I stand corrected. And there were a few LCD (without backlight) laptop and transportable computers too, ... ... ...

For those wanting a deep dive regarding color impact & effect under scoptic (dark) vs. photopic (illuminated) vision, search on "Purkinje shift". I first dealt with this when specifying and rebuilding traffic and response vehicle lighting in the 1990s.

Flashing white front and rear red on the road ALL THE TIME. I've worn hi-vis vests for years. Sure, they HELP, but they're nothing like a flashing light. I won't ride without 'em anymore.

One might argue solid might reduce annoyance to other road users, but this is peripheral. If drivers are so "concerned" about flashing lights "hurting their sensitive eyes," then perhaps they should STOP MOWING PEOPLE DOWN! If they didn't behave so egregiously behind the wheel, perhaps we wouldn't need lights! And if our transportation infrastructure supported safe cycling more, then ok.

Two experiences after 40 years of urban commuting convinced me to use lights 24/7:
1) Driving Mt. Hamilton in the sports car. Love seeing the cyclists out and about on the mountain. I noticed that the frequent light-shade transitions make it challenging to see a cyclist who just entered the shade. My eyes are pretty good still, so I think it's just normal for someone's eyes to take a moment to adjust. (And yes, I understand that if when I'm driving, I can't "see" what's up ahead, it's my responsibility to slow down or stop. The old, "The sun was in my eyes!" excuse is lame.) Well, the cyclists using lights? CLEAR AS DAY. There was and is never an issue of seeing them when they just entered a shady spot of road. This alone convinced me that I should be riding with daytime lights.
2) Getting hit by a moron. Now I readily admit that this moron probably wouldn't have noticed my light and hit me anyway. But while riding during Covid next to a VERY busy park with bumper-to-bumper traffic, I feel having lights would have elevated my visibility and presence within the roadscape, making a collision far less likely. Luckily it was only a glancing blow, I didn't go down and the bike was undamaged. My left knee was sore for the next few days though. After stopping, the driver quietly drove away, avoiding any responsibility. Pissed me off.

And since motorcycles are now mandated to have headlights today, it only makes sense for cyclists to use lights during the day.

We're simply too vulnerable in the American transportation landscape to just assume we'll be seen without a little something more.

And should they flash? I get the debate. I assume flashing was always a preferred option to extend run times and battery life. Today's LEDs are so much more efficient, that this benefit isn't as crucial as it used to be 20+ years ago.

I am not a driver and it does hurt my eyes and everyone's eyes and makes things more dangerous. The goal is visibility not blinding people. Blinding people doesn't help anyones cause unless it is some pro-blindness charity. Agreed cars should drive more carefully 100% no question there but if we look at every other road user beyond emergency vehicles everyone uses solid front light and generally flashing lights are illegal and for good reason.

You do not ever need a flashing light unless in an emergency and I think it is especially worse on a shared path or bike path. I would also state that cars do not need these ultra bright lights that aren't even high beams they are just regular lights. For cyclists we need good decently bright lights but more importantly a good beam pattern with a proper cut off at the top similar to STvZO lights. We need good visibility again not blinding. Off-road a big bright floodlight makes sense so you can see better on a mountain bike trail at night but riding on the road or paved path good beam pattern is the most important thing and something a lot of people ignore and just think I NEED BRIGHTNESSS!!!!!! You don't need as much if the beam pattern is crap.

It doesn't hurt MY eyes and I live in a town with a lot of bikes and a lot of cyclists using front flashing lights. It just isn't a problem for me and doesn't appear to be a problem for the thousands of other drivers in town. I have no doubt from your numerous posts that flashing lights bother you, but don't presume to speak for the rest of us.

Just as an aside, I actually agree with you about the advantages of proper beam profiles. Outbound Lighting has built their entire business on this premise and now have a great many devotees.

Outbound Lighting makes a seriously good light that works well in daytime and nightime (called the Detour). For night use it has a cutoff, just like a car llight, so you don't blind oncoming drivers. For daytime, it has a mode that cycles the brightness up and down like you see on some motorcycles. Every other cycle it throws in a brief flicker. It's attention getting without being annoying like a flashing light. The light is thoughtfully designed, uses USB-C to charge and is simple to mount and dismount from your bike. Build quality and support are top notch. Mine was $180 but worth every penny. I have no relationship with outbound but as someone who was a fulltime, year round bike commuter for the last 20 years, I have tried many lights and this is by far the best one I've owned.

Outbound puts some serious engineering effort into their beam profile design. As a former optical engineer I really respect what they're doing. That said, for most applications I'm pretty happy with the simple beam profile produced by an LED in a parabolic reflector (or some array of such emitters and some simple optics). Outbound does put more "lumens where you want them", but charges a lot more for those well placed lumens. That value proposition may work for some riders and not for others.

Believe me this works so badly you’re not missing anything.

I like this. I can’t stand overly bright lights at dawn or dusk that just throw out stupid lumens directly at drivers or other cyclists.

It is not all flashing lights, it is those few percent of people that have lights aimed at eye height that are brighter than car high beams in low light conditions so that it overwhelms the oncoming bicyclists that are only tens of feet away.

You are a lucky one. It does bother my eyes and probably bothers a lot of others who either we don't hear from or just don't speak up. I don't really need to speak for anyone because there is a clear and present danger in doing it so no real need to speak for anyone when the problem has presented itself and the solution requires nothing more than a button push.

Yeah beam profiles are super important and nobody really talks about them at least not as much in the U.S. I think that would solve a lot of people feeling less visible. A flashlight is good for someone seeing when they don't need their hands and is awesome in a pure distance category but for visibility not the best.

The very beginning of this thread is already based on a confusion, which the OP themselves apparently failed to grasp. "Flashing mode" and "strobe mode" are two fundamentally different modes of light operation. And the OP mentions both in the original post and thread title, which makes it completely unclear what they were intending to talk about.

Flashing mode, if named properly, operates under nominal light output levels. These output levels do not bother anyone, regardless of whether the light is flashing or not. They don't "hurt" anyone's eyes ant more than a steady light would. If someone experiences any kind of debilitating reaction to a bicycle light operating in flashing mode, this is indicative of a major medical condition, which in most cases immediately disqualifies such individual from operating any kind of vehicle on public roads. Moreover, depending on local laws (in my case I'm referring to driving code of a specific US state), in such cases one might be required to self-restrict themselves from operating vehicles on public roads without waiting for any "official" order directing you to do so. Under certain circumstances one can be held criminally liable for failure to self-restrict.

The front light rules are pretty simple:
1. Avoid using strobe modes without a very good reason.
2. Daytime riding: flashing mode, always, no exceptions.
3. Night riding: steady mode, preferably with proper beam shape (i.e. cutoff). Might be accompanied with lower brightness flashing markers.
4. And don't worry about anyone whose eyes might be "hurt" by regular flashing: 99% of these people are just feigning "the princess and the pea" syndrome, the rest have no business being on the road at all

As I've said a few times, when speaking about a safety device, you can never really know if it works. You can only know for sure if it doesn't work.

This is an interesting distinction. I think most bike headlights from the past few years simply modulate LED drive current to create a flashing effect while keeping the maximum current the same as the steady state max. Some earlier LED lights like the Niterider Lumina series did have a true strobe mode to compensate for their relatively weak output, but that's not true of any of the lights I've gotten in the last 5 years or so. The current crop of headlights commonly have outputs well over 1000 lumen and such strobing is no longer necessary. Where I mostly still see true strobes these days (with peak current and brightness several times the steady state maximum) is in tail lights.

It's obvious you're obsessed with flashing lights. They've been used on bikes for 50+ years, so good luck with your flashing light banning campaign. Methinks the issue is YOU.

Maybe focus your energies on road safety campaigns instead. 'Cause pedestrians probably aren't going to be wearing "hi-vis vests or clothing, flashing lights or helmets" any time soon, and they get wiped out by poor driving all the time. I'd welcome the day when I felt flashing lights were no longer required to cycle our public streets. That day in the US I fear will never come. Perhaps I'll relocate to Europe instead.

Ok people used DDT in their kids bedrooms and for how many years have people been using asbestos? The age argument doesn't hold up. The issue is not me, if the issue was me I would be using a flashing light (which I do not do).

I am not focusing my energies on hi-viz or any of that I am not really taking much energies towards this because it wouldn't end well for the selfish flashers.

If you feel like you are so unsafe that you need to make everyone else unsafe to give you a false sense of safety, maybe you need to stick to indoor riding. I have never once felt flashing lights will make me safer if you truly believe that you are sorely mistaken. The only road going vehicles using white flashing lights legally are emergency vehicles traveling at higher speeds. It is illegal for motorcycles and normal road going vehicles that aren't emergency vehicles in the U.S. why do you think you should be exempt from that?

I think you guys need to allow for the fact that it takes many kinds to make the world, and we are going to vary in opinion and viewpoint.

you must be new here!😂

My dad gave me a pair of war-surplus goggles many (*MANY*) years ago. It had interchangeable lenses, one of which was dark red. I would wear this for 15-20 minutes before going outside to look at the night sky. Many years later, I had an app on my Palm Pilot that showed the positions of constellations in the night sky; it was called "Planetarium" IIRC, and had a "Night Mode" that showed in red.
Heh... I just pulled it out of a drawer and it still works!

"Planetarium" in Night Mode.

Human eyes are very sensitive to peripheral movement.

It is due to this, that I run flashing daytime lights.
it’s for the same reason other vehicles have flashing daytime lights on top, to be seen!
it’s the same reason every car has blinkers, that blink!

And as a cyclist, I need all the help we can get in the “to be seen” dept.

Yet, riding a day glow yellow bike, wearing a day glow yellow jersey, running flashing lights, people have still “accidentally” tried to kill me.
I can’t imagine being a cyclist on the roads today without my flashers.

Barry