I received this in response to my letter to the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management:
I hereby respond to your question to the National Government Information about the white cane that you use as a visually impaired person when you participate in traffic. You ask if you can use a cane that is luminous, because the ordinary white cane is not visible in the dark and in bad weather.
Thank you for putting this question to me. It is very unfortunate to hear that you have been hit and I understand that you are looking for ways to prevent this in the future.
The white cane should contribute to your safety in traffic. In Article 49, paragraph 1, of the 1990 Traffic Rules and Signs Regulations (https://wetten.overheid.nl/jci1.3:c:BWBR0004825&hoofdstuk=II¶graaf=19&artikel=49&z=2017-07-01&g=2017-07-01 ) state: “Drivers must let the blind, equipped with a white cane with one or more red rings, and let all persons with difficulty move ahead.” Thanks to the blind guide cane, other road users see that a blind person is approaching and they must let him go.
The legislation does not further define the white cane with one or more red rings, the white cane for the blind. We must therefore start from common usage. A white cane that emits white light and has one or more red rings still looks like a “white cane with one or more red rings”. From “one or more” you could infer that the legislator would not want to see just one design as a “white cane for the blind”.
It is super nice to know this!
Students of the Hogeschool Rotterdam are going to improve the Lightupcane.