Following on from this thread, it’s the time of year to again plead with pedestrians and cyclists to put on reflective gear.
Many of us wear dark clothing, including outerwear. We might be able to see cars, but wearing all dark clothing without anything reflective makes us rather difficult to see in fog or darkness. I see a lot of pedestrians covered in dark clothes head to toe without a speck of reflective material. I see cyclists relying on only their head or tail lights for visibility (some don’t even have lights). But head and tail lights don’t make you visible from the side.
Do yourself a favor: get a vest or an arm/leg band or something to make yourself a bit more visible. I bought a pair of inexpensive stretchy, reflective bands at Coop. I keep them in my bag. When I leave the train at night, I put one on each leg to help me be more visible. It is of course the job of every driver to watch out for cyclists and pedestrians, but I believe the responsibility is on me to help them see me.
Agree too - especially with pedestrians who become almost invisible when wearing dark clothes.
It would help too if all those with black German panzers could apply some fluorescent and reflective strips to their paintwork.
When they are being driven around in the current fog with just their front driving lights on, it makes it difficult for cyclists and pedestrians too see them far enough in advance to take the necessary avoiding action.
This material lights up like the sun on a dark road under the beam of headlights. I have a drawstring sports bag freebie made of it and always use it when out in poor light conditions.
Yeah. I just managed to see a cyclist last night who was dressed all in black, on a black bike with no lights/reflectors. It’s almost as if he was trying to be a ninja.
I also almost got run over by a woman reversing into a zebra crossing in a car park - it was too rainy/noisy to hear the car and the reverse lights were broken, so I didn’t get any warning before it pulled out.
This thread was intended to encourage cyclist and pedestrians to improve their visibility. Good. There already is a separate Put your headlights on drivers thread for cars. Good.
Yet Tom manages with his first posts to turn this here into a discussion how reckless certain drivers are based on the colour of their cars. Predictable, pathetic and boring.
Why shouldn’t car drivers do more to improve their visibility?
Why is the onus on pedestrians and cyclists? Because car drivers can’t drive safely?
I went over the bonnet of a car one morning in the UK - I was wearing a reflective Sam Brown belt (as worn by WWI soldiers fighting the hun) and had my lights on. It wasn’t dark either.
A car pulled out of a side road without looking.
The French tried to get the message across that you need more than hi-vis by placing motorway service vehicles which had been rear-ended on the side of the road.
