Study says cyclists should make themselves seen - but reflective clothing, not hi-vis, is the answer

I suppose it's little surprise that in a road.cc forum so many posters love and swear by their no doubt expensive and expansive kit, in the belief it will keep them safe from the destruction meted out by inattentive or malicious motorists: the rest of the site is festooned with adverts for the latest hi-vis, reflective and expanded polystyrene panaceas.

But such measures only work if those same motorists are attentive and benevolent, and that they give a damn about who or what they hit while driving.

(I notice that in the helmet review section no mention is made of the single most important reason for buying a helmet - will it save my life in the event of a collision? Some of these items cost well over £160 - I'd want something a bit more definite and reassuring than 'offers great streamlining').

In the current climate experienced by people using bikes in the UK, much attention is paid to 'educating' the various groups of road users (viz the ridiculous NiceWay Code). But as someone pointed out on a US blog, education is a slow and tedious process, and what's slowest and most tedious is "educating" motorists, who have no particular incentive to learn.

Many drivers resist education because they believe they already know all they need to, and with penalties for poor standards of driving so feeble, they have little to fear from the courts for their actions while driving.

Recently I was out on my bike, with two lights front & rear (one of each Hope vision super bright hobbies) with a top with reflective piping on. A police car pulled me over to tell me a car had nearly hit me, which I had noted myself due to eyes. I think they were telling off the wrong person.

Jason Timothy Jones has hit the nail on the head. Drivers need to change their attitudes. This is the ONLY solution. Yes cyclists can do more but where does this end. Multi-coloured florescent clothing, reflective strips on clothes, bikes and bags. Two to three front lights, two to three rear lights. Reflectors on pedals, spokes, handlebars, seatpost. Must be wearing a helmet (cause getting hit by a car without one is the cyclists fault, clearly!), don’t break any road laws, etc etc. Doing all this will not stop idiot drivers driving dangerously around you or not see you at all (the recent story about the driver who was playing with her satnav for 22 seconds without looking at the road who ended up hitting and killing a cyclist).

If drivers followed what is already taught (ie the highway code) to the best of their ability, I am very sure casualty numbers would dramatically fall and cyclists would feel hugely safer on the road, by not getting overtaken at pinch points (or even on a wide road but still only given 2 inches of space!), drivers actually obeying speed limits(!), etc. If this happened there would be little to no need to change cycling/road infrastructure (blue paint, segregated cycle lanes etc), imagine that.

As said, the current laws need to be enforced with high penalties. The Australian system sounds quite good. Also proper penalties for killing/ injuring other road users (6 months driving ban and 200 quid fine is not a joke, it’s an insult). I would add that the driving test would need to be retaken every 10 years with mandatory training before each test, so as to teach current best practice.I mean you are in charge of a 1+ ton metal box! Will any of this happen in the UK any time soon. No chance!

Herohirst: you're unlikely to get done by the police for what you're doing, but the law does require you to have a compliant light mounted on your bike. Regardless of how good it is, a helmet mounted light does not comply with the legal minimums.

They again, how many of us ride at night with pedals that are that are non compliant? Do you have orange reflectors on them visible front and rear? There are such things that can be bolted into SPD-SLs. You're to struggle on Speedplays! And remember, again, shoes don't count!

After years of trying all the options I now always mount my front light on top of my helmet (No sniggering at the back Oli Pendrey).

1. You can point it towards the left edge of the carriageway when cars are oncoming so that...
2. ...you can run a properly bright light without it dazzling drivers.
3. Additionally, if you get to a junction where a car may be pulling out into your path & you think there's even a small chance that they haven't noticed you, just turn to look them in the eye directing your light towards their face for a moment.
NOW they've noticed you.

Neurologically, the human brain, as powerful as it is at coping with a constant flood of information from all of our senses, still has to prioritise - something we aren't conscious of in the moment - and tends to ignore constancy. Our brains are, however, exceedingly alert to changing stimuli. So a flashing red light is always more visible to another road user than a constant one. It also makes sense that a driver's lights glinting off reflective patches of clothing are going to be more noticeable than brightly coloured clothing.

Dont let it put you off. Ride. Enjoy. But ride defensively - even if it is technically your right of way (the earlier post by b3nharris is spot on...) - and do everything you can to be seen & keep yourself safe. Even if that driver IS in the wrong, their car is harder & heavier than you are.

Rubber Side Down.

Victim blaming, pure & simple. Many drivers see a cyclist and make a concious decision that, as the cyclist will come of worst, the cyclist WILL give way.
The fraction of a second it would take for them to wait is more important than the life of a cyclist. That's the attitude that needs changing. How that's done is difficult, but heavier penalties would be a start.

Another story today (http://road.cc/content/news/95382-sussex-driver-involved-crash-claimed-c...) was a driver, who killed a cyclist, getting 20 days prison & 3 year ban for driving without insurance or MOT. Compare that to killing a cyclist and getting community service (http://road.cc/content/news/92738-community-service-driver-who-killed-cy...) & 1 year ban. Something is seriously wrong with the balance.

So should cyclists only be allowed on the road, if they have a marching band in tow. Should the marching band also be dressed like an xmas tree or would that be over the top?

Regretfully I've taken the decision not to ride on the roads anymore other than during a race. I've grown tired of an apathetic government sanctioning the cull of people simply trying to enjoy an amazingly rewarding sport.

I can think of no other similar environment where the levels of injury and death is so readily accepted. 38 dentists struck off for malpractice according to a recent news clip ending years of study, financial commitment and permanent loss of income - they are unfit to practice so the government correctly seeks to protect the public.

In contrast we learn that Scottish driver kills twice 'by accident' and still the government restores his 'right' to drive. What did he invest to get his licence? 25 hours perhaps and a 45 minute farce of a test he can repeat as many times as he wants before fluking a pass. He still has his income and has the option of using public transport or dare I say it, actually use his legs to get about.

Indoor trainer and a spot of mountain biking is the best I can hope for now. The government has well earned the obesity crisis and all that comes with embracing the car at all cost.

Lights/reflectors work at night and hi-viz works in low light (dawn/dusk).....how is this news? Surely its obvious?

Sure, you'd be stupid to ride at night wearing black with no lights down an unlit road in fast traffic. This isn't the typical case though.

On the subject of visibility, the elephant in the room is that plenty of accidents happen in broad daylight. How can a driver say that they didn't see someone they hit in broad daylight. Of course most of us have a suspicion as to what the true answer is; bad driving.

It seems to me that most accidents happen because a driver wasn't paying attention or executed an ill-advised manoeuvre. If you bother to get an explaination from the driver (which this study seems to have failed to do) then its only to be expected that a driver will try to defect the blame and make an excuse. Its extremely rare for a driver to admit fault. Don't ever recall anyone saying; "Mi-lud, I overtook around a blind corner, suddenly was suprosed by the oncoming traffic and drove over the cyclist to avoid a head on collision."

My observations as a commuting cyclist and occasional car/bus user:

Hi-Vis - okay during daylight, useless on its own at night. Best spotted at medium distance 2-400 yards

Black clothing - why did Ninjas wear black? It doesn't stand out against anything other than snow. You may look cool in black but it does not, in general, help make you visible.
White clothing - stands out slightly more than black against most backgrounds. Quite visible at close range.

Mixed clothing with high contrast is the most visible at close range.

Reflectives - limited daylight application. Effective at night IF caught by bright white light. Starts working under 200 yards from light source.

Lights - Flashing attracts attention Red light has limited visibility in daylight unless VERY powerful lamp.

I do around 4000 commuter miles per year in all weathers and ambient light conditions. This is in Glasgow where it is probably generally darker than the UK average due the prevalence of cloud and rain. My standard visibility kit consists of:

Clothing:
Jacket/jersey - whatever is clean, generally two colours from red, white or green and usually having a small reflective strip as part of the garment. (I wear mostly TORM gear). I never wear hi-viz, mainly because I don't own any.
Bottom half - bog standard black. May or may not have any reflective bits.
Shoes - Gaerne TRON shoes, which I love http://img2.annuncicdn.it/6e/52/6e522cdc640c7e6787ffe02cdc9c5f86_orig.jpg No idea if they work.
Lights - front on flash at all times. Rear on flash in low light and Flash + constant in darkness.

Taking "incidents" to date as the measure, I'm far more visible in the dark than during the day! As mentioned above though, it doesn't matter what you do or wear when you are at the mercy of the "inevitable idiot".

Research done by me suggests:
As the majority of motor vehicle drivers are lower down than cyclists, the most obvious colour to wear is the one which will contrast most greatly with the sky, black covers this in most daylight situations.

I think that there is a few things happening here, and as you would expect, rather than sorting out the cause, we are trying to find and fix the symptoms.

In the first part, Hi Viz vests are now to common place, you see someone walking to work or HGV drivers, as well as cyclist and runners. So drivers are becoming blind to Hi Viz. Have a think for a moment, anyone that drove into work today, how many white vans did you see? probably lots, but you wont remember how many you saw, but if you saw a gilded coach drawn by 6 white unicorns you will remember that.

The next problem is Cognitive capture, there is so much going on in our lives and in our cars that we loose the ability to take everything in, its pretty much the same in some ways to inattentional blindness, especially during work commutes, on the way in everyone is paying attention to the car in front, listening to the radio, thinking about how is following them on twitter, the in car Sat Nav, looking for speed cameras..the list goes on. Unfortunately there is probably nothing can be done about this. I recently read about a scheme where bikes are fitted with a device that will send a signal to a receiver in a bus or HGV and an alarm will sound. This, like the Hi Vis will work well for a little while, but it will not take long until the sounds are ignored, or become white noise.

So what we cyclist are becoming is white noise on the road, and we need a way to fix this.

I agree that lights should be used during the day, especially at the back of the bike, and both front and back should be flashing during the day. Appropriate clothing is also a good idea, but this wont solve the issue if its not noticed.

There is an answer, but it will never be popular, and I doubt that it will ever be implemented, and this is by changing driver behaviour. When driving home last night, I took note on how drivers we behaving on the road, in a 2 mile stretch down the A49 in Warrington i saw 5 cars change lane without indicating, and only 1 did indicate, at every set of lights cars had front wheels over the stop line...note, this was at every set of lights, at the McDonalds a car come out of the car park turned right and traveled at speed down the wrong side of the duel carriageway, at high speed, and took the corner dukes of hazzard style, anyone crossing the pedestrian crossing would have been killed. A car in front of me merged into the gutter at a set of lights to stop a cyclist from filtering, a HGV run a red light in a roundabout, 2 cars overtook and changed lane in another roundabout....

The reason all of this happens is that the Police are not doing anything to stop it, and this may well be due to staffing, or other priorities, but if there is no one enforcing the laws people will brake them. I lived in Australia for 36 years, the road laws are very heavily enforced and penalties are very high, and as a result the culture on the roads is completely different, thats not to say that its safer for cyclist as I dont have those figures, but if we use that example in introduce strict laws for drivers behaviour around cyclists, and also enforce the laws that we have in the first place, drivers may be more conscious of what they are doing behind the wheel. Imagine if there was a £200 FPN for driving without due care around a cyclist.

And whilst Im at it, the fines for cyclist should be enforced, especially no lights at night, running lights etcettera

As an example of the difference in road policing between Australia and the UK, at least every 3 months, I would be stopped by traffic police for either a Random BAC test, or licence check. When ever a driver is stopped the police administer a BAC test as normal procedure, and I think now they are doing saliva tests for drugs. I was once stopped because the police saw me drive past and thought that my tyres were to worn...and they were close, they did the normal checks, put me on the bag, rego check and sent me on my way. I was stopped once by a plain car as one of my rear lights was flickering, the copper told me I should get it fixed, did all the checks and sent me on my way, all with a smile, very professional.

So whats my point? Im not to sure now, I have lost my thought trail, but what I think im saying is we need to police to enforce the laws and we need the Government in introduce new laws to protect cyclists. Make drivers more aware of us on the road, and enforce penalties when they do not

@stumps - I can't turn my '12 plate corsa lights off. They are now always on - I think as others have said it is now mandatory.

Hmmm, I light myself up like a feckin' Christmas tree on commutes - 2 rear 2 front lights (one set to flashing one solid) reflective strips on the bike and my bag has reflective tape.

That didn't stop some moron try overtaking me at a pinch point and nearly running me of the road, he backed off when I suggested 'kindly' to reconsider.

What really pissed me off though was this particular moron decided that he didn't need to see out of any of his windows - they were completely steamed up which would have meant even with lights and what nots, if he'd gotten past me he would have most likely not given me the clearance due to obstructed mirrors and quite possibly cut inside of me again due to no visibility.

Cyclists can only do some much - unfortunately there are eejits like this on the road prepared to risk the lives of anyone in the way.

Meh. This is the helmet debate writ large. Sciencey-types can't agree what is better, 'common sense' is apparently wrong, and in the real world people don't like the danger-ification / looking like a road worker.

Seems the only answer is to get into the arms race that is ever-increasing lumens front & back, day & night.

...

FWIW, my lovely ShuttVR kit is almost totally black, but with lovely contrasting white and rainbow bits. And there's reflective stuff sewn in all over the lovely black Performance jacket.

Now we just need some seriously chilly days to justify getting it out

Vehicle headlights operating on dipped beam are *designed* not to cast significant amounts of light upward beyond a certain angle. Accordingly, if you are in the carriageway on an unlit road wearing Hi-vis only (i.e. no lights, no reflectives)...you will not be sufficiently illuminated to be seen by a driver travelling at anything above ~20-30mph until it is too late. Reflective is the only thing that works in those circumstances.

Mattsccm: Rapha winter stuff normally has reflective panels. My wind jacket has reflective arms and back lettering and my pro team jersey has a reflective arm band. Neither will help if a car pulls out on me from a side road of course!

Rapha also do bright orange and yellow macs but you won't catch me wearing them as I don't want to dress like a prat just to allow motorists to keep on braking at the last possible moment. Reaction time is not governed by visibility but by speed.

I think its an individuals own choice but I feel slightly safer with a front and back day light lights on plus my Hi Vis ruck sack when I commute to work from Stockport to Manchester, if I can make drivers notice me I stand a better chance of getting to work safetly, now the mornings are getting darker I am horrified to see cyclist riding dressed in normal or Black clothing surely they are putting themselves at risk, I am not to happy for cyclist to ride on the pavement in busy areas but it makes me smile to see cyclist riding on the pavement with flashing lights on..

There are a lot of cars now that are made with sensors fitted that automatically switch on your side lights when certain light levels are reached (like street lights).

Unfortunatley its all the big expensive models that have it fitted. Perhaps its time to get them all fitted.

As usual here its blame the cars.
I DO think that many of them are a bloody menace and that the drivers are complete idiots. I Do think that most car drivers show little interest at best in cycle safety.
However I doubt that very few actually want to hit a bike. We do need to make some contribution. Cars need lights on when they are out in poor light. Why shouldn't we as well. You rarely miss a lorry in the rain but you do miss smaller cars or silver ones for example.
It has to be accepted that we make some effort. Its not human to expect all car drivers to spot everything. I defy any of you to say that you have never lost your attention for a minute. Every little helps. It also gives us another weapon when we do get the SMIDSY excuse, especially if it goes to court. Sad to say that but it will be true.
Why the objection to bright kit?
Fashion and the I am too cool for sparkly bits.
Now if Rapha added reflective they would be come all the rage.
Maybe people such as the Rapha designers have a slight responsibility there. But would they dare make a reflective jacket.
NO

Reflective clothing won't help in low light conditions if the car behind doesn't have the headlights switched on.

That said, I cannot understand why most cycling specific clothing lacks reflective strips. It doesn't cost much and doesn't detract from the style during the day.

If you get a bunch of people running around carrying scissors, why are we looking at the behaviour of the people without scissors? And if some of the first group are carrying 12 foot long scissors and wearing an eyepatch, then wtf?

This isn't so much a question of victim blaming, more carrying out a semi-detailed study of the most effective way to blame the victim. And I ride out festooned like a bloody Christmas tree.

Speaking as a NZer, I was horrified at the coroners remarks. Apart from the "cyclists need to be responsible for their own safety so car drivers can ignore them" implications, here in Hawkes Bay high vis yellow is like camouflage against our bright spring/summer foliage and grass.

IMO, motorists often don't see cyclists simply because they are not expecting to see any. I noticed last night a few instances where riding past intersections, cars pulling up to the stop were not looking for me, but motor vehicles off in the distance behind me.