Garmin Varia Light Flash Pattern Ban Extended in EU
One of the standout features of the rear-facing Garmin Varia RTL515 is its dynamic flash patterns that adjust as cars approach—a feature valued by many cyclists for its enhanced visibility and safety. However, this functionality is frowned upon in parts of Europe.
In Germany, bike lights with flashing patterns are prohibited, and France recently passed similar legislation. Now, if your Varia flashes at any frequency in France, it’s considered illegal. While it’s unclear if selling Varia lights with intermittent flash capabilities will be outright banned, there’s a growing risk that these restrictions could be extended across the EU.
The Consequences
Cyclists caught flashing in France face a fine of approximately €11.
What’s the Solution?
Cyclists are left with a few potential options:
- Modify Usage: Switch to pulse mode, which is currently compliant in France.
- Problem: Simply owning a device capable of flashing might still be illegal.
- Firmware Update: Garmin could issue a software fix to disable flashing modes and offer pulse modes.
- Problem: This would inconvenience users globally, not just in France, making such an update unlikely.
- Sales Restrictions: Garmin could cease selling the RTL515 in France and instead offer the RTL516, a non-flashing German model.
- Problem: Many French riders already own the RTL515, so this wouldn’t address the devices already used.
The Takeaway
Bonkers.
Safety should be the priority, yet this regulation seems more likely to reduce the visibility of cyclists and will cause fatalities.
via: legifrance
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I am German and that is a stupid German law. Flashlight added/attached to the bike is forbidden – if I add/attach the flashlight on my backpack and ride my bike, it is allowed.
Welcome to the whacky world of politicians and laws. They have no idea, especially when you are in the European union. They can make stupid laws. The EU push these laws and make it worse
This is a German law. EU does not make, pass or enforce laws. That is the job of national parliaments. Ignore this at your peril, the consequence is Brexit and no one wants that.
Lights in bikes should not be removable and should be considered mandatory. Continuous red backlight and white headlight.
Use is mandatory in low visibility conditions.
This is common sense, as intermittent red lights means danger and stopping is needed.
Red reflector should be present in the back and yellow reflectors in the wheels as well for obvious reasons.
A few years ago I bought my RTL515 from a french online store because it was not available in Germany due to the completely stupid “no blinking rear lights” law.
I use it on *every* ride and was never stopped by the German police for it. They don’t seem to care, or probably think “better a blinking light than no light” 😉
Looks like I have to find another country to get a replacement if the battery of my aging RTL515 finally quits…
As a user pointed out in Germany it’s that flashing lights on vehicles are reserved for police and fire fighter cars. So don’t mount the RTL515 on the bike but clip it to your jersey or backpack and you are good.
And since the government thinks german people are too stupid do tell the difference between a mamil on a road bike with one flashing red light and big fire truck with mutliple flashing blue lights, no RTL515 mounted on a bike in Germany.
What’s the reasoning in France? The RTL515 being allowed in the UK? 😉
yep allowed here. People would ignore such a law in any case. Even our politicians must be too busy to legislate this one.
AFAIR the UK rules did once restrict flashing lights to emergency vehicles, but they were relaxed, allowing them on oushbikes
However it only became legal here (UK)in 2005. And they can only flash between 1 and 4 Hz.
Sometimes when i look into space, I see a flashing light. Similar to those on bikes. And I automatically think it’s th cops, ambulance or fire. Time to get the eye sight tested lol.
As a cyclist in Germany I’m thankful that something is done (well, attempted, it’s not exactly actively enforced outside of distribution) against flashing bike taillights. Drivers aren’t particularly affected by the flashing because they pass by quickly, but as a cyclist, I might find myself following some blinding flash-emitter for minutes on end because the speed difference is so low and sight lines can be very long. In a group, we send the flashers to the rear where they only annoy each other.
And what about visibility? There’s absolutely no way to miss a reasonably bright taillight when there is a sight line. Flashing or not. When there isn’t a sight line, when it’s obstructed until the very last moment, then flashing randomly adds additional delay to perception and a tenth of a second can certainly be the difference between injuy and safety. I think the (small) downsides are clearly outweighing the (absent, imho) upsides. The only upside, the reason manufacturers *love* flash modes, is that you can tease more runtime out of a battery of a given size.
A flashing light is going to have a sine wave of brightness (simple physics) so average brightness is 1/sqrt(2) ie 70%. It’s always better to have a steady light.
Very stupid law indeed! I am a deaf cyclist and recently acquired RTL515 as my ‘third eye’ at the rear and paired with my bike computer, I will ‘see’ /know when vehicles are approaching while cycling on the road since I can’t hear them.
‘Merica! No issue here
America is never the answer
Murica is an answer as a source of blinking light when its banned here. Just brought 3 of them to my buddyes.
Flashing lights obscure the cyclists speed and direction from a driver. When that is the only indication of a cyclists presence, due to so many wearing only black while cycling in the dark and ignoring traffic signals, they are just dangerous.
When it’s RED your behind and the cyclist is in front cycling away from you. When it’s a white light they are cycling towards you.
Why don’t they stop selling black and grey cars as they are hard to see in the dark.
I drive for a living and daily see car, van & lorry drivers disobeying traffic signals, failing to indicate and displaying abysmal driving abilities. Most cyclists also own a car. The majority cycle safety & show respect for other road users.
When it is dark, many bike rear lights including Garmin switch from on-off flash to bright-dim pulse, and front lights switch to steady beam. Easier to discern distance and less intrusive. That helps alleviate those issues. But yeah, more visible clothing is recommended too.
So I’m on the fence on this.
I’m lost in to mtb but am spending more time on roads. As well as cycling i do ride a motorbike but don’t drive.
I have never been a fan on jus a single rear flashing light. As a extra light to get attention yes but not on its own. The are distracting and can ne disorientating for othe road users.
What should be banned are the flashing front lights. They are absolutely dangerous
As an epilepsy sufferer they are a real problem for me. Please use steady not flashing lights on city roads at least. I don’t want to be picked up off the road or a pavement because of thoughtless people.
It’s not thoughtless, it’s people caring about their own safety first. Just like you are now. Maybe it’s safer for you to not drive if you say it causes you to have fits. Should we stop ambulance,fire and police lights flashing? And before you attack me. I have seizures as well. But I won’t call anyone thoughtless because they are looking after their own health. Just like you are doing. Maybe think of others if your fits are as bad as you say. And don’t drive and if a passenger be in the back of a car. So the lights won’t affect you.
Perhaps you shouldn’t be driving.
11€ fine… LOL
I’m sure I’m not alone as a car driver in being unable to focus on a moving flashing light. It’s easy to see and watch a cyclist with a conventional rear light but the flashing just takes away any sense of position. They are just plain dangerous.
Agreed! Flashing lights are harder to locate. Very dangerous and so many people just don’t realise it at all. I have also seen some that flash briefly about once a second so that most of the time they are off. Great for battery life, but not much use otherwise. It’s no good having half a battery left if the cyclist is already in hospital or worse due to not being seen.
With I could get them I would like to see myself what if anything is wrong with them as I believe that they are a good product
This blows my mind. €11 is also the fine for not using bike lights in France 🇫🇷. Surely having a light is the lesser of two evils 🤪.
I always think of this type of pointless rule making as simply having rules for the sake of it.
Personally I always pair up my Varia with a second rear light (one blinking, one solid), just in case one fails. I use it in the height of summer during the day, as it can be the difference between a car seeing me or not.
Ultimately, there will always be people who complain about lights, it’s no different than to the people who still complain about cars having LEDS.
What a fantastic thing!
If I get to ride again, must get one of these.
Have been put off cycling by a dodgy knee and louts who love shouting (sometimes shoving) riders as they pass.
I wonder if Garmin might do one that pops off a micro-flare towards a predicted collider … !
Yet another reason why Eastern Europe is a better place nowadays compared to the west.
It seems very few people, particularly those that write these articles, have a really read the new law in France. Rear flashing lights are now banned at night and in poor visibility but during the day flashing modes are legal. Article 25 of the new law allows rear lights to have variable intensity and because this clause also includes indicator lights (which according to an earlier clause must be flashing) variable necessarily includes flashing. It’s a very poorly written piece of legislation which has clearly confused a lot of people, but if you go through it carefully then daytime flashing lights are allowed.
I have a funny feeling that daytime flashing isn’t the problem. It’s those who are on their way or from work in the winter months dark mornings and evenings. That use the lights for safety
Yes, a steady light. If someone has a seizure they are banned from driving in the UK and most of Europe. However with cycling allowed near pedestrians it’s not a cyclist’s right to have lights at inappropriate frequencies.
Norman, you may not have photosensitive seizures but you should be less unaware. Hence my comment above about city roads where the number of people is higher, and a cyclist may be travelling slower and the lights are in other people’s eyes for longer.
Ban flashing lights, but let Syrians flood across Germany’s border and drive over their citizens
Name the person that came up with the idea. And after the first serious accident where the lack of visibility was seen to be at fault, sue the individual. The would quickly bring an end to these stupid decisions.
I ride both the 510 and 515 here in Germany.
If you want to be compliant, its at least on long distance rides and bike packing/commuting easy:
Put a small solid light on your seat post and the Varia on your Backpack.
It’s bloody annoying seeing a bike with flashing lights it makes it hard to focus on them and see them properly. I thought it was only allowed in the UK if you also had a fixed light as well but all you see is flashing lights and no main light. Bloody annoying and dangerous imo.
Yeah, that entire “attention grabbing” thing is such a bad idea. Even the cyclist who has the flashing light should be interested in not draining attention of drivers more than strictly necessary. To safely get everybody through the situation, everybody should have as close to a complete undersanding of what’s going on as possible. “Perception hacks” like strobes, swell modes and the like only increase the risk of missing something else. And missing something else might very well mean the a super dangerous reflex reaction later on.
Dazzer, it was considered by the government – flashing lights did not used to be allowed at all. They decided to allow them, with or without steady ones.
The final declaration was that they could be permitted because they are “as noticeable as a steady light”. It did not note, however, that a flashing light is not as locatable as a steady light.
I have been against them ever since the first time I saw one on the road.
I was behind a small lorry on a twisting country road. Something suddenly fell from the back of the lorry – or so it seemed. There was a second flicker in front of me, then a bicycle just in front of me. I had to swerve round it – luckily there was nothing oncoming.
Because the light was on a slow flash, there were only two tiny flickers and long patches of darkness. Had the cyclist had a steady light then I would have seen it as I approached.
As you have said, very dangerous.
For those that claim flashing lights are dangerous, distracting and prevent them from knowing where the cyclist is/ which direction they’re going in….
A couple of tips….
1. Red light, static or flashing means you’re behind them and they are moving in same direction.
2. White light, static or flashing, means you’re approaching them, and/or they are traveling towards you.
3. You are not meant to focus on it. People steer the direction they look.
If you can’t manage this, please don’t drive, you don’t have the competence.
Cheers
Exactly. Who are these fools who can’t grasp which direction the cyclist is traveling in. Madness.
I don’t think there is any issue with which direction a cyclist is traveling, so long as they put red on the rear!
How far away they are is a valid point however.
If the light only flashes then is off altogether when not on, logic dictates very clearly that the cyclist is then not locatable whenever the light is off unless there are other lights on the vehicle. It means a driver must concentrate harder on finding them in the dark.
If there is a flicker of something ahead and you don’t see it, you might look towards it. The flicker appears slightly closer and goes off again. Then there is the silhouette of a cyclist right in front of you, so you swerve round it, hopefully not into oncoming traffic. That happened to me the first time I encountered a bicycle with a flashing light. It was masked by the lorry in front on a winding country road, then appeared as a flicker by the rear of the lorry – it looked as though something might have fallen off the lorry. Second flicker was closer, then there was a cyclist. With a steady light, it would have been obvious where it was. Without a light at all might even have been better, as the silhouette might have appeared sooner.
Some flashing lights might be okay if they flash enough times. With a steady light as well might not be too bad, although if the flashing light is bright enough to be dazzling then again a driver will not want to look at it too closely and may not find it easy to judge closing distance.
To declare anybody who dislikes flashing bicycle lights as incompetent shows clearly that you have not thought through your arguments from any perspective other than your own.
I regularly ride on the road with a rear light that can flash, occult (fade in and out) or stay on steady. I have noticed that drivers tend to give me more room while they’re passing when my light is flashing than in the other modes. As a driver, I’ve noticed bikes with flashing lights long before I would have without the light, and I’ve had other drivers tell me how early they noticed me on my bike. This seems to be one more manufactured controversy that fortunately hasn’t made it to Canada (yet).
We have had non flashing lights on bikes here in the Netherlands for decades. Nothing wrong with it. In fact a non flashing light is much easier to determine the path it’s taking
Different countries, different infrastructure, different context. We wld all be fine w minimal lights in NL. Lots of others on this thread expertly pronouncing flashing as somehow less easy to spot. Non flashers in traffic, next to a car tail light, are basically invisible. And the KSI stats on uk B roads? I will stick w the flasher.
As an epileptic, I’m happy to see this ban. My transportation options are already limited, The extreme high visibility flashing lights have just gotten out of control IMHO.
See Norman Connor, we’re not talking as drivers, but as pedestrians or other cyclists. We’re not being selfish or unreasonable, but more aware of other people’s health and safety than you seem to be.
Gentle flashing is just about OK if the frequency rules are obeyed. Bright lights, particularly at the front represent a public danger when flashing.
The stats tell us the danger is overwhelmingly of death by car not death by blinking front light.
I think this is actually about helping self driving cars recognise cyclists more reliably. Judging from recent patents concerning how to recognise a flashing direction indicator the technology is apparently not trivial.
Also car lights and bicycle lights do flash very fast to create a simple dimming effect; between 1,000 and 5,000 cycles/sec is typical but there are no laws defining the acceptable range. But even in this range flitting your gaze from slightly left of a DLR light to slightly right of it creates an optical illusion of a trail of multiple exposures. If this frequency is a close multiple of a video camera sensor’s frame rate, it will record a ‘flashing light’. There are ways to randomise the flash rates, and exposure rates, to lessen the effect. Apparently Hollywood film makers can also correct the ‘flashing lights’ during post processing of the digital film!
A good argument for retaining flashing lights for cyclists lies with the accident statistics concerning DLRs. When the vehicle fleet consisted of some with and some without DLRs accident rates were reduced for vehicles with DLRs but increased for vehicles without DLRs.
Basically, making some vehicles more visible makes other vehicles less visible. The German authorities presented this as an argument for not introducing DLRs!
Another area of concern is vehicle camera systems that dip the headlights automatically. It was noted that such systems were not reacting to some bicycle headlights. This led to a change in ECE Regulation #48 (2016) that for the first time included a ‘standard bicycle front light’ type test. The light was calibrated to 150Cd and set 70m from the vehicle under test. If the headlights dipped correctly across a range of sensor angles (5° up, 2° down,15° right, 15° left) the system is deemed fully compliant. Unfortunately specifications for legal bicycle lights are incompatible with this test. For example a UK headlight is required to comply with BS6102/3 which states min/max intensities above the horizontal as 0.25Cd/70Cd; the equivalent German stVZO specification is, 150Cd max, min undefined. Most of the bicycle LED headlights I have tested drop 20~30% in the first 15 minutes so maintaining 150Cd minimum is a bit impractical.
If the 150Cd trigger level is set to a lower value, retro-reflective guide posts cause unnecessary dipping in situations where the driver needs a full beam to see the way ahead.
Hopefully, bicycle light manufactures will integrate Regulation 48 compatibility into their products and car manufacturers will find more reliable ways to autonomously detect cyclists at night. In fact the Regulation 48 actually recognises the requirements do not fully address the problem in that ‘Additional sensor functions to improve performance are allowed’ para 6.22.7.1.2.