Scary thing for me as the story goes,this happened the other day.
The story is about two peds,one crossed from the right which took my attention in the dark,I was on the faster Audax,then suddenly a ped crossed from the left,both were wearing dark clothing in a poorly lit bit of street.I saw the left side ped when I was ten yards off of him,he was looking the other way as he had heard no traffic so didn't bother looking.In my panic I locked the back wheel up which made a sound,made the ped aware and saved my skin (as he stopped crossing).I absolutely didn't see him till very late and didn't know he was there.Now if I had had a hint there was a ped there it may have given me a better chance of avoiding him easier.Lights or reflectives or whatever.My two front crees didn't pick him up.This happened down the Mornington Road,LeytonstoneThe other day at Stratford.I looked behind me to my left after negotiating the Bow Flyover and picked up a load of lights car lights and the such,what I didn't know was there was a moped rider buried in between all the car light,street lights and the such.Just caught that late and was not amused,he was dressed all in black with a dimmish headlight.
I do like the flashing lights on bikes,I think they distinguish between all the other lighting pollution that a cyclists is there.I have one flashing and one steady both ends.