It’s that time of year again, the evenings are closing in, mornings are cold, and we lose the light. We pull out the dusty jumper from the wardrobe and search for the lost glove that seems to vanish every winter.
We also charge up the bike lights or buy new batteries for them. This is the time of the year when lighting becomes an important part of road safety for everyone on the road.
However, there have been concerns that bike lighting, indeed, all vehicle lighting, is too bright!
It used to be the case that brighter was better, bicycle lamps were relatively weak and relatively expensive, but newer and cheaper (LED) technologies have meant that we all have very easy access to very bright lighting.
There are two types of lighting: lights to be seen, and lights to see. Lights to be seen are not excessively bright, they are used mainly to alert other road users to our presence in low light environments but with decent artificial light, i.e. urban areas with streetlights. Lights to see are more for use in very dark unlit roads, where you really need to light up the way in front of you; these have been more expensive and less used by commuters in urban settings.
However, the lines between these two types of lights have become blurred, the packaging just states a number of lumens or candela. We are constantly bombarded with messages to stay safe in the winter and make sure we have good lighting. Unfortunately, there is no real thought about having the right tool for the right job and advice on what type of light to use on which type of road.
What do the regulations say? Lighting on bicycles is required in countries that have signed up to the
UNECE Vienna convention1 that states that a bicycle must “be equipped with a red reflecting device at the rear and with devices such that the cycle can show a white or selective-yellow light to the front and a red light to the rear. have a white or selective-yellow front lamp front lamp and a red back lamp.”
Not much help there with regards to brightness.
There is a standard that bicycle light manufacturers have to conform to in order to be allowed to sell in the EU single market as part of the
ISO international bicycle standards series (which covers general bicycle safety), it however does not include requirements for the actual lighting performance, such as brightness or luminosity.
So, we turn to the national road regulations. Here it is a smorgasbord of various requirements. We have 27 European Member States and 27 different national requirements! Add in the UK, Norway, Iceland, Serbia, Bosnia, Türkiye, etc., and all still have very different requirements. Some just require a white front and red back light, some talk about where the light should be positioned on the bike, some call for visibility over a certain distance (Belgium) and some, such as Austria, provide a minimum luminous intensity requirement of at least 100
candela, but no maximum.
The UK has quite strict lighting road rules, but only concerning the position of the light, which must be positioned centrally or offside (the right-hand side of the bike), up to 1,500mm from the ground, aligned towards and visible from the front. But again, nothing on max brightness or light output.
In fact, after a cursory check of global bicycle light requirements, I could not find one example of a maximum brightness, light output or luminosity requirement. It seems that providing a set of rules for the performance of bicycle lights to reduce or limit dazzling and blinding bike lights would be too difficult for national road rules.
Oh really? “Hold my pint”, says Germany!
Germany has taken this to heart and is the only country to attempt to codify this problem into a set of rules.
Its
StVZO road rules, along with some applied technical requirements, and a national DIN bicycle light standard work together to lay out a lengthy list of lighting requirements that include:
- Minimum brightness of at least 10 lux at a distance of 10 meters.
- A maximum light output of 205 lumens.
- Light must emit a specific beam with a dipped flat pattern
- Lights designed for off-road use (e.g., helmet or high-lumen lights without a cut-off) are not permitted on public roads.
- Flashing lights are also not allowed; steady light only.
There are also requirements with regard to the fitting on the bike:
- Lights must be permanently fixed (no handheld or clothing/helmet fixed lights)
- Must be mounted so as not to dazzle others
- Must face forward and in or near the bicycle’s centreline
- Must be aligned downward
Lights must not be obscured (by panniers, bags, mudguards, etc.)There are also other requirements relating to batteries and dynamos,
and how they must be used2. And then there are also similar requirements for the red back light.
Phew! All for the humble bicycle light.
Is this the way to go? Could Germany’s stricter requirements be harmonised across the European countries? Should this design become a part of the European standardisation process for all European countries? Or is this too much? Do cyclists really understand how to fix the bike light so that the beam does not angle into the eyes of oncoming traffic? Do the police really know how to enforce it?
What might be a useful takeaway for everyone in and out of Germany is that lights with a K number from the German standard will have a dip on their beam designed to limit the blinding of oncoming cyclists/drivers.
Wies Callens from our Belgian Flemish member Fietsersbond has
another solution. He has also noted the increase in blinding lights in Flanders, Belgium, and has called for investigation into having a regulatory fix at European level to manage bicycle lighting. But he also has a more practical solution that can be applied in the meantime.
He calls for all cyclists to simply lower the light beam and gives a simple test to be performed. Place your bike five meters from a wall and then check how high the beam of light comes from the ground. If the light is higher than the height of your bicycle light, then it is too high.
Does Flemish practical ingenuity outfox German brute force legislation?
Until the regulatory spaghetti has been tidied up, we call on everyone to heed Wies’ advice and make sure your members manage their lights and take the bike light dip test. I can see the slogan already: “Dip b4 each trip!”
And don’t start the debate on flashing lights; we’ll be here till Christmas 2026!
1 Note: some, like Ireland, the United Kingdom, Iceland, Malta and Cyprus, have not signed up.
2 Our German members ADFC set it out in layman's terms here https://www.adfc.de/artikel/beleuchtung-am-fahrrad
