Originally Posted by
bikecrate
At night I can see this as an issue, but is this really a problem in the daylight? I've encountered plenty of cyclist on streets and MUPs with flashing lights in the day time and never been blinded. There must be some bright lights out there I'm missing.
I think there are, and it's combined with a fast blinking rate. I have seen people riding with these things so bright I could see them a half mile away in broad daylight. If you apply the inverse square rule, and you realize that on a path, you're going to be passing each other at a range of about 3 feet, that's a lot of light to be flashing into someone's eyes.
I saw a situation once where a guy was running one of these things on a cloudy day on a MUP. The thing was so blinding that I didn't see he was riding with a small child alongside him until we were about 5 feet apart.
Slow the blink rate to a 1/2 second flash, and most of the problem probably goes away, but the fast strobe is just an absurd device on a path, and has no safety benefits whatsoever.