Sounds much better than the inner suburbs of Melbourne. In recent weeks, my observations of light-less cyclists at night have been as many as 8 per 10 mins or 2 per street. (And those high densities were both near your old haunt.)

fwiw, that puts the non-adherence to light laws by cyclists at over 1000 times the level of motorists.

Bear in mind that my standards of good lighting may be unreasonably high. Especially when you consider that I've cheerfully spent in excess of $1000 on lights.

Second: the plural of anecdote is not data. I rarely, if ever, see cyclists using mobiles whilst riding. I usually see at least one driver doing so every day. However a claim on my part that non-adherence to mobile use laws by motorists is at 1000 times that of cyclists is as statistically valid as your last claim: not at all.

Edited at 2010-06-08 20:37 (UTC)

No need to worry about light quality from my point of view. Well, yes, it's much better if the lights are good, but I'm only reporting total lack of headlights, not crappy ones. (I personally find blinky ones annoying, because it takes me much longer to work out the bike's speed and direction from only a light that's off half the time.)

I'd say your claim regarding mobile phone use is quite valid. While not being a properly controlled sample, it's still presumably a large sample. I'm yet to see a cyclist using a mobile. Just shows that the most popular dumb activities for cyclists and motorists differ.

Treadly (a Melbourne cyclist/blogger) has some very good things to say on the subject of lighting: http://treadly.net/2010/04/16/my-two-rules-of-bike-lighting/

I note that Treadly agrees with you re judging speed/distance of blinkies and recommends a mix (so that there is a reference point).

I have this at the back, but given a choice will settle for a steady "see" light in preference to a blinking "be seen" light at the front.

I don't think a blinky only at the front is a particularly good idea.

One other thing that Treadly commented on that I've only seen once is colour coordinating your lights.

ie: White = Front, Red = Back and breaking this rule is bad.

On the one occasion I did see it, I have to agree - I make colour based assumptions about direction of travel, and this was just confusing.

I note in passing that responding to comments on the iPhone is somewhat prone to typos. Apologies for any double notifications received in emails as a result of my editing the comments.

Ok, so what would you call "good lights".

I'm probably not a fair judge of that.

At the back I have three good blinkies ( with fresh batteries) plus a steady light powered by the hub dynamo. I'll put another blinky on there when I get a chance.

Only one headlight powered by the dynamo at the moment, but it gives clear lighting of the road surface for AT LEAST 25 metres. ie: enough to be confident at full speed. I'll get the helmet light remounted sometime this week (needs constant recharging though so it can be a bit annoying).

Edited at 2010-06-08 20:49 (UTC)

If you want some solid advice re bike lighting, this is a good place to start: http://treadly.net/2010/04/16/my-two-rules-of-bike-lighting/