My understanding is that in British Columbia, where I live, a blinking
front light does not meet the requirements of the law for a bicycle
headlight--flashing taillights are permitted by

http://www.qp.gov.bc.ca/statreg/stat/M/96318_03.htm#section183

Subsections (6) and (7) are the relevant sections

As per regulation, a vehicle in BC (and note that in BC, bicycles are
not vehicles) can only have flashing lamps in certain circumstances,
generally for policing and emergency vehicles:

http://www.qp.gov.bc.ca/statreg/reg/M/MotorVehicle/26_58/26_58_01.htm#section4.2\
8

So, in BC, where a bicycle is not a vehicle, steady front lighting is
required, but flashing front lighting is not illegal. In BC, we're a
little bit away from enforcing the requirement of steady front
lighting--many people cycle without lights.

Personally, I believe flashing lights are not as effective as steady
lights for the sake of communication. Flashing lights are useful for
detection but not for predictability and, ultimately, collision
avoidance. As an example, I have seen a pair of cyclists come towards
me in full darkness, one with a steady light, the other flashing. Both
cyclists were easy to detect, but it was harder to determine the
position of the cyclist with the flashing light.

For the sake of an experiment, find a dark place and play catch with a
bicycle light, sometimes in steady mode, sometimes in flashing mode. I
have to believe that people will have better success catching the
light when it is not flashing.

What I would like to see is the law require headlights on bicycles to
be run in a steady state (I think the BC law says that now) and also
be of a minimum diameter and brightness measured in lumens/lux. I see
that people are using single LEDs as their bicycle lighting and I
think it's putting them, and other road users, at risk.

--
Michael Poplawski
Victoria, BC Canada

On 1/4/07, Doug Huffman <doug.huffman@...> wrote:
>
>
> Blinking front light, is it even legal?
>
> Bob Sutterfield wrote:
> > Can anyone point me to studies of safety comparing blinking with solid
> > bicycle lighting?
> >
> > We've long had blinking red rear LEDs; how does that compare with a solid
> > rear light? Do multiple blinkies (flashing independently) help even more?
> > Should a blinkie be accompanied by a solid light?
> >
> > It's becoming fashionable to use a blinking white front LED for a "be seen"
> > light, often without a solid lamp as a "seeing" light. Is this effective?