Bicycling

A mild blinking light beside a respectable brightness light is the best.
If there is only a flashing light, it can make it very difficult to judge distance, direction and speed of the cyclist. So an always-on light should be required.
And very few other things on the road have blinking red or white lights, which makes it very easy to identify that they are a cyclist. So a (not-blinding) flashing light is extra safety for the cyclist.

Reflective tapes are fine, but don't work for pedestrians in the dark.
Reflective tapes are extra safety.

Sorry, but you're just wrong on the facts here. Blinking lights are significantly safer.

Perhaps more to the point though: "I hate you", directed at any cyclist just trying to go about their lives in a safer way, makes you an arsehole.

I’m being attacked by an industrial grade strobe-light. Your lights are too bright

your 3000 lumen rear LEDs do.

Are you being literal? Because rear bike lights are often very low lumen.

The Varia RT515, for example, has a range of 8 to 65 lumens, with 65 being the daytime mode.

Trek's radar light has a 5 lumen night mode.

By comparison, car taillights are generally 500 lumens and brighter. In many states, you can have headlights on your car that produce 3000 lumens, while most commuter bike lights that I've seen are generally designed to be operated at 200 to 400 lumens (usually the lower end if you're commuting at night).

I would say that I'm not an advocate for strobe flashing patterns, and I don't see any practical use for them at all. But a slow pulse pattern is about as gentle as you can get while still being more visible than even a brighter solid mode.

Nobody is using rear lights anywhere near as bright as what you're describing. Cars are way, way brighter.

Retroreflective tape is a fine additional measure though.

I second this. Blinking lights make it more difficult to gauge your position, speeds,or even Tell if you're stationary or moving.

Also at an intersection if I look your way in the split second your light blinks, you're invisible.

Whem i cycle i always use solid lights, and only if i have more than one rear light I'll make it blink.

Think, if blinking lights are safer, why aren't they installed factory default on cars and airplanes? They are in fact less safe.

100% agree and I feel like some of the onus is on the light manufacturers to provide some notes as to the safest and most equitable operation

I HATE cycling in the city when the two lanes are adjacent as the power and all the different modes make it super distracting, but you can't exactly flag these people down to explain... Grrr

Decreasing people’s safety because of some nonsense remote possibility someone might confuse a bike for a cop car.

Wait, is that the reason???

I'm in Canada and have a wide range of bike light, including the Varia radar.

I own actual bike lights, regular lights that can be used as bike lights, and bike lights that are "StVZO" compliant.

The StVZO lights are dim, don't have flashing patterns, have an extreme cut-off beam, and honest don't make me feel safe at all. They reduce my visibility (i.e. seeing where I'm going), and it's silly that they are this way for "safety".

I do agree that some lights or flashing patterns simply shouldn't be used. I'm not trying to give someone a seizure, but I do want them to know that I'm a vulnerable road user.

My daytime running lights flash a slow pattern, and have low lumens. They cannot "blind" people, yet can be seen at a good distance.

As a cyclist, you can't win the visibility game. I've had people tell me that my lights are too bright, not bright enough, and have been praised for how good my lights are (by pedestrians).

My rear light is always in a flashing pattern, and the Varia will make this pattern more intense as vehicles approach. I was riding with another Varia user and he said that motorists would give him praise for how the light pattern works.

Any of these legislators are welcome to ride a bike with "safe" lights, and tell us how safe they feel. Or they can look up the numerous studies about visibility and cyclist safety if they don't want to risk their life with a 300 lumen narrow-beam "compliant bike light".

Are there studies on whether flashing patterns are better for night time visibility than steady?

Yes, there are. Blinking is much more visible.

People going twice the speed limit on rural roads is more of a danger, but this certainly doesn't help!