I was surprised when I started seeing skunks after I got decent lights. I'm not sure if I was able to see them for the first time, or if it was a coincidence that they showed up for the first time when I got better lights, but I was glad to see them before I got too close.

I need my high beams for dark unlit roads. When driving at 40+ mph, the low beams just don't suffice, so I turn on the high beams. I still dim them for oncoming traffic, though, because I'm not a d-bag.

I try to not be a d-bag cyclist as well, so I slow down when passing peds and the like on the MUP, which handily ensures that I don't need high powered bike lights to safely cycle past people. I understand that you need bright lights for the road, but this thread is about MUP etiquette.

So, in 15 minutes of mup riding with 3 or 4 road crossings I'm supposed to keep switching my lights? What about the d-bag cars at the crossings? The minewt mini's only have an on-off switch. Anyway, I thought you guys in AK only rode moose and ski mobiles? Pedal a mile in my shoes before casting the first stone. Cars blow through red lights and crosswalks with peds in them all the time. MY safety comes first. Yes I can point the blinkie down for a stretch. Maybe some other MA types can chime in here.

I use a generator light with a cutoff optic, mounted below my front rack so it's not blinding people.

For my road crossings (I've got quite a few in the first 6 miles) I use a Princeton Tec Quad LED on my helmet. Single button on/off, waterproof, easy to operate even when wearing big lobster mitts. I just turn that guy on the first setting (high/photon torpedo) and use it to jacklight drivers so they know I'm crossing, then I turn it off when I'm back on the MUP.
Could be an option for you.

Moose are untameable; we eat them, not ride them (and occasionally get stomped by them, ornery buggers). WTF is a ski mobile? Do you mean a snow mobile? We call them snow machines up here (stupidly ambiguous term, I know), and they're as legal to operate in Anchorage as ATVs are in Boston. This isn't the sticks. If they live on the road system, the vast majority of Alaskans drive cars. A very few walk, and even fewer bike.

I understand that MA drivers probably suck, but I really doubt that AK drivers are any better. Anchorage is the only city that I've been where you'll regularly see pedestrians walking down fully lighted boulevards with both headlamps and rear blinkies. Pedestrians, not cyclists. Because AK drivers are that oblivious to anything that isn't another car (and sometimes even then).

Can you angle your steady lights down? Can you turn them off and rely on your helmet light to get you through crossings? How do pedestrians manage the road crossings without headlights? Is it possible that there might be solutions to your road crossing issues that don't involve bombarding fellow MUP users with painfully bright lights? While it might be true that you're safer currently doing what you're doing, that doesn't mean that it isn't anti-social; people use the "my safety FIRST" excuse to justify all kinds of anti-social behavior, e.g.- insisting on driving gigantic SUVs.

I agree with Clifton that a helmet light is probably your best bet. You don't even have to turn it off or change modes, just angle it away from oncoming MUP traffic, and angle it towards crossing auto traffic. Works well for me, anyway; I have a headlamp that I wear when road riding for the sole purpose of being able to point it into the cabs of cars and trucks that might try and cross hook me. My fiancé has the Princeton Tec headlamp that Clifton mention, and that thing is painful to get speared by, and can light up the inside of a car from a respectable distance.

Sometimes the issue of brightness is really one of angle. It may just be a matter of pointing your lights lower...the visible distance will be lower, but oncoming traffic will still be able to see. This is the equivalent to dimming your brights when driving on the highway.

You did well. Just give them a chance before you spring for higher.
I have to ride by 5 casinos in the dark before I get home. I don't think I'd commute if I had to do that on the road. Not in Vegas. Not where they sell double malt scotch right beside the Cheerios.

Daaaamnn!