If you think that you need a flasher on your seat post, both seat-stays AND the back of your helmet along with a highway flaggers safety vest to the rear you are thinking like the typical cyclist. Most of my cycling friends think like this. I have been riding longer since before flashers were invented than since and I have never been hit or hooked. If you think that is because no one has ever tried you would be wrong. If you think it is because they didn't see you, you would be wrong. They SEE you! What they DO with that knowledge depends heavily on the vehicle culture there. In NYC it is a given that a motorist with a green light or arrow is going to go charging across the intersection. He will hit you if you are anywhere in his path. Don't be there. In Portland and the suburbs, drivers wait when they see cyclists. Cyclists get used to this and... along comes a driver having a bad day or an out of towner and... blammo... don't trust them. I wear bright stuff and I have the minimum requirement of things that flash on my bike but I also have developed that sixth sense that says that that car sliding up on your left side is going to try and cut you off at the turn... right hook you in other words. He SEES you, he also thinks he can get around you because he is so much faster than you. Don't let it happen. If they get to the corner before you do, even if they don't, be very prepared to scrub off a lot of speed. It doesn't seem that hard. I do it automatically but just the other day a couple of friends of mine trashed their very expensive Santana tandem plowing into an SUV that right hooked them. They have as much experience as I do and their tandem cost 10x what either of mine cost. Ya think they'd be invested on keeping themselves safe. A drunk running a stop sign is something I worry about now and then. Sadly that isn't how many of you got taken down. Right and left hooks just shouldn't take down as many of us as they do. Remember. They see you! They may turn anyway. Don't let that throw you.

H