Flashing Lights

I know the title for this blog entry is the literal translation of the title for one of the best Danish films ever made, but it is about something completely different: Bicycle lights (or headlamps).

First my background: I have used my bike to get around to football practice and other stuff since second grade or something like that. Later I would use it both for school, Billiards and Volleyball practice - all of which would sometimes require me to ride in the dark. That required some sort of artificial light source. The first I had where the big headlamps from Basta (asfaik a danish company manufacturing all kinds of accessories for the bike). They were huge - used two C batteries and a small light bulb. Even though the batteries were big they would become dry quite fast. Once I were even stopped by a policeman in front of my school for driving without lights because it had run dry during my trip (I use that as a proof that I had a long way to school :P). Now I have some much smaller headlamps which uses LED instead of a normal light bulb.

Now some definitions: There are two headlamps on a bike, one in the front (white) and one at the back (red).

The primary purpose of the front headlamps is to light up the area in front of you so you can see the road and avoid holes, dogs and whatever. The secondary purpose is to alert incoming traffic of your existence, thereby allowing them to switch to the low beam instead of the high beam. This however is in general only annoying and not vital.

The primary (and only) purpose of the back light is to alert traffic behind you of your existence so they can avoid you. Quite important IMO.

Back to the LED headlamps. Today these headlamps are quite fancy. They usually comes with a small chip that can make the light flash on several different ways. My headlamps switch between: All on, steady flash, fast flash, and rolling flash. This goes for both front and back headlamps.

So why is this possible? Some say that a flashing light is more noticeable than a steady one, thereby making it safer to use the bike. I believe the developers thought "because we can", as I do not see any point in it at all.

When I drive a car I find it easier to determine the distance to a light if it is steady. A flashing bicycle light is just annoying. Of course, flashing lights are used to make air plane pilots aware of high masts so there might be something about it. But then again that only explains the back light...

The front light is for you to see what the fork is going on, and not for someone else. Have you ever been in a discotheque when they turned on the strobe light - it is a cool effect but not good when you try to move from one point to another (which is basically the only thing I do in such a place - going from the chair to the toilet and back).

Most of the bicycle riders I meet when I am taking a walk in the dark uses flashing lights, and at least half of them also have a flashing front lights... and here is my point: That is just stupid!