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Netherlands: Wegenverkeerswet

An introduction on bicycle lighting can be found on Wikipedia: Bicycle lighting (Dutch). See also Wikipedia: RVV 1990 (Dutch) (for the general rule about unsafe behaviour, under which of course using a lamp with symmetric beam on public roads falls, as that blinds oncoming traffic). Links to the actual rules:

The Dutch rules

Comments on the rules

In the Netherlands, there has been a near complete abolishment of regulations of bicycle lamps, which is somewhat strange as it means there's no well defined method to say a lamp hinders other traffic. A lamp may not blind other traffic, which means strong lamps with symmetric beam such as the 'Magicshine' are definitely not allowed on public roads as there's no question that it is a dangerously blinding lamp (as I know from testing it). So if someone tries to say "it's just a little bit blinding" to get away with using it, he should not succeed. Then again, with strict rules there's never any problem with 'should', either it's allowed or it isn't.

More comments on the rules to follow.

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