Flashing extends the long battery life…

This is quite important on a bike where the a light may only have battery life for 2 or 3 hours on constant.

Personally I tend to use flashing during the day. Pulse at night on urban roads (constant+flash), though I think flashing is acceptable under good street lights. Constant rest of the time.

I have to say on the very rare occasion that I drive I find high frequency flashing lights infuriatingly distracting. It’s like I can’t take my eyes off them,

Have you considered that this may be your problem, rather than the lights themselves?

It’s like I can’t take my eyes off them, >>

Have you considered that this may be your problem, rather than the lights themselves?

Well perhaps not. There is a school of thought that flashing lights can cause target fixation. Just along the same notion that when cornering, you should look where you want to go, rather than where you think you might end up … cause if you look at the ditch, you end up in the ditch through being fixated on the ditch.

With flashing lights, yes, you notice its a bike, but there is the potential that you also can spend too much time looking it at it, and slowly drifting towards it through that target fixation. Potentially, that drift puts cars closer to a bike than if they were less fixated by a constant light.

I notice the same thing at my work. In my work, I really stand out from the norm (i’m so devilishly handsome you see), and you see people walking in my general direction towards me who if they kept their line would pass by me, but because they focus on me, they start to drift towards me, and into a collision path, and end up having to correct as they get closer.

I think constant and flashing combination is the best balance personally, with the flashing one not being overly bright.

Definitely noticed an increase in the ‘brighter than a nuclear holocaust’ variety of front light here in London over the last year or so. I guess it’s because they are cheaper now. Maybe they are trying to help with the congestion by charring the retinas of any oncoming traffic?

I’ve noticed quite a few on my commute.
Totally understand the increased visibility angle … on the road.
What I don’t get is that some folk use them on my commute … and it’s all cycle path?

How inconsiderate of them, they should know you only use cycle paths and purchase their lights in accordance with your cycling regime.

If that were me I’d tell them.

sleigh62 – Member

What I don’t get is that some folk use them on my commute … and it’s all cycle path?

Do they work at your work, and live in your house?

Apologies if this has been posted before, but it’s an interesting read. There’s a couple of experiments you can try yourself, just to make yourself feel even more vulnerable as a cyclist. Further down the article it suggests cyclists should use flashing lights to be seen, to avoid the ‘sorry mate- I didn’t see you’ scenario.

RAF Pilot Cycling link

Flashing is good. Slow flashing is not.

Flashing is good

I use pulsing on my commute. I commute entirely within the city when it’s dark so I don’t really need a light to see where I’m going. This means that the priority is visibility. I used to cycle one day a week and drive the rest (I now cycle every day) and paid close attention to which lights stood out best to me on the roads I ride at the time I ride them, and flashing/pulsing won hands down.

paid close attention to which lights stood out best to me on the roads I ride at the time I ride them, and flashing/pulsing won hands down

Yeah I still don’t think this is enough. Looking at a whole vista of traffic and picking out the cyclists is only one way in which we need to be seen.

You also need to be visible as someone glances in your direction in a fraction of a second before pulling out. If your light is actually off when he glances, he’s not going to see you. If the driver watches for a second and sees a couple of blinks, he’ll realise there’s a cyclist, but not have much idea of how fast the cyclist is going, so might just go ahead and pull out anyway. Those are two main ways to be in an accident, which aren’t helped by slow blinking lights. You can’t very well track the movement of something that’s only blinking once a second.