Originally Posted by
kingston
Do you know why blinking lights are illegal in Germany? Is it because they are so annoying or is there some other reason?
You can have blinking lights (and other, otherwise illegal stuff) as long as they are not mounted on the bicycle. On your helmet, for example, or on the clothing or backpack.
Anyway, this may be a mixture of as-far-as-I-know, in-my-opinion and in-my-experience. FWIW:
Blinking, moving lights are usually or should be a sign of a problem, danger, emergency or other special situations. Used in everyday situations or for frivolous reasons (like, say, those seizure inducing Christmas decorations) will, in the long run, lessen the sensitivity of the public for signaling those special situations.
Blinking lights, especially when it's blinking from every direction, add to confusion. Human react stronger to moving than to stationary things. Which is, of course why they are so effective in the first place. Unless everthing moves, all the time. What to focus on then? What is next, when blinking lights everywhere have lead to light and blinky inflation, so to speak? Pyrotechnics?
Too much blinking can dazzle. Or trigger seizures. Probably rare, but still true. See above, concerning the use of strobes as defensive weapons. That's the dazzle and confuse factor.
It's really a lot easier to estimate the speed of a vehicle with a steady light, also where exactly it is, all the time. Also, I find it difficult to ride behind someone with a blinking tail light. Alternating dazzle-blind-dazzle-blind. Hard to overlook (which of course is the reason why bicyclists might find them attractive in the first place), but also hard to look anywhere else. And somewhere else might be where you should be looking ...
But as for me, a bicycle that looks like a moving Christmas tree is still much preferable than a dark and silent one. I really hate that, whether I am on a bicycle myself, on my own two feet or in a car.
Almost any light is better than none. Police, in my personal experience and from what I hear from others, seem to think alike. Being stopped and fined for running illegal lighting on your bike is almost unheard of. Even less so than being stopped and fined for running no lights ... unless, of course, you are involved in an actual accident. Then having had no or illegal lighting or other equipment can lead to nasty situations - that's the rule of insurance companies and lawyers ....