Originally Posted by
nycphotography
When I'm riding with a pack I'll have my older less bright one, and have it on solid.
But I won't reduce my visibility just because some rando might happen to want to jump on my wheel while I'm commuting.
My headlight is the same way. One day a runner came by very dramatically holding both hands over his eyes... while looking directly into the light. Moron. If you look where you're going, my lights won't blind you.
Unless it wasn't dark out and the guy was just being silly, you're missing the picture. When there's a bright, unshielded light in a dark environment, -
in the direction you want to go, aimed at you and not just the ground - you CAN'T see your path, you can only see the light.
It's one thing to have a bright light in the daytime or twilight, but in the dark, it just makes it harder to see anything
else, and that's more dangerous, not safer. If you're ever out when there's no light but half a moon, or low and diffuse ambient light from distant and scattered sources, you'll notice you can see a
lot, and
far away, but when someone shows up with a bright light in front of you, you'll notice how everything except what's right in front of you is just so much blackness.