I think I have had it with night time riding.

[Saluki]

+1 on the 'lit up like a christmas tree' plan.
I have my orange night vision top on at night. Flasher and solid front light, 2 rear flashers and a solid light. LED light on my helmet - not flashing mostly though. I have lighty-uppy reflective arm bands and have on on my right arm and on my my right ankle (they double up as dog collars so I can see them over the fields at night).
Good lights are a must. I take quite an aggressive primary position and make sure that my clothing is light and bright. I only just saw a cyclist tonight, all in black with the most feeble rear light I've ever seen. His front light was great but I think his batteries might have been on the wane.

Like @simon.r I find that more people pull out on me in the daylight than at night. I think that you might just have been unlucky in your evening rides so far @mick160 Is there a club in your area that do club rides on the dark evenings? We have a bunch ride around here and you can see that lot coming for miles.

 

[moo]

I'm a firm believer in solid rather than flashing front lights. You want to mimic the appearance of a motorbike imo. Advertising yourself as a cyclist is going to result in the subconcious "oh, he's not going very fast so I'll pull out and risk it" response. With a bright (but not blindingly so) front light I get a lot of cars sitting for ages on an empty road, clearly expecting me to be moving at a greater speed.

 

[Crankarm]

Get an Airzound and proper lights such as an Exposure Max D or two. No one pulls out on me. They consciously wait at junctions or pull in to let me pass if coming head on. Last night riding up a quiet narrow residential street not straight a bit bendy, I have to ride this street as no wide pavement to ride on, a car suddenly coming toward me rather quick on my side of the road, line of parked cars on his, pulls in sharpish to a gap I didn't think was there, flashes his headlights at me inviting me to proceed despite me having the right of way anyway! I thought he was going to drive straight at me, but he yielded so I wasn't in danger. It was slightly uphill and I don't cycle slowly but he still had a few seconds to wait. I figure if I'd had inferior lights or had it been in the day he would have tried to squeeze me into the kerb and off the road by not yielding using the might is right tactic, but as my lights a f*****g bright he yielded giving way to me. I had them on minimum at this point which is still pretty bright and x2 of them. Car was a BMW 5 series new shape.

Airzound is frickin' useful in daylight. Saved me so many times.

But, the worst scenario is being hit from behind riding at night. Despite me having a firkin' bright Exposure RedEye running off their triple cell battery I have been hit and run - 1 year and 1 week ago now. I don't wear any reflective gear at night apart from the large reflective patches on my Vaude Aqua panniers unless it is cold or pi55ing with rain when I wear my either my yellow Endura cycling jacket or red Berghaus jacket as the latter has a hood. When I was knocked down in 1999 on a big roundabout, again driven into from behind by an impatient c**t, an RAC guy who witnessed me going down said "You was lit up like a f*****g Christmas tree and the driver still didn't see you ……." He repeated this in court but omitted the f****g, but still made me smile. Should have gone to Specsavers moment. The driver was convicted of DWDCA and got three points with a fine, I can't remember how much the fine was though.

Anyway riding on roads is dangerous. Soon as you accept this and be prepared for the inevitable, then the better. Make sure your Will is up to date and reflects your current wishes.

 

[morrisman]

Anyway riding on roads is dangerous. Soon as you accept this and be prepared for the inevitable, then the better. Make sure your Will is up to date and reflects your current wishes.

No it isn't, at least no more dangerous and probably less so than walking along the pavement.

Airzound is frickin' useful in daylight. Saved me so many times.

Not convinced by the Airzound thing either, I would rather spend my time planning ahead and avoiding conflict rather than using a Airzound to get me out of a problem. YMMV

 

[raleighnut]

I use 2 flashing Cat-eyes and a pair of Electron 8 LED (each) Rechargeable permanently on lamps on the front of my bikes ( I cleared out 2 bike shops of their entire stock of spare mounts. ) but its still possible for cars to pull out having not seen me (after all they sometimes drive into each other ) so I just treat every car like they're being driven by a physcopathic moron and avoid em as much as possible.
I do feel a lot safer on unlit roads though as then my bikes REALLY stand out

 

[vickster]

Potholes and trying to avoid them in the dark is the biggest menace. The one benefit of riding around here at night, far less traffic (and people tend to be in less of a rush to move as there's less traffic). Early evening is the worst at the mo, no quite dark, lots of vehicles without light, people not accustomed to driving in the dark after the light summer evenings

I won't commute now it's dark in the evenings, scary enough in the light

 

[steveindenmark]

Here is something you should do.

Get ready to go out on a night ride as you normally would but get someone to come with you. Get the other person to film you with a digital camera while they are off the bike and in different locations. In effect they are a car driver.

Watch the film on a tv when you get home and see what a car driver sees when you are approaching. The chances are you will immediately see why the driver pulls out on you. He probably cannot see you.

I did this myself and was shocked at how little a driver could see. It is not good enough having just a light front and rear. My 15 Lux light was changed to a 70 Lux light plus a helmet light. More reflective jacket, more lights and reflectors on the back as well as wheel valve lights.

Night riding is great and by taking a few steps ourselves we can make it much safer.

 

[winjim]

I hate stupidly bright flashing and pulsing lights. They are dazzling and distracting. Shining a helmet light in someone's face is not cool.

In the dark, there's nothing that says "cyclist" like a set of orange pedal reflectors.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

I have the same rear light as the OP - never had a problem being seen with that on. Make sure it is positioned correctly if you are using the cateye bracket on the seat stay - the angle is important both horizontally and vertically. For side on visibility I use the 3M wrap around spoke reflectors (and my tyres have built in side wall reflectors being Schwalbe ones). At the front, I have a bright front light which is angled so that the main beam is set to hit the ground 3-4m in front of my bike. I don't care that it gets mistaken for a motorbike - all that actually does is make people think twice, and they don't pull out in front of me when that is on.

One thing to note - and this is simply the time of year - dawn and dusk are coinciding with rush hour and near misses (not to mention roadkill) are always higher when rush hour and failing light happen...

 

[Mugshot]

I stick to lit roads at night,

If you have the option you may want to consider trying unlit roads at night, if you have decent lights you become much more visable if you're not part of all the other background lighting which you obviously get on well lit roads. Of course there are no guarantees and if people don't look then they aren't going to see you. In my personal experience however I seem to find drivers are more wary around me in poorly lit areas, I do however run blooming bright lights front and back.
As has been mentioned by a couple of people, running a flashing front light may attract attention but it also advertises you as a cyclist, which isn't necesssarily a good thing in my opinion, I would rather be mistaken, as @SatNavSaysStraightOn says, for a motorbike. I really notice the difference in the way drivers act at junctions at night when they see a bright front light coming towards them compared to daylight riding when they see a cyclist.
Try to stick with it if you can, night time riding can be great, particularly on quiet dark roads, when it's not belting down with rain it's just about my favourite time to ride.

 

[Nigelnaturist]

looking around me to try and spot things before they happen.

I'm of the opinion that a lot of these events happen sometimes because drivers misjudge the speed of cyclists as ability differs so much. (Car generally all go the same speed). Many are simply them looking but not seeing.

Observation is key to survival, knowing what others may do, this comes from experience.
So true, some motorist seem to think all bikes are slow, when in fact many can be travelling in excess of 20mph, even I can manage 18-20 of a flat road without to much trouble.

I have had so close calls in recent weeks, but more mainly do to really bad weather than at night, i also think it takes some motorists time to get use to the change of light so early in the evening.

I will run a flashing light during the day light hours leading into dusk, but in the dark always a solid light, and as @SatNavSaysStraightOn & @Mugshot say the light being so bright you are easily mistaken for a motorcycle as car drivers tend to wait more as they are expecting you to approach maybe a little quicker, get it quite often on the chicanes used for traffic calming at night, but during the day some cars tend to try and beat you.

 

[steveindenmark]

I hate stupidly bright flashing and pulsing lights. They are dazzling and distracting. Shining a helmet light in someone's face is not cool

By dazzling and distracting do you mean bright and noticeable. I think that is the whole point. I see no reason why you would shine a helmet light in someones eyes unless you have forgotten you are wearing one. A Quick look in their general direction is sufficient.

I agree, reflectors on pedals do help. But they are a very small part of a very big picture.

 

[Nigelnaturist]

By dazzling and distracting do you mean bright and noticeable. I think that is the whole point. I see no reason why you would shine a helmet light in someones eyes unless you have forgotten you are wearing one. A Quick look in their general direction is sufficient.

I agree, reflectors on pedals do help. But they are a very small part of a very big picture.

Do you not get peeved when a car driver doesn't dip there lights, no shine lights in peoples eyes even by accident is not really the answer, be bright enough to be seen, take a good road position and be observant.

 

[winjim]

By dazzling and distracting do you mean bright and noticeable.

No, I mean dazzling and distracting.

 

[Racing roadkill]

I nearly got wiped out by a white van pulling out from a perpendicular junction on the way home last night, in the dark. Typical "SMIDSY" response from the tool behind the wheel. I had lights you could spot from space, high vis, you could spot from space, and LED spinning signage, on my spokes, which spells out "coming through" in bright orange lights, when the wheels are turning, which you can only see, from the perpendicular. The idiot still nearly turned me into a grease spot. So I bought these shoe covers today, just to be on the safe side.