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Comment by mmmlinux | Hacker News Reader

Serious question for epileptics. Are those failed LED flashing street lights an issue? I feel like they must be. Even to me they can be disorientating at night when the one flashing lamp on the exit ramp is the main light source.

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I'm not epilectic but I'm always super annoyed when someone walks their bicycle and the led front light keeps pulsing in bright rapid flashes because of the dynamo

God yes. Primo headache material. Seems so lazy too, to design a light that goes full blast as soon as there is enough voltage from the dynamo. Stick a capacitor in there for chrissakes!

I don't see that, but I do see a fair bit of ultra-bright LEDs set to strobe mode because some study somewhere said that was the most visible to vehicles. Now I get blinded and dazzled by both oncoming and leading bikes.

I don't know why bike headlight manufacturers are so damn insistent on improving safety by blinding everybody else in the vicinity. Why do so few bike headlights have a "low beam" mode? Instead its 1,000,000 lumens in a 180 degree cone turning night into day but burning out the retinas of everyone else on the trail.

Because they cost more and people won't buy them. I commuted, year-round, by bike for 19 years. As I recall, my NiteRider Pro light cost around $300-$400. (The current NiteRider Pro Endurance is $449.99) It had high and low beams. There were also instructions on how to mount it properly to show the trail/road. Part of my commute was on roads/trails with no lights and I wanted good lights.

I knew plenty of people that thought a $15 light was fine, as well as a number who said they didn't need lights.

For many people, $15 lights are fine. My commute only has a very short unlit section and its a very wide and easy to follow path, so the lack of an adjustable beam setting is no big deal.

Of course, that means that I absolutely must adjust the fitting to "permanently low beam" rather than "permanently blinding", if for no other reason that I don't want to get flattened by an oncoming car I've just dazzled...

I was so frustrated trying to find a headlight that not only lit up the road/path sufficiently but also didn't blind people or cost an arm and a leg that I had to build my own. There were literally no suitable options on the market when I looked, even though it seems like it shouldn't be a hard problem. Automobile manufacturers figured this out over a century ago.

My bike does that too, it's annoying and it's disappointing they wouldn't put in a capacitor that ensures it doesn't blink at lower speeds or whatever. The back light has a battery in it so it stays on for a while when the bike is stopped.

While anything could push you over the edge, it seems like 5 to 20 hz is the bitter spot that will make someone flop around. I don't have tonic-clonics anymore, but the strobes still trigger some seizure activity in me.

To your question, not too bad of an issue unless you're easily triggered. Their speed is kind of off, ime.

I cant speak for epileptics, but I do suffer from photosensitive migraines (which the author briefly mentioned in the article), and in my case failing flashing LED lights are indeed an issue. Luckily for me it is not as instantaneous as a seisure, I feel it building up over many seconds, so in many situations I can just look away or close my eyes and it doesn't turn into a full blown migraine (just a kind of "hangover" in my head).

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