63ricket: Essentially what you're implying--and I think it needs to be said explicitly--is that the person with the lights is not adjusting their lights because its good form them, they're doing it for themselves, they're doing it for others. Which is to say: Be responsible enough to take the other guy into consideration.

That seems to be lost these days in all of the yelling about "MY RIGHTS".

It's a matter of perspective. When automobile drivers stop killing cyclists and then shrugging "Gee, I never saw him..." then cyclists will stop using bright flashing lights. Until then, flash on!

What you just said is you don’t care about any but yourself.

It is plain difficult to focus on a flashing light and determine if that light is near or far. Confronted by a sea of flashing lights a motorist is going to judge badly which visual detail matters. Your ‘flash on’ makes us all unsafe. And you don’t care.

This thread is defining solipsism.

In California, a flashing forward facing light and flashing rear light are legal and the cops will never, ever stop you for using them.
I use them all the time and the forward facing one is probably more useful, simply because people don't look for cyclists, only cars. Cagers see it when turning from a side street- they can be looking directly at you, and never see you or even in their mirrors so they don't cut you off. IMO, a flashing forward light is a great safety tool.

Nowadays, people are used to looking at DRL's all the time.
Rear lights are ok but my feeling is that if they are looking at their phone, doesn't matter if you have a 10k spotlight, they aren't looking. At all. But, maybe they will see it in their periphery and wake up.
I use both front and rear flashing lights. I think it helps quite a bit.

Wrong. I never said that i don't care about others and you have insufficient evidence to come to that conclusion based on m y comments. But when it comes to life and limb, my life and limb trump not annoying or inconveniencing drivers with my flashing lights. The worst that will happen to them is that they will need to concentrate really hard on what's happening up ahead of them and maybe (rarely) slow down or pull over. Sort of what drivers are supposed to do when they see an emergency vehicle, right? Not that my bike is an emergency vehicle, but just to point out that slowing down and pulling over while driving is not some bizarre unheard-of thing. And what's the worst that can happen to me on my bike? I'm killed by an inattentive driver.

I work in a trauma center in a big city. Ambulances bring us cyclist (and pedestrians) injured by cars all of the time. At least one or two a day. Do you know what the prevailing attitude is among cops who come in to investigate the injury (as they often are required to do)? That the cyclist is to blame because A) they were not wearing a helmet, or B) because they were not wearing hi-viz clothing or running a light. In fact, these attitudes prevail (I am embarrassed to admit) even among my own colleagues, doctors and nurses who actually care for these injured people. The playing field out there is massively tilted in favor of the car driver, even to the point that we generally blame the victim. And BTW, I have yet to see an injury to a car driver inflicted by a cyclist or pedestrian. Never seen one in over twenty years.

How's that solipsism for ya?

As a cyclist, you can't be TOO seen! That's my advice.

Don't worry yourself, he just wanted to use his word of the day

To me, it's like wearing a seatbelt. If they're and adult and don't want to do it, it's their life.

like everything else. provide incentives