I have a dual headlight and my ride home is dark tree lined country roads.
My headlight points about 15 feet in front of me, any closer and I find I don't have time to react if I see something. I have lots of pot holes and speed bumps to negotiate that I want to see as soon as possible.
I don't know if it's by design or not but there seems to be a beam of light that leaks out of the bottom of the light unit that seems to light the road a foot or so infront of me quite well and I find that quite handy too.
I'd really like to mount the light lower, ideally on a front rack, because I think that would give me better visibility, but as the evenings are becomming lighter now I probably won't get around to it.