Thomas Pfann Jan 13, 2010:

Impossible to tell? "Auf Sicht" sounds just wrong to me in this context. My guess is the author either "forgot" the "kurze" or "lange" or he/she used it (wrongly) in the navigational sense of "as far as you can see", ie. "in the foreseeable future". The latter would be a wrong usage of the phrase (afaik), but mistakes happen all the time. Does the further context not give any indication of whether "lange" or "kurze" makes more sense?<br><br>If all fails there is always the good old rule of "If in doubt, leave it out". I don't think the sentence would lose much without the "auf Sicht" (...eine bereits bestehende Ausrüstungspflicht könnte sich allerdings negativ auswirken.)

Annett Kottek (X) Jan 13, 2010:

odd usage indeed Perhaps they mean something like ‘auf Sicht’ = ‘when observable’ OR ‘when its consequences become evident’?

I seems that the new policy (i.e. the ‘Ausrüstungspflicht’) has already been implemented/is already in effect (‘bereits bestehend’), but that there's as yet no data available that would allow them to properly evaluate its usefulness. 'Auf Sicht' might therefore also refer to that time when statistics become available to **look at**; or when the consequences of the policy become **visible**. Maybe it can be translated along the lines of:

It might still **show itself** to be….
It might yet **turn out** to be....