Near-brush: Circa 2004, using the zig-zag bike trail that crosses the Second Narrows Bridge from Vancouver to North Shore, on the West Side (now closed, and a wider east side has been built), near midnight, someone jumped out from the bush as I made the turn. Was on a pre-Tidalforce ebike, same type, but with Currie nameplate, 1999 model. The Currie motor saved me from getting mugged or worse. The next day, I phoned Vancouver City Hall, and they turned on the municipal lights that cover this dark, scary bike route. Another time, circa 2007, on the Central Park bike path to Metrotown, in Burnaby, someone sprayed me, in the dark, with pepper spray. My ski goggles and the powerful ebike which was faster than he could chase me, saved me.
Had some really close calls, despite acting with "Only The Paranoid Survive".
In 2006, bought some Vancouver-made lights that used the Bucha Effect ("disorienting strobe light") including one made by Louie Garneau (LG) at the time, sadly no longer available.
http://www.policemag.com/channel/patrol/articles/2010/06/how-to-use-a-strobing-flashlight.aspx
Tests showed that I could slow down all traffic, both directions due to reflections in stop signs, in everything except broad daylight, even on Robson. The light worked subliminally. Atop Great Northern Way, in Vancouver, the 3W flashlight mounted on the handlebar slowed down 9 out of 10 cars. On Hastings Avenue East rear alleyway (the "bike lane" for ebikes, smoother than the designated bike street parallel), cars would now stop for me and any other cyclist with me.
The cost then was over $150.
On Ebay, you can build (2 items) a 3W "disorienting strobe" for $100.
The Bucha Effect is, essentially, any strobe between 6 to 15 cycles per second.
BTW, the German study on helmets showed that 80 percent of impact is the frontal jaw. So, I ride with a motorcycle full face helmet only, today, after someone I know lost 500 hours after an accident on an ebike.
Also, I didn't have a railway track, crossing nearly parallel to it (didn't know that is a "not"), because the 2006 Motorino XP had a bike stand that prevented the bike from dropping.
Also, I now wear a hard-to-find backpack with a hard spine protector, designed in Germany. Was told by someone, from France, in the BC Bike Race yesterday, that this backpack is no longer made; and, it saved his spine.
Here's what I have learned from being accident-free, given the danger from leaves in autumn, etc: Follow the Chinese -- they ride millions of electric scooters, not the bike frame. In earlier years, I modded my ebikes to go faster, only to realize that the frames, and/or brakes, and/or spokes, and/or chains, were no longer suitable, nor reliable, at the faster speed, and in the rain.