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[deptfordmarmoset]

Whatever the outcome, alicat, I wish you all the best. If CTC come good for you I promise to actually join up with them!

It's one of those ''slippery slope'' cases which threatens to put the onus for road survival onto the cyclist in a battle that cyclists really can't win - we can't compete with the onboard distraction systems of CD players, satnav devices, etc that divorce drivers from any sense of being on the road in the way that cyclists are; we can't compete with the 12v batteries and alternators that enable cars to light themselves up like Christmas trees (what are those fairy sidelights on the front of Audis about?? Don't they understand that they're driving a car?). Yet a couple of times recently, cycling in daylight with lights, I've worn extra hi-viz stuff - not because I think that a driver who doesn't look will miraculously be able to see me but because I don't want to give the driver who knocks me off any chance to wriggle out of their responsibility with a reflexive ''lie and deny'' reaction and then blame the victim.

 

[asterix]

Not really the same. The French rule has been ambiguously translated n that website I think - it's a requirement to wear hi-vis outside towns, at night or in poor visibility - which I think is probably sensible, and the reflectives are probably the key thing as opposed to the fluoro colour. Certainly we cycled 800 miles through France this summer with not a hi-vis coat between us, with no bother, because we cycled entirely during the day.

So since this was a urban incident, in daylight, the French law would not have required the OP to wear hi-vis anyway.

Carrying it with a triangle in a car is sensible anyway.

Yesterday I saw about 30 French cyclists here and there (weds afternoons seem to bring them out). Although most had coloured kit, there were no specifically high-vis garments and this was in about as rural a region as you can get. One lone cyclist was dressed entirely in black, albeit on a red bike. I wear what I've got, which is red or yellow or blue.