This is the most compelling argument I have seen for using a flashing light on a bike.

Yes, but... flashing yellow as a hazard in or near the roadway is generally a stationary object. Mail trucks are making frequent stops. Cyclists are NOT hazards, we are traffic.

Garbage trucks, 'mowing operations' on the shoulders, tow trucks - generally ANYTHING that is going slower than the posted speed limit!

I've been riding for years with high bright flashing red lights on the back of my bike. Never been stopped and once had a LEO pull up alongside of me and ask me where I got that "great" tail light (he wanted to get one too). I'm sticking with red (and the brighter the better) - it triggers something deeply ingrained in driver lizard brains about staying clear.

J.

Replaced our Planet Blinkie lights with sets of Bontrager Ion 100R/Flare R City Lights several weeks ago. Makes us much more comfortable riding in traffic in the daytime. Not cheap but I really felt they were needed for OUR safety. The small black cubes when not turned on do not stick out and are not noticed, so I feel comfortable leaving them on the bikes when we make a run to a store.

When you are in a motor vehicle ANYTHING/Anyone that would be something/someone you would not want to hit or run over would ( or could ) indeed be called a hazard. There are many types of hazards, some very dangerous some not as dangerous. As such different consequences occur for failure to avoid the different types. Now from the cyclist's perspective it's the motor traffic that presents itself as the hazard. Used as an adjective you could say, "When a cyclist rides on the road at night without a light he creates a hazardous situation". Or...in a sentence like this, "The driver was weaving so severely that he was a hazard to everyone on the road". Summing up, all depends on your point of view as to who or what is a hazard or conversely who or what is hazardous.

If you call a person riding a bike, "traffic" , while correct in the lesser sense of the word the more colloquial use of the word would define traffic more precisely as "motorized traffic". Hence, if the announcer on a radio station tells you that, "... Traffic is back-upped on the Parkway", rest assured, he isn't talking about anyone on a bicycle. English is an interesting and versatile language. As such it pays not to fret too much over definitions. Of course if you go into court and tell a judge that you didn't consider the guy on the bike using an amber light to be a hazard ( thus causing him to get hurt ), lets just say I wouldn't want to be in your shoes. :innocent:

Once again, amber is just a color that is used for many things. The main idea being, "It is used to attract attention" Of the amber lights I've seen, it seems to get the job done, whether on a moving vehicle, a cyclist or a stationary object.

Amber lights for rear, continued...
 

Since the subject of "amber lights being used for rear" came up I've been on the look-out so to speak. As per my last post; I've noticed amber lights being used for rear conspicuousness before but truthfully I really never paid it much mind. Since I drive for a living and spend a lot of time on the road at sunset and night I have a lot of opportunity to see just what is out there. In the past week I've noticed more "amber for rear" usage than even I expected. On one occasion I came up on a police car that seemed to have a very large "amber" center area going on the roof light bar while they were stopped. Very bright it was too. I'm just going to assume that the light bar had "multiple LED colors"....then I saw a work truck on the side of the road with smaller amber and white LED's flashing. The final icing on the cake was I was driving through Langley Park, Md. when I spotted what I thought at the time was a tow truck with very bright amber rear lights..Turned out I was wrong. Seems the local Metro service has decided to install some very bright Amber panels ( ~2-3ft long ) on back of their buses. All I could think at the time was, "Yep, no one gonna hit that bus", ( unless they're totally blind ). ...Oh the times they are a-changing.

This is the one I bought (auto version) and I got the CatEye 3 for the front as well. I haven't used them yet but that's good news you like them. I was a little worried about the battery life from the specs. I do prefer that I can swap the batteries out myself and use my own rechargeable batteries so I'm always ready and can keep spares in my bag.