I don't know if I would run an MB in New York at all.
Here in the sticks where it's pitch black at night these things keep motorists far away from me. I generally keep them from cycling colors and patterns to keep them a bit more tame. Running them as orange or yellow seems like the most "legal" way to run these if you've got a big and bored police presence in your area. Yellow is legal on the sides of vehicles still, correct?
They do not appear to flash while in motion. They just create patterns which can be anywhere from slow and simple with a couple selected colors all the way to fast and wild with something like 12 different colors cycling crazily.
I believe the PD around here are just happy that I'm making myself visible and not riding like an idiot, getting run over or causing somebody to wreck.