Originally Posted by
noglider
I'm fairly serious about being seen in traffic. I ride a fair bit, and it's not a question of "if" but of "when" I get hit.
I use my lights regardless of time of day.
For 15 months, I've been using a Cygolite Hypershot 350. I like it very much. I usually use it in blinking mode. I've been told it's too bright by cyclists behind me. Maybe it's also a problem for motorists, but ...
I also have the Cygolite Hypershot 350. A pair of them. And I also use the lights each and every time I ride.
A very nice feature of the HS 350 is that it allows setting of the intensity and of the steady/flash/pulse pattern. With a pair of them it's all but impossible to not be seen and hit, and it's easy to set them appropriate to the "balance" of brightness vs visibility necessary on the roads I ride.
The compromise I'm comfortable with is:
I'll use settings I deem appropriate ... and they don't hit me. IMO, any other compromise is more likely to result in me on the ground and (at my age) possibly hospitalized; that, I won't have.
Of course, I don't ride in groups so, other than the unlikely instance of another cyclist tucking-in close behind me, all I need to be concerned with is drivers. With how bright LED lighting is getting on motor vehicles, these days, it's not as though the HS 350 is vastly and intensely brighter than everything else on the road. (Can be, with the highest brightness setting; but it needn't be set to that, if the roads' lighting situations don't warrant.)
High-grade lighting; multiples; set to varying patterns/output.
Settings appropriate for the visibility conditions on the roads I ride (typically, smaller country lanes with lots of trees).
Hi-viz jacket.
Riding on the MUP or sidewalk if ever it's too risky/tight on a road, depending.
Works for me. Seemingly works for the motor vehicle drivers who give me a wider berth than they once did when I only used a single, less-bright, steady taillight. A pair of taillights on different steady/pulse/flash sequences seems to "do the trick."
JMO