 Jun 2016 18:52:08 +0000

Great writing about mountain bike lights. Mountain biking at night is just amazing and is not possible without light. If you are seeking kind of light you me keep your eyes on https://coolidealbike.com/best-mountain-bike-lights-review-tips/ here to make enjoyable and adventures journey at night.

By: John Walker

John Walker — Thu, 31 Mar 2016 23:12:20 +0000

What about in the daytime? Should one have lights on their bike when riding during the day?

By: Illuminating night time cycling |

Illuminating night time cycling | — Fri, 04 Sep 2015 01:29:42 +0000

[…] have been giving us good information about our choices here. Indeed there are concerns that some bike lights may be too bright, interfering with other people’s […]

By: Chris

Chris — Wed, 25 Mar 2015 00:56:22 +0000

Right on the money, Lenny. Well put.

By: CP

CP — Thu, 17 Jul 2014 20:08:21 +0000

The thing about lights is everyone would rather see 10 cyclists using lights badly than 1 with no lights & we’d rather see 100 or more using lights badly than 1 fatality because they were not seen.

Regardless though, lights are down the priority list compared to improving the behaviour of some drivers and cyclists. Awareness & respect need to majorly improve before safety will improve. Better infrastructure will help but top the pile will always be behaviour.

Respectful use of lights is a tiny bit of the that good respectful behaviour. Its helps however in my opinion is not a major contributor to improving cyclist safety.

By: David

David — Thu, 17 Jul 2014 00:40:10 +0000

Good article. I suppose it’s about trying to find a balance between ensuring you will be seen without overdoing it.

I’m probably guilty of the above as my front light is quite bright and I currently have it mounted at horizontal. I used to have it tilted down slightly but I had a run-in with a car who cut me off and then claimed they didn’t see me (despite a bright flashing light) concerned me, so ended up lifting it back to horizontal.
That way I figured that at least they can’t say they didn’t see me coming.

Perhaps I will lower it down a bit again.

By: Pinebug

Pinebug — Wed, 16 Jul 2014 23:46:29 +0000

I agree with what everyone has said. I had got a 600 lumen light on my bike and a 200 lumen on my helmet and I have had people hooting at me just because my lights are too powerful for them. I saw a glow belt ad on a car so visited their website to investigate and ended up buying two green LED flashing belts for $40 that I use everyday and now I just have to use a 200 lumen lamp as the belt makes me visible from the front and the back as well. The good thing about these belts is that they are USB rechargeable so I don’t have to worry about replacing batteries.

http://www.glowbelt.co.nz

By: Criggie

Criggie — Wed, 16 Jul 2014 00:06:00 +0000

In reply to CP. For lighting up flouro - definitely! Those yellow/green/orange flourescent colours use dyes that reflect UV light but at a lower wavelength, essentially converting UV light into visible light.
Makes the object appear brighter than it really is. This effect slowly wears off with age and sunlight.