Drinky wrote:

I am intrigued by this as I cycle a lot in the dark and despite being lit up
"like the outside of a council house at christmas", I have a near-miss
incident on practically every ride.

Although I'm under no delusions that I'm safe from motor vehicles, do people
believe that the number of near misses would reduce and my overall safety
increase if I switch on the stealth instead of my lights?

In practice I think it's quite likely that your road positioning will
have far more to do with this sort of thing than the lighting. Most
perceived close shaves IME are caused by overtaking very close, and this
in turn is caused by the cyclist riding close enough to the kerb that
the driver can squeeze by without crossing the centre line, so that's
just what they do.

If you're well out from the kerb you force other vehicles to overtake
you properly, as the Highway Code says they should. Where they've got
to take account of what's coming the other way anyway IME most drivers
do do a good job and use the extra room the other side of the road gives
them when they have to use at least some of it.

So I'd start by trying to ride a bit further out, assuming you're not
doing that already. See "Cyclecraft" for more on positioning.

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/