Originally Posted by
Slaninar
Just so you know: ambulance, police etc - all use BOTH flashing and steady lights at night. Period..
Not here. The police cars, fire engines, etc. everything on them flashes. Even the head and taillights alternate left and right. With all that strobing however, the vehicle is never completely dark, not even for an instant. That is the key. A trully rapid flash is not a bad thing even if it is the only light. A really lazy blink pattern is a bad idea even if you have a steady light to back it up with.
Originally Posted by
Slaninar
Having only blinking lights does make it more difficult for others to judge your speed (and direction). Do you think this is A. irrelevant, or B. helpful, or C. bad? It does draw attention, however.
A. Irrelevant. A single flashing strobe says "bicycle!" to a driver and s/he instantly knows what that means. Speed is informed by the fact that realistically the speed differential between car and bicycle is likely to be high. Assuming that this is the case is not usually a bad thing because the driver is assuming a very slow moving or even stopped cyclist. If that is incorrect, the worst that happens is that the car takes longer to overtake than the driver assumed. Direction is implied by the color of the light. If the cyclist has decided to be an a$$hat..and run red up front or vice versa.... well that's on them wouldn't you say? In any case, the main infrormation is that a bicycle is out there and all that that implies. As I understand it, the majority of cyclist fatalities is not from them being run down in traffic. The majority of cyclists kill themselves by colliding with fixed objects or other kinds of single vehicle mishaps. When cyclists are hit by cars it is usually in cross-walks or on sidewalks or a salmon situation where the cyclist was behaving more like a pedestrian than a proper cyclist.
FWIW the 1st generation MagicShine lights had a flash pattern that was more of a "sizzle" effect. The light never went completely out but strobed at a very high frequency. Very attention getting and from the cyclists perspective it has no effect on what you can see in the beam. Only by seeing the beam head on (or its reflection on something shiny) can you notice the effect. My PB Superflash tailight does the same thing. The flash is a high intensity sizzle that never leaves the bike in total darkness but is very much more distinctive and attention getting than the steady light would be.