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little hard evidence as to whether rear lighting improves safety; my gut feeling* is that
And that's before we even get to those strobe lighting cunts who are actively reducing the safety of everyone else with their ridiculously bright flashing lights, front and back.
In b4 @Skülly
pastry_bot
As far as I'm aware there's precious little hard evidence as to whether rear lighting improves safety; my gut feeling* is that - by analogy with what research we have on hi-viz etc.- it probably makes not a huge amount of difference beyond a basic light or even just a rear red reflector. We know that the danger mostly comes from drivers not looking or not caring, and zapping out more photons doesn't make a difference to that.†
I like the fit and forget nature of dynamo lighting, which means I am never caught without lights; I'm not fast enough to care about swapping wheels etc, so the wiring is only a PITA once, on installation. I do carry backup blinkies in the saddlebag just in case, but my experience is that a battery light is no less likely to fail than a dynamo rear (and I've not yet had a dyno light rear failure that couldn't be fixed on the road - usually just a dicky contact). I prefer the bigger lights with a built-in reflector (I've got B+M toplines and a Spanninga Elips), partly as a fail-safe, and partly because the bigger illuminated surface possibly helps with distance perception. As a FBNPNA enthusiast mine are all mounted to a rack, but there are also mudguard and seatstay options for racier bikes.
*Highly scientific, I know...
†There's also the semi-related issue of target fixation; the fact that emergency vehicles still get hit whilst stationary on the hard shoulder with blue lights suggests this may be a factor in some RTCs.