Well, I don't like those lights either, but calling it selfish, is kinda hard when you compare it to how many cyclists get killed every year because some motorist didn't see them.
The problem being that judging the motion of a blinking light is nearly impossible. A blinking light is both more attention grabbing and less safe for the user.
In an urban environment there will usually be more than enough light to see and predict the course of a cyclist. The trick is attracting the attention of people that are not looking in the first place. Flashing lights work very well for stimulating peripheral vision in a moving visual field.
> I wonder what you think of emergency sirens/lights? Too distracting?
If unnecessary, yes.
> Distracting drivers from what, exactly?
> Distracting them from not seeing cyclists?
We only have a finite attention span; hence such is going to be distracting the driver from other important things on the road. Not every cyclist is so important to be noticed.
You should also take into account that a blinking light means the driver is changing lane or course. Two blinking light means danger. If every bicyclist would all the time be signalling "danger, danger", people become desensitised to such signal.
Excuse me for keeping my flashing lights on the bike when there's people with attitudes like yours controlling several ton killing machines within meters of me.
This is something that should really be solved by regulating bicycle lights sold, or a very broad public awareness campaign.
These cheap Chinese LED lights for the bicycle all come with a blink-setting, and like the <blink>-tag of yore, it serves no practical purpose. People tend to think blinking means you are easier to spot in the dark, which is true in the sense that it grabs attention, but as you mention, you can't really extrapolate where someone is going with a blinking light.
The use of the blinking setting is usually born from naivety. People use the setting, because it is included with the light — why else would it be there, if not to use it? Now imagine if every cyclist on a busy cycleway used the blink-setting. At that point this behaviour is downright selfish.
It's not too hard to regulate really. After all, you are already legally limited in what you can use (white/yellow front, red back, no blinking).
