As it is, small lights seem to have a tendency to blend into the background of other road users at night, namely cars with their big lights, the small ones just arent noticeable
I agree, it's insane that bicycle lights are tiny invisible and easily vanished by the glare of car/bus/lorry/etc. headlights! What are bicycle light size supposed to be proportional to anyway and why? Speed? Size of bike vs cars? Weight? What? As the one of the most vulnerable classes of road users, our lights should be bigger and brighter than anyone else's! We have much more to lose in a collision with metal boxes, than occupants protected by metal boxes, when their box hit us and/or other large heavy metal wheeled boxes. Up to a point at least, I think size and brightness of headlights should be ordered by vulnerability, with the most vulnerable road users having the largest and brightest headlights. Car/lorry/bus etc. headlights are so bright these days, they make my eyes hurt, and they're becoming brighter, making us cyclists increasingly invisible.
Nationwide Vehicle Contracts takes a look at car headlights after a study shows most drivers think headlights are too bright
RAC Study into The Issue of Headlight Glare
Nationwide Vehicle Contracts takes a look at car headlights after a study shows most drivers think headlights are too bright
www.nationwidevehiclecontracts.co.uk
flashing seems to make little difference as for example in a line of cars, that are changing position, their headlights can appear to flash as they move in and out with the cars in front body blocking and unblocking the view of anyone in a side road waiting to join the carriageway.
Just one flashing headlight could be less noticeable, but the flashing rates of my three bright 2 X 1800LM + 2400LM headlights are all ever so slightly different, even after I switch them all on at the same time, so in daylight (the only time I ever keep up to three on flashing mode [I usually have one or two on flash mode, one constant], because they'd cause accidents flashing madly like this at night - see vid) they are deffo well noticed, even at a quick glance with human eyes, there's very high probaility of at least one being on at any given time. Cars never pull out in front any more at junctions, and pedestrians complain sometimes because they're pointed more toward them than at oncoming traffic.
(I've arranged my headlights as a centrally clumped triangle since this vid.)
