Shimagnolo

All dynamo powered taillights are steady-on taillights. They have no flashing mode, unlike many battery taillights, since flashing taillights are illegal in Germany, where these lights are made.

Source: Bicycle taillights for dynamo

dynaryder

I've seen them around the DC area,and back home in PA. Apparently,it's for highway and suburban use:
https://answers.yahoo.com/question/i...4154909AAImUAa

Matariki

I have a rack mounted dyno taillight that is continuous. I added a Mars flashing on the seatpost as well as a small flasher on my helmet. I felt that the combo of continuous and flashing as well as the separation marked me well. And then I got really weird. A number of recent cycle related deaths prompted me to "improve" my rear visibility so I added a pair of PB superflashes, one on each side about 6" away from the dyno taillight. I had a friend ride it so I could get a good driver's view and I have to say that I have become seriously worried about the irritation factor (not to mention inducing seizures). It is so obnoxious that I could imagine a driver running me down just to stop the visual insult. Because of this concern, I have been running all but the helmet flasher in continuous mode for the past few weeks. Does this make me less recognizable as a bike? Does that matter if they can see me? Should I tone it down and go back to the original configuration? I have to say that I can't tell yet from motorist behaviour, but since it will be some time before my morning commutes are after sunrise I will have some time to experiment with different patterns.

Oh BTW, Sanyo Eneloop rechargeable batteries are great!

njkayaker

Maybe not.

Night Vision - The Red Myth

The chemistry is different, which means this isn't relevant. Anyway, red isn't the only color used in darkrooms.

Probably irrelevant unless it was high powered. And a high-powered light would be a problem even when not flashing.

The universal use of flashing lights for emergencies would seem to discount epileptic seizures from being an actual concern.

In Germany (don't know about France), flashing red lights are illegal (because they are reserved for emergency purposes, I believe). The PBP requirement may exist just to be legal. That it's annoying to ride behind flashing lights might be enough of a reason to ban them.

Citation needed.

Probably not.

njkayaker

They, of course, have the same standard red rear lights everybody else has too.

I figured it was the strobe type. It's not clear that that use is relevant to the discussion of use for bicycling (school buses get other legal "special treatment").

njkayaker

+1

It's an dumb proposal.

The existing California law just requires a red rear reflector. Many states require a rear red light (flashing is not explicitly allowed or disallowed).

The proposal changes that to a flashing white light OR reflective gear worn.

njkayaker

Betteridge's law of headlines - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Seems reliable in this case.

unterhausen

well, this discussion is about a legislator who wants to give cyclists the same special treatment. I don't think it's a good idea, but I suspect he came up with the idea after seeing a school bus. OTOH, it is very effective on school buses, and I don't suffer from any confusion about which way the bus is going. If it was a solid white light, things might be different

njkayaker

It's actually about a (dumb) proposal.

That's not true at all. It's no the "same": school buses have other "special treatments" rather specific to school buses.

You have to do more work to make a case that strobes on school buses are relevant to cyclists.

Merely mentioning that they exist isn't really enough. We wouldn't make cyclists use them merely because school buses do.

That's what KD5NRH was getting at here:

That's a guess. The proposal is bizarre enough that I would guess where the idea came from.

The bus has the standard red rear lights people expect too. This proposed law isn't doing that.

It doesn't seem that people have any problem at all seeing/noticing school buses without the strobe.

Probably, the purpose of the strobe isn't to make the school bus easier to see. It's probably there to remind you that there might be kids around. (It could be that the strobes aren't used when the buses are not involved in transporting children.)

If strobes are so useful for school buses, why aren't they used on all vehicles?

I-Like-To-Bike

Excellent point.

unterhausen

does the link in the OP work for anyone else? I get a page that doesn't display any text of the bill for me

I-Like-To-Bike

Bobby G provided a working link in msg#6
Bill Text -

rekmeyata

Those are strobe lights located on the top of a school bus for inclement weather day or night and not suppose to be used on bright sunny days or clear nights...at least here in Indiana that's the way it is.

I disagree with bikes having the clear light, they should require a red light of significant brightness to be seen for a mile; I too think a clear light on the rear would be confusing, bicycles should have the same color lights as any car or motorcycle would have front and rear.

KD5NRH

This is another important point; with a roof mounted light on a tall vehicle, the closer you get, the less likely you'll have a clear line of sight to the light itself. IOW, you're not looking straight into the bright, glaring strobe from 30 feet away. Mount the same thing on the back of a bicycle and you'll have every overtaking driver trying to blink away the purple spots instead of watching the road and the cyclist. Add in that an obnoxious rear light makes people even more likely to try an unsafe pass to get where they don't have to see that anymore, and you're reducing safety.

njkayaker

I was going to point that out.

School buses are very different from bicycles (and many other vehicles).

"School buses do it" isn't any reasonable guide to what bicyclists should do.

SBinNYC

My source was Robert Lepertel, who was then the PBP's Tour Director. I was an ACP correspondent who ran ACP sanctioned brevets in the days before RUSA. There were a number of PBP rule changes in the early 1990's. The reasons for the rule changes were spelled out in letters to the correspondents.

One cycling book I picked up in France during the mid 1980's contained an extract of France's "Code de la Route." Part of the PBP application was affirmation that I would follow that code. I figured it would be a good idea to find out the implications to what I as signing. I don't recall seeing anything about the rear light being steady.

I don't think the legal angle was behind the ACP's edict. I disobeyed France's code regarding lighting when I participated on PBP. The French code required yellow front lights for cars and bicycles. I used a white front light. It passed the ACP's pre-ride equipment check.

njkayaker

Whether or not you disobey the law isn't relevant.

Usually (always), edicts an organization issues don't contradict what the law requires. That is, if the law explicitly states "no flashing lights", the organization isn't going to say that it's OK to have flashing lights.

I know about the yellow car lights but it's possible that bicycles don't have that requirement (I don't know). If you can buy white bicyle lights in France, presumably, they are legal to use in France (I've never seen yellow bicycle head lamps).

The most-likely reason for the steady red rear light requirement is that it's very annoying to ride behind flashing lights OR because the (local) law requires it (both don't have to be true).

The "the flashing hypnotizes the riders and makes them less alert" rational might have been offered but it's not established that it's an actual risk (it's seems that is something people just assume is true).

CliffordK

Perhaps California should just start a program where they give away a free white headlight and a red blinking taillight to every school kid that shows up with a bike.

No doubt if they do the cheap silicone lamps, they would cost less than 50 cents each to distribute.

Rollfast

Aren't those related to slow/stop and operating day or night?

I've seen new buses with a white strobe on the ROOF.

The more you make traffic marker standards UNstandard, the more you make safety a joke. Suggesting things that fly so badly against norms only confuses drivers that know one thing and aren't to blame if they travel 2000 miles and find it's all goofy.

This doesn't help us at all.

KD5NRH

This is why I have a "when in doubt, use amber" policy for lighting and reflectors on the bike. With the exception of DOT safety vests and similar which are only available in 360 degree white, everything rear facing is red or amber, everything front facing is white or amber.

rekmeyata

It's against the law in the US to for cars or motorcycles to use a constant amber light either front or rear at night, therefore you cannot confuse the motoring public by saying it's ok to put amber lights on bicycles. The only constant amber light you can have is a side marker.

jputnam

Not quite true -- you're right about the back, steady amber is not generally allowed, but steady amber lighting is mandatory on the front of many vehicles, it's the required color for front clearance lamps, front identification lamps, and front side markers, all visible from the front.

kickstart

I find it annoying that virtually all tail lights are either excessivly bright at night if they are effective in full daylight, or safely effective at night but too dim in full daylight.
A dual intensity tail light light that auto adjusts for day and night would be a great thing.

KD5NRH

The only time I see a taillight being much of an issue is if you're stuck behind it for too long. Easy enough to fix for 2-3 riders by having only one super-bright light and a couple of LED cheapies; just make sure the bright one is always in the rear. Besides, most of the really bright ones are only glaring in a fairly narrow cone, so they're good at getting attention at a distance without being too painful close up when your eye level is above that cone.

rekmeyata

Lets rephrase that, it is against the law to have amber lights as main lights, they can be side markers, they can be turn signals but they cannot be main lights. It's against the law, though the law never pushes the issue, to run after sunset with just parking lights and no headlights as we see a lot of people doing these days.