Originally Posted by Leisesturm

Unless you have a very good reason to deviate from it, the laws governing road conduct in the United States say to keep right! That goes double for bicycles. Day or night, if you are to the right of a road and an oncoming vehicle is also to its right... ... where is the NEED to be lit up like a UFO from "Close Encounters of the Third Kind"? If you are following FRAP protocols a rear flasher becomes a largely informative piece of equipment, not an essential, life-saving piece of equipment. Why is a front flashing strobe in the daytime of such a high priority? Hey, if you already have one... I dunno... but I wouldn't move heaven and earth to acquire one. Sometimes you get home in time to charge your battery pack for the ride out the next day and... sometimes you don't... aren't you glad you didn't waste 30 minutes of runtime lighting up the afternoon when you have to miss a charging session? I am.

You hit a pothole and it knocks your rear flasher off... that's why you never made it home... or is that true. I can't count how many times I've gone out without lights at night. Countless. I mean... I rode for decades before lights were even invented! Lets not overstate their importance shall we not? I get that you might think that lights are an essential safety tool but... you are talking to someone who has been without lights, mirrors, horns or even a helmet, for probably more years than you have been alive.

I have a lot of perspective on safety, and from that perspective it is informed upon me that safety is more about what you do, and how you do it, than what you have on your bike or what you wear. A ninja cyclist that rides like it, is a lot safer than a rolling light show that cruises in the middle of the traffic stream, or fails to yield, and promptly so, when cut off, right hooked or otherwise compromised.