While I was waiting for my train downtown, I was riding around the parking lot where there was a kind of mass rummage sale. I was just rolling slowly around in granny gear, and one lady said: "Hey legs! Stop riding and come buy something!" All she had was junk, so I just smiled and kept riding. Then, she said to her friend: "Not that I was looking. But I was, hehehe" She was a good 20 years older than me, but I don't mind. Beggars can't be choosers.
As for the lights, I had one guy at the train station say he came up behind me and the red blinker is a good idea and that it works.
But the best and most frequent compliment is when I'm riding a dawn, dusk, or night, and I have my lights on, people give me lots of room when they pass. In broad daylight, they pass much closer in general. It is almost like the lights qualify me as more of a vehicle to them...
Cagers really like it when we stop at lights & signs. For some reason, it really burns them up that we can get away with rolling through almost every one. I find that if I roll through a stop sign because it is safe to do so, I get passed much more closely than if I stop. It is like I earn their respect by sacrificing my momentum.
Since I've always ridden bikes, I never understood that mentality. Whenever I was driving and saw a cyclist roll a light or sign, I always smiled & thought: "He deserves that privelege for going to the trouble of riding a bike."
People who don't ride don't realize (or have forgotten) how much work it is to start from a stop over and over again compared to keeping moving.