How visible do I need to be?

[400bhp]

I find this a regular problem on large roundabouts (three per commute for me) especially if the traffic is light- joining drivers are perhaps carrying out only cursory checks for circulating traffic. I watch them, cover the brakes and look for escape routes (go behind or turn parallel depending on circumstances).

So do I. The two consecutive r'abouts I negotiate on the way to work cause the greatest risk in my eyes.

 

[400bhp]

I'll be on medication for nerve pain in the arm for life.

 

[Seigi]

I need to vent my spleen...

On several occasions (two very recent) I have been almost ploughed up by cars joining a big roundabout whilst I'm negotiating my way round. This is clear daylight too ('til the autumn comes).

I wear BRIGHT red cycle clothes with a Hi-Viz rucksack. My helmet is bright red and white and my cycle is bright red too. I have lights of course, set to flashing during daylight and yet I'm "invisible" to some motorists. Evasive swerving and/or braking are the only reasons why I'm still alive.

I know that this kind of thing is part and parcel of cycle commuting but what do I need to do to get myself noticed?

Greg

I know the feeling about not being seen, yesterday I was wearing a red top and riding an almost all-white bike and the driver still pulled out of the junction oblivious to me until I started shouting to which he shouted back blaming me with the usual "Get closer to the pavement!" (For the record I normally ride about a metre or so from the pavement, just enough so I don't hit the drains).

 

[Red Light]

So do I. The two consecutive r'abouts I negotiate on the way to work cause the greatest risk in my eyes.

Scandinavian and Dutch research indicates that roundabouts are safer for cyclists than the junctions they replace and that large diameter roundabouts are safer than small.

"Roundabouts are safer than intersections because they reduce the number of potential conflicts between road users and lower the driving speed. In the Netherlands, replacing a four-arm intersection by a roundabout is estimated to reduce the number of severe casualties by approximately 70%."
SWOV Roundabout Fact Sheet.

 

[Nigeyy]

It sounds like you are pretty visible -unfortunately it really doesn't matter when a driver doesn't care, doesn't look or simply makes a mistake.

Another approach: can you walk around the roundabout? I know this might catch some flak, but there are some junctions I just walk, the risk involved in cycling through them just isn't worth it. Of course, it depends on the roundabout and conditions.

I always remember a lorry driver flattening a moped rider (killing them) when I was a kid at the Markham Moor, North Notts. roundabout on the A1 as it then was in the 1980's. Even back then, in my adolescent evaluation I wouldn't cycle around that roundabout where the A1 joined it -I'd cut through it to a better point to cross or just take alternative roads.

 

[Zoiders]

Come the return of Christ the Arch Angel Gabriel will materialize to a flock of shepherds only to promptly be run down by a 4x4 driver who didn't see his flaming sword and the blinding light of god.

 

[Origamist]

Scandinavian and Dutch research indicates that roundabouts are safer for cyclists than the junctions they replace and that large diameter roundabouts are safer than small.

"Roundabouts are safer than intersections because they reduce the number of potential conflicts between road users and lower the driving speed. In the Netherlands, replacing a four-arm intersection by a roundabout is estimated to reduce the number of severe casualties by approximately 70%."
SWOV Roundabout Fact Sheet.

Roundabouts in Denmark and the Netherlands are often different in design to the UK. Generally, continental style roundabouts are more cycle friendly, i.e reduced width of circulatory carriageway, increased deflection on entry, limited number of arms, lower entry speeds, fewer multi-lane gyratories etc

 

[400bhp]

Exactly

 

[Saluki]

Come the return of Christ the Arch Angel Gabriel will materialize to a flock of shepherds only to promptly be run down by a 4x4 driver who didn't see his flaming sword and the blinding light of god.

I think that you might have something there.

 

[XmisterIS]

Unfortunately, it doesn't matter how visible you are, there are some people who still won't see you. On two occasions quite recently, I have watched drivers nonchalantly pull out of a side-road in front of [a] a bright orange articulated lorry and an ambulance with sirens going and lights flashing.

 

[gregsid]

Come the return of Christ the Arch Angel Gabriel will materialize to a flock of shepherds only to promptly be run down by a 4x4 driver who didn't see his flaming sword and the blinding light of god.

That is BRILLIANT! I'll never be able to read Revelation in the same way again ;-)

 

[palinurus]

Unfortunately, it doesn't matter how visible you are, there are some people who still won't see you.

Looked and failed to see. I've done it more than once, and it wasn't cyclists I failed to see either. Pulled out in front of a silver car on a quiet backstreet once in broad daylight. I remember thinking- where the f*** did he come from?