Zinger

Hear hear

Now THAT is a nice looking and reasonably visible jersey in your avatar.

Rowan

The argument doesn't stack up. There is a vast disparity in the speeds of a bicycle and a motor vehicle on open highways (less so in some urban setting). Therefore motor vehicles, including motor cycles, will be overtaking bicycles in almost every encounter.

Motorcycles generally can travel as fast as cars and trucks. Therefore, they are able to position themselves on the road differently, and overtaking motorcycles by cars and trucks is less.

The issue for motorcyclists is the very fact they can position themselves on the road differently, as well as their comparable speed -- they can appear within a split second in a rear vision mirror, or can be between vehicles and cannot be seen until a passing vehicle draws level.

There was an essay written a decade or more ago about bicyclists riding BIG -- using devices such as panniers -- so the presence of the bike was increased in the eyes of drivers. For those interested, it might be worth using a search engine to see if it still exists.

contango 

Share the road is all well and good but if other road users can't see us they don't know they are supposed to be sharing with us.

I don't feel a need to be plastered in reflective piping and endless nasty shades of yellow and green but, for example, wearing a camoflage jacket and long camoflaged pants while riding in the forest with no lights does seem like a spectacularly stupid thing to do. No motorist is going to give you any space if they don't even know you are there, and when you're wearing clothes designed to Not Be Seen you're making it ever-less likely they will know you are there until they either run into you, or they are so close they can't slow to your speed fast enough to avoid hitting you.

The big difference between cyclists and motorcyclists is that cyclists typically travel at significantly less than the prevailing traffic speed, and that speed differential means we need to be seen as a motorist approaching from behind will need to either slow down behind us or go around us. A motorcyclist isn't going to present that issue.

lenny866

Motorcycle fatalities are up when auto fatalities are down. According to the [h=3]Hurt Report [/h]
And yes cycling can be dangerous.

lenny866

I do share the road with....drivers who are texting on their phones, drivers who are multi-tasking, drivers who are engaged in cell phone conversations, eating and drinking drivers, drivers applying makeup, drivers tending to the dog on their lap, drivers who watching their kids behind them, drowsy drivers, elderly drivers and oh yeah...the drunk and drug impaired drivers (that includes prescription drugs).

I'll stick to my bright colors, to increase my chances, when sharing the road.

hobkirk

Rude! You weren't there, you don't know the details. "Fog" covers a broad spectrum of visibility, including conditions where it's unsafe for any car, truck, or bike, even with lights. Every one of us has seen situations where cyclists or pedestrians are virtually invisible, and it's often caused by a combination of lighting, color, contrast, lack of lights, lack of reflectance.

Maybe Hawk Owl does have bad vision (but with that name his vision must be excellent, day or night!) but not seeing someone as he described is not much of a sign.

To Hawk Owl, good post. It reminds us all we need to think about our visibility.

TromboneAl

I always found this interesting (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dazzle_camouflage):

dbg

I have to disagree. The new yellow-green is visible and distinct in every natural situation I've ever encountered. And it is the ONLY color I've not ever seen blend into any kind of background.

Commodus

If you can't see a guy riding a bike right in front of you in broad daylight you have a serious problem and should reconsider you choice to continue driving.

If you can't see a guy riding a bike right in front of you in broad daylight and then expect every single other road user you will encounter to change their habits to accommodate the danger you present, you have two serious problems.

TromboneAl

Fixed it. Unbelievable, but people drive and text, and those are some of the drivers whose attention you must attract.

DnvrFox

Ah ha!!

My new jersey design!!

ccorlew?

pdlamb

Head for the hills in spring, when the trees are just starting to leaf out. There's a week or two every year when "high-vis" blends into the trees. The other 50 weeks a year it works well.

contango 

A cyclist wearing clothes that "blended perfectly with the background" is a bonehead. Whatever the lighting conditions there are some types of clothing that are difficult to see against similar coloured backgrounds. That's why military people wear camoflaged gear, so they are harder to see.

It's quite surprising what stands out and what doesn't stand out. As a keen cyclist on urban roads and also a motorist on those same roads part of what I do is look out to see what cyclists are wearing that is very visible and what is less visible. Some cyclists I can spot from a huge distance while others don't show up until they are much closer. That's ignoring the odd moron riding a black bike with all the reflectors removed (and no lights, naturally) while wearing black clothes on a dimly lit street at night.

Bright yellow is usually visible from a great distance but sometimes the cyclist in a bright yellow top is in front of a field of oilseed and doesn't show up so well. Pale greens stand out, until they are set against a pale coloured field. Blues stand out in wooded or urban areas but if you're cresting a hill and the background is a blue sky you might not show up as well. And so on.

Sometimes people make excuses to cover the fact they shouldn't really be driving any more; other times they really do have a near miss with someone doing their level best to Not Be Seen in a situation where Not Being Seen is a truly boneheaded thing to do.

Rowan

I think it pays to bear in mind that we are likely dealing with two entirely different perspectives or cycling cultures here. It is likely that the person riding the bike in question was doing so on a very short casual ride, rather that being a full-on cyclist as the people responding to this thread may be.

Everyone does things that seem incredibly stupid to others (even the simple act of getting on a bike and riding 20 miles).

However, it is not unusual for people to go out at night, dressed in dark clothing, on a bike or on foot, relying on ambient lighting, to go a mile from their friend's home to their own. It is not unusual for someone to jump on their bike in their everyday clothes and take a quick spin down to the shops. To those people, it's just a part of going about their everyday business...

Ergo, not everyone gets dressed up in gear to ride their bikes. Not everyone rides with reflective gear and lights (if they even own such stuff). Sometimes, convenience is paramount. And convenience can be a fatal flaw in all our lives.

goldfinch

I have noticed more and more motorcyclists wearing high viz jackets or vests. It does stand out.

GTryder

I have a hi-viz green vest with reflective strips - for low light bad weather.
Also a neon green T-shirt for very hot summer evenings.

Front and rear lights on all my bikes, and helmet light.

Cougrrcj

A mesh/reflective safety vest can be picked up at any farm store or Harbor Freight for under $10. Under that - either a white or hi-viz lime T-shirt. Absolutely no dark colors! For cool rides, the vest goes over a hooded sweatshirt or longsleeve UnderArmor. If raining, it goes over the white garbage bag/disposable poncho (I always have one tucked into my seat framing!) or my hi-viz lime poncho. I want to be seen!!! Yeah, I may look like a dork/geek, but you don't get 'style points' if you're dead!

Commodus

what an awful attitude.

technoD

I guess I'm a bonehead then, since I prefer all black ( unless I find something darker?) but I do use bright strobes on front and rear!

Ajenkins

Apparently you don't actually know what bikers look like. Thousands of people ride bikes everyday without sporting hi-viz, special clothing. I ride to work daily, usually in my office clothes. Dress slacks, often a tie, none of which are hi-viz.

When I go to the grocery store, I don't spend 15 minutes getting all kitted up. No, usually I throw on the panniers and hop on, regardless of what I'm wearing.

The only thing the cyclist did wrong was riding the fog line. He should have been on the road in front of you.

And you need to pay more attention to your driving, IMHO.

TromboneAl

This jersey, has the vehicle code printed on the front:



I guess the idea is that when an irate motorist yells "Get back on the sidewalk!" you have him read your chest. Somehow I don't think that's going to work well.

Boudicca

I have a winter jacket in dayglo yellow, and know I'm more visible when I ride it. Friends have told me so, and I honestly feel that cars give me a wider bearth. But I've not managed to find something that works in the summer. If only that green/yellow thing did NOT have the traffic code on the chest.

berner

There are several you tube videos floating around that have a bearing on this thread. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vU_gDKQyQlo There are many situations where we see only what we expect to see as the video illustrates. This selective attention is what makes magicians successful.

contango 

Really?

I like to stay alive. Part of staying alive is making sure the big metal things approaching me at speed from behind can see me. If they don't see me they are more likely to run me over, not realising I was there.

I don't walk in the road after dark wearing black clothes for much the same reason. Presumably it's an "awful attitude" to think people who do are boneheads?

contango 

The bright strobes to rather overcome the whole "blend into the background" thing