Comment Re:Useless (Score 1) 235
I'd imagine the improvement in driver behavior your friend experienced was more a result of increased visibility.
The reflectors that most bicycles come with are next to useless as they don't reflect well and they're quite small in the scheme of things on the road. Most bicycle head/tail lights are almost as bad. I damn near hit a bicycle cop once because he had no rear reflector and only an LED bicycle seat with nearly-dead batteries, and he parked himself directly between two very bright taillights of a car stopped at a stop light. Just couldn't see the motherfucker until I was right up on him.
What I find works best is those orange vests with reflective fabric strips. No battery powered lighting is going to compete with reflecting a cars own headlights right back at it. Just think about how easy road signs are to see vs. the occasional non-reflective sign you see (or don't see) by the side of the road. I even made backpacks out of the orange vests and their reflective fabric so that I can be seen even when carrying stuff. The fluorescent orange fabric is especially useful at dawn and dusk when cars may not have their headlights turned on, as there's more ultraviolet light than usual at those times and so the orange is especially bright.
I think the orange vests have another advantage in that they remind drivers about safety. Drivers rarely see bicyclists and so they haven't put a lot of thought into how to behave around them. It's better that they think "there's a crazy guy in an orange vest. Maybe he's retarded. I'd better pass him slowly and give him a lot of space." Otherwise they just see a minor obstacle on the side of the road which they almost don't even have to leave their lane to avoid and so they put no more space between you and them than they would if you were merely some roadkill they wanted to avoid splattering all over their car.