Also appropriate for the jackwads who compulsively & pointlessly slam on their high-beams, whenever their headlight field captures a pedestrian (who's on the sidewalk, way away from the road).

The Astrolux MF01 was all but made for this. https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32976932742.html

You say that, but I was once driving on a dark, national limit road through the forest one night - and had turned off my full beams because I'd just passed a run of cars coming the other way. I caught a glimpse of a pedestrian and instinctively turned them back on just to catch a glimpse of a (complete f'king moronic) person in full black pushing his bike (with no reflectors) in the road talking to the pedestrian.

After that, as a pedestrian I'd rather have a full beam to the face than think a car might not have seen me, even if I'm safely on the pavement.

>as a pedestrian I'd rather have a full beam to the face than think a car might not have seen me, even if I'm safely on the pavement.

This sounds suspiciously like "There Are No Bad Safety Measures"

How are you at risk from a driver not seeing you, if you aren't anywhere near the road?

If a driver has to travel that far off the roadway to reach you, that driver's issue isn't low visibility.

I misworded my point on that bit, I more meant I'd rather take a full-beam to the face when I'm on the pavement if it means the driver is aware of the hazards around them.

Occasionally (and in my experience it is only a handful of poor actors compared with the number of cars on the road), I'd take getting intense glare as a pedestrian if it works in everyone's safety.

Appreciate it's a different call for cyclists etc, but as a pedestrian I'd welcome the trade off more than drivers not using their full beams when they deem it neccessary.

PSA: A situation is what it is, not what it could be.

Another term for "What It Could Be" is "What It Isn't".

We have a number of tools at our disposal as drivers to minimise bad situations. Personally I think overuse of high-beams is more valid than under-use in quite a number of circumstances (and exceptionally bad in others).

Your comment implied that drivers who instinctively switch on their high beams to get a sense of a situation where they need more visual input are "jackwads" which I tried to highlight isn't the reason they're doing it.

Wanting to see more when you're driving a massive piece of machinery at decent speeds isn't something that makes you an outright asshole.

Those points weigh in favor of someone who thoughtlessly high-beam'd a pedestrian, for the first time - which is reasonable. Also reasonable is considering their actions and realizing they gained no meaningful amount of safety by blinding a pedestrian.

If they've blinded countless pedestrians over an extended period, then they aren't considering anything. Inconsiderate people are jackwads.

People not wearing reflectors while wearing black is so silly.

I would start with lobbying politicians to change the traffic laws and driving license exams that explicitly tells drivers (at least in my country) to not turn of the headlights for cyclists and pedestrians.

Disobeying traffic laws in order to be nice is tricky, especially if doing so has an remote possibility to cause an accident. The blame will always be on the driver.

Are you sure temporarily blinding someone coming toward you in a vehicle is a wise tantrum to throw?

Yes. A four-wheeler will just go on straight ahead in a stable and predictable manner when I stop giving control input. But a two wheeler will quickly come off course when I lose visual feedback because it's a dynamic balance that requires continuous recalibration. It's a very good idea to signal that you are getting blinded.

These are very good points.

Eh, as someone who rides a road bike pretty often, this is par for the course for the "community"

We should be glad the kind of person who would go out of their way to endanger themselves and others with something as useless and petty as... retaliatory light flashing is on a bicycle instead of a 2 ton vehicle.

The people who give cyclists a bad name are never self-aware

I'm not trying to be petty, or throw a tantrum. I'm not talking a 10000s of lumens here. It's just the only sure fire way to educate the driver about the problem fast enough. It usually works out that we both stop shining lights in each others eyes, and and pass safer and wiser.