I have seen the lights used in the past, but its been a long time. I think it always made the ride a little more exciting to have the lights going.
One thing that happened during one of my night rides, which was actually the last ride of the night on The Beast, a guy had his phone out with a strobe light app on through the 2nd long tunnel, and it looked pretty freaking cool. Being the last ride I had an employee next to me, and he was said, "Even though i'm supposed to report that guy, it looked pretty cool". had to agree with him. Reminded me of the launch lights for FoF