Interesting response considering that your earlier comment was "In Germany they have strict rules for bicycle lights, and for good reason."
To give a summery response to your Q & A below, I suggest some practical cycling on fast multilane arterial roads in Southern California... then you can come back with your snappy quips.
And as to "What happened to being able to anticipate the traffic, and stop or slow down if you think someone in an intersection will potentially ram you?" Bit difficult to do when you are in the lane, moving with the flow of traffic, and some dunderhead tries making a left turn into you as they perceive you as a gap in traffic.
Have a nice day.
Originally Posted by
SmallFront
Yes, but the "A cyclist blinded me, causing me to swerve and hit the pedestrian/car/other cyclist" may then be the "excuse".
People also often go "I didn't see him (in that other car" when they ram someone in an intersection. Should we have high beams on the sides of cars too?
And some cyclists need to be brow beat before they learn that they do not own the road to the detriment of other road users.
Surely you are not suggesting what I think you are suggesting: That the solution is to blind other road users, whether you are on a bicycle or motorcycle, or in a car or 18-wheeler?
What happened to being able to anticipate the traffic, and stop or slow down if you think someone in an intersection will potentially ram you? Blinding him is the solution? Really? You may have the right of way in a given situation, but that doesn't mean you should blind him if you perceive him to not make good on that.
Oh, and while I'm there, if you only blind the ones you perceive to be coming close to ramming you, how do you keep from blinding other people while doing so, or even just looking while crossing a street/intersection? Do you turn the light on, go from "low" beam to "high" beam? Do you adjust the headlight? No, although it sounds plausible on the surface in a righteous sort of way, the fact is that if you have enough power to blind a motorists in a situation where speed is of the essense, you will also blind other motorists by simply looking around while riding. As a result, I can't take your explanation seriously, nor can I take as anything else than some sort of entitlement. Yes, we have to do something to be safe, but in my neck of the woods, that means being more careful and driving/riding defensively. Not acting aggresively towards other road users.
I don't know, I'm from Denmark, not Germany, and as such we don't have any rules about this blinding of bicycle lights here either, hence my comment about it being banned (both here and in the US) if people persist in such antisocial behaviour.