Has hi-vis had its day?

[BentMikey]

I still remember riding back with a friend from Needham Market, basically the DD route in reverse. After Epping Forest, there's that long straight and slightly downhill section into London. As an experiment I tried doing a constant random wobble on the recumbent, about a metre in amplitude. You should have seen the fear this engendered in the motorists passing me. Most were the other side of the white line, even with oncoming traffic.

 

[GrasB]

+1... except the bike wasn't wobbling I was leaning my torso into the wind... didn't get that much space but got a lot more than normal.

 

[Rhythm Thief]

This is why I like the recumbent - it forces the double take and relatively few motons pull out on me. As for folks thinking that hiviz causes overtaking vehicles to give you more space, that's not my impression from watching other commuters get passed. And they will not have ridden with a recumbent, because almost nothing else causes overtakers to give as much room as that.

The eight months I rode a recumbent were among the scariest of my cycling career. Even with two or three good quality flashing LEDs on the top of the seat back I was passed much closer than I was used to on a normal bike, by people who obviously had no idea I was there. The sitting position on mine also made it practically impossible to do a lifesaver. Your experience is obviously different, but I won't be going back to using a recumbent.

 

[BentMikey]

I have to say that's the first time I've ever heard anyone claim that about a bent!! Being passed wide seems to be the universal constant for recumbent riders, amongst the many who've commented. It's the best way to get a good leg up the food chain on roads.

 

[Rhythm Thief]

I have to say that's the first time I've ever heard anyone claim that about a bent!! Being passed wide seems to be the universal constant for recumbent riders, amongst the many who've commented. It's the best way to get a good leg up the food chain on roads.

It makes sense, and was partly the reason I went for a recumbent. (The other part was that I can never resist odd machines.) Sadly, the only people who seemed to find it easier to notice me were pedestrians: other cyclists tended to ignore me and car drivers often just didn't see me. I never liked it much to be honest, once the novelty had worn off: rides in the countryside were spent admiring the bottoms of hedgerows and fences and rides in the company of other cyclists were spent looking up their noses.

 

[pwh91]

Just a thought... I've not seen any solid statistics published relating hi-viz (or lack of) to that rate of cycle accidents - does anyone have any idea? I'm sure someone has a better handle on UK statistics than I do.

To take it one step further, I've personally not even seen any stats on the putative danger of "ninja cycling" and I'd honestly expect some real press coverage of accidents caused by what looks like a near-criminal lack of visibility. Have I missed something here?

 

[HJ]

Just a thought... I've not seen any solid statistics published relating hi-viz (or lack of) to that rate of cycle accidents - does anyone have any idea? I'm sure someone has a better handle on UK statistics than I do.

To take it one step further, I've personally not even seen any stats on the putative danger of "ninja cycling" and I'd honestly expect some real press coverage of accidents caused by what looks like a near-criminal lack of visibility. Have I missed something here?

RTL published a report last year, on a study of police reports of RTA's, lack of Hi Viz was sited as a factor in less than 5% of all incidents involving cycles. Most "accidents" occurred in good conditions during the hours of day light. Drivers error was found to be the cause of over 90% of all road "accidents". Relying press reports is highly unreliable, certain sections of the press are all to whiling to blame the victim!

 

[hackbike 666]

I still remember riding back with a friend from Needham Market, basically the DD route in reverse. After Epping Forest, there's that long straight and slightly downhill section into London. As an experiment I tried doing a constant random wobble on the recumbent, about a metre in amplitude. You should have seen the fear this engendered in the motorists passing me. Most were the other side of the white line, even with oncoming traffic.

I used to ride back from Epping and beyond (Waltham Cross/Harlow...can't remember now) in the dark in the late 1980's....That is one scary road at night....So dark....Can't remember if I wore Hi-Viz then.Only had a dynamo...Don't know how I managed.

 

[Arch]

The eight months I rode a recumbent were among the scariest of my cycling career. Even with two or three good quality flashing LEDs on the top of the seat back I was passed much closer than I was used to on a normal bike, by people who obviously had no idea I was there. The sitting position on mine also made it practically impossible to do a lifesaver. Your experience is obviously different, but I won't be going back to using a recumbent.

Funny, the exact opposite of my experience.

In France, we've even had oncoming cars pull further over away from us!

And that POLITE jacket? TBH, I'm not sure how much difference it makes. Either people can read and see the difference very quickly, or they don't see the difference, and don't care anyway, or they just don't see the panel at all! I suspect it makes a difference to some, but a not to a significant number. I mostly wear it now for the joke, and the positive comments it gets from other cyclists!