Originally Posted by 2manybikes
There is one commuter around here that has no lights, ... I know it's him from a long way away you can not miss this guy!
Unless you are going to turn left onto the road that he's riding on... Lights don't illuminate nor reflect on surfaces that are 90 degrees from the direction they are pointed. You NEED a front light if you are going to ride at night. Reflective stuff is important too.
Personally, I run both a NR digital evolution (on blink) and a cygolite HID. For taillights I use the NR taillight on solid and a blinkie mounted to my rack, (as well as a huge red rear reflector). I get more respect from cars at night than I do in the daylight. I have many cars waiting to turn left onto the road I'm travelling, even when there are other cars headlights around to wash out the bike lights. I think the combination of the bright 15w flashing halogen and the blueish hue of the HID really stands out. I have a 3 LED headlight from planet bike as a backup flasher/flashlight if I flat. I wear reflective ankle bands as well, and scotchbrite fabric on my Bug Pannier. My wife says I'm very visible from a car, but I'm still not satisfied, so I ordered a reflective vest. That said, my setup cost almost $700, which I would not spend if I wasn't riding in the dark for the majority of my winter riding...50-80 miles per week commuting & tooling around...60 miles of that is in the dark, basically from Nov - early march.
The commuter thread and the winter forum have comments about lights also.