Sir, – Motor vehicle lighting is regulated in European standards, with the result that it is easy to drive a car anywhere in Europe. Unfortunately, an equivalent uniform standard for bicycle lights does not exist; national rules are highly divergent, with very little empirical evidence to justify one or the other in terms of safety. However, the German regulations do include both a maximum light output and a maximum height of the beam, to avoid dazzle.
If you ask me, it is high time to adopt a similar regulation to the German one uniformly across Europe. Besides solving this particular problem, it would eliminate from the market a lot of the cheap products whose unreliability is a major cause of bicycles being unlit – and also bring down the price of better-quality lights. – Yours, etc,
BEN HEMMENS,
Graz,
Austria.