Re: RAF Police
The plods where I work are on top of their game - immediately prior to Christmas, one of them sent an email to the whole station stating that "No-one is to/are to be caught perambulating on his/her bicycle unless it has reflectors on the pedals, wheels, the front bit and the back bit and lights on the front and back. Oh, by the way, the lights aren't allowed to flash." They then referred us to a random paragraph from the Road Traffic Act. (Section 27 - The Minimum Standard of Bicycle Equipment to be in use During Hours of Darkness on an RAF Base. Or summat.)
This was followed about a week later by a half-arsed apology and then explained that since the law changed in October 2005, flashing lights were now permitted, however "they must flash between 60 and 240 times per minute and emit a light of no less than 4 candelas." Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzt.
Now I don't need to insult anyone's intelligence by explaining that a candela is the base unit of luminous intensity in the International System of Units that is equal to the luminous intensity in a given direction of a source which emits monochromatic radiation of frequency 540 × 10*12 hertz and has a radiant intensity in that direction of 1/683 watt per unit solid angle, but how are the RAF Plod planning on ensuring that a bicycle light meets the required standard? I wonder if they have invested in a bicycle lamp intensity/flash frequency testing machine?