@mjr By your own admission there is almost no evidence that wearing safety equipment is superstitious nonsense. Repeating such myths may discourage cyclists from taking steps that they feel improve their personal safety, which may reassure their loved ones, and which may or may not prevent injury. Please don't exploit this collision to push your own agenda.
1. Saying "X doesn't work" when there is no evidence that it works is not itself a myth.
2. Calling certain fashion items "safety equipment" is itself begging the question and should be challenged in any rational society.
3. Discouraging people from wasting time on placebos is itself a good thing.
4. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery so thank you.
Let's agree that all safety equipment is Schrodinger's safety equipment until such time that a proponent of either side of the argument can provide a scientific randomised double blind trial that supports the use of the aforementioned safety equipment.
In fact lets agree that the only person who can decide whether or not equipment such as reflectors or helmets is a good idea or not, is the person making the decision, and keep the thread on topic
Double-blind trials of most of this shoot is not possible any more. Epidemiology is good enough.
I'm very happy to let riders make their own decisions as long as it hurts no-one else - or at least it almost hurts no-one else (maybe excusing secondary effects like reducing cycling that are vague and hard to prove). Note my first post here did not mention any of the snake oil victim-blaming products and I only mentioned those after others suggested them. When a post on a thread like this gives controversial bad advice, such as wearing plastic dazzle camouflage clothes to make oneself "visible", surely other views should be presented too?
BTW: I still would like to know how to be invisible because there are some cycleway obstructions that I'd like to remove and that would be easier if I was invisible.