Joined: Jan 2009
Posts: 44,172
Likes: 6,404
From: New York, NY, and High Falls, NY, USA
Bikes: 1962 Rudge Sports, 1971 Raleigh Super Course, 1971 Raleigh Pro Track, 1974 Raleigh International, 1975 Viscount Fixie, 1982 McLean, 1996 Lemond (Ti), 2002 Burley Zydeco tandem
[MENTION=219896]JohnJ80[/MENTION], I agree with [MENTION=131376]PaulRivers[/MENTION] is saying, and perhaps it's because I understand it. I don't think he's saying he wouldn't absent-mindedly fail to pull over when a patrol car behind him is flashing his lights. It's not that he has no choice about pulling over, but he does have very little choice in noticing the lights.
I don't see him stating or implying that less visible is safer. There's no argument that more light makes us safer, but only up to a point. There is a point of diminishing returns, and that might be at about the same point when lights annoy others. If those two points are the same (or just close) then it makes sense to maintain our light output at that level or lower. Annoyance alone is not an asset, not that you claimed that it is, but it's a point worth saying anyway, so that we don't dismiss the negative value of annoyance.