Originally Posted by livedarklions

The non-disprovable point is your assertion that it's only about attention and not vision. Focusing attention disproportionately on riders far away from you makes riders safer. You draw the drivers attention away from whatever objects are in the driver's immediate proximity. Attention is finite, if you've drawn the drivers attention to you across the street, you've probably made me less safe if I'm directly in front of him.

Your examples prove my points. Those cars aren't a threat to me until they cross over. Strobe disorientation effects get stronger as you get closer (google the inverse square law if you don't understand why), so as those cars get close to me, I'm now shining a light in their eyes that makes it very difficult for them to judge where I actually am. You're just missing the point, strobes make you more noticeable when it doesn't matter and obscures you when it does matter.

They should be illegal.

I have no problem with a slow blink rate, but strobing is ridiculously unsafe for the rider using it and riders around him/her.