Dave,

I can share my experience. I have a 16 mi one way commute and at
times of the year the start and finish are in the dark. A lot of the
traffic is like yours - very fast. Here's what I've done for lights.

Headlights: After a lot of research, I invested in the NiteRider X2
Dual. Its a hefty investment ($189 or less), but its one of
those "you get what you pay for" situations and when you're dealing
with safety and visibility - don't scrimp.

Taillights: I did a couple of things here. I've found that the
basic Trek taillight ($19) works great in blink mode. I've
supplemented this with a couple of Knog Frogs (its for real - the
company name is Knog). These are about $9 apiece (or less) and come
in a variety of color lights - they will do solid or flash. I have a
red and a white one and set them on flash - cars can see you from
behind up to 500m - not bad. I have a backpack and the Frogs attach
to the zipper catches, but will wrap around anything.

Hope this helps - cheers. Joel

--- In bicyclecommuting@yahoogroups.com, "stickola63"
<stickola63@...> wrote:
>
> I have a 12 mile one way commute starting at around 4am. I
realized i
> would need both head and tail lights so i started doing a little
> research.
> Needless to say now im totally confused, lol.
> I want the headlight to be rechargable. I will be doing most of
the
> riding on a poorly lit main street where cars do tend to do around
40
> to 50 mph. Also it all has to be easily detachable. A tail light
im
> guessing should be the strobe type running on aa batteries? But it
> also should be easily detached.
>
> Any suggestions would be GREATLY appreciated. I mapped out the
safest
> route and cant wait to get started.
>
>
>
> Dave
>