I think it safe to assume that the visual characteristics of any lamp will not change regardless whither or not there are distractions. That is pretty much a given. The point I was making was that a blinking light ( with all other factors being equal ) will garner more attention when placed in an environment where the majority of the surrounding illuminations are limited to "steady state" outputs.



The subconscious performs many tasks and takes in many things while driving. Without it we couldn't function. How many times does it take you to be driving down the road completely absorbed in some distractive thought and suddenly notice a blinking light a good distance down the road. Don't get me wrong, if that light was a steady light I might have noticed it as well. I'm just saying that it makes more sense to me that something that is not so "Usual" ( among the otherwise usual ) is going to be more obvious, particularly at distance. Pretty much this is just an extension of the old, "The squeaky wheel getting the grease" thought carried over into the visual context.