Is it time to start calling out bad cyclists?

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Vanneau

This whole brighter and brighter war we seem to have going on with car headlights and now sadly bike lights reminds me somewhat of the loudness war. Since xenon and LEDs and all that whatnot came in for cars the govt really should have had a proper crackdown on what is acceptable brightness. It's way too late for that now though, unfortunately, so we get situations like this

This is a good point. No matter how good reflectors or bike lights are they have to compete against a background of other strong light sources. Thirty or more years ago it was common (or so I'm told, I'm not quite that old yet) to see people driving using only sidelights on well lit urban roads or even motorways. And then there were dim-dip lights for a while. Streetlamps were dimmer too. Nowadays your low light vision is pretty much permanently shot.

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BobbyBriggs in reply to @Vanneau

Yes it's totally ridiculous! As cyclists we're all trying to out-bright each other (and the cars), when all we really need in city streets is to be seen.

And even in pitch black in the countryside my Sturmey Archer Dynohub lights the road ahead enough for me to see where I'm going. All 1.8 watts of it. Sadly the way things are now that's probably not bright enough for a car coming the other way to notice me, because it won't be expecting something so dimly - but adequately for its purpose of lighting the road ahead - lit.

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