*PING* Bentmikey

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BM, your sig-line ""The best way not to be noticed is to wear urban camouflage - hi viz clothing, lots of lights and reflectors and a helmet." Dr. Tony Raven."
Could you elaborate?
 
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Chuffy

Chuffy

Veteran
Bump! I know he's about somewhere...
 

BentMikey

Rider of Seolferwulf
Location
South London
Ah, sorry, missed this. Was off having an afternoon nap. xx(

It's a comment from Tony Raven on uk.rec.cycling. You don't like it?
 
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Chuffy

Chuffy

Veteran
BentMikey said:
Ah, sorry, missed this. Was off having an afternoon nap. xx(

It's a comment from Tony Raven on uk.rec.cycling. You don't like it?
Hope you had a nice snooze BM. Hmmm, the word 'counterintuitive' springs to mind. What does he suggest as an alternative?
 

PrettyboyTim

New Member
Location
Brighton
I'm not sure Dr. Raven is right. The SMIDSY problem is down to people not expecting and not looking for cyclists, and people are less likely to notice things they're not looking for. The point of Hi-viz presumably being that it's bright up enough that it may invade on the consciousness of drivers despite the fact they're not actually looking for cyclists.

Dr. Raven's quote implies that it would actually have the opposite effect and actively make you less likely to be noticed, but I can't see that being the case; the roads are not surrounded by flourescent screens that might hide a cyclist. Although there are a lot of people who wear hi-viz (builders, police, traffic wardens etc), they're hugely outnumbered by those who don't so I find it very hard to believe that you're more likely to be noticed in plain clothing.
 

BentMikey

Rider of Seolferwulf
Location
South London
It seems much of visibility and safety is counter-intuitive. Look at how many people tell me I need a flag on my recumbent, or how it must be terribly difficult for people to see me on that bike. In my experience they see me slightly more often than they do when I'm on the fixed wheel, and then they give me huge amounts of room. Another one is that little "fear" wobble many of us do when we sense a bad or impatient driver behind us. It's an excellent way of giving yourself time and space.

I'm convinced, as is Nuttycyclist and quite a few others, we've all experienced fewer close calls when we stopped wearing hiviz. It's not necessary to be seen in the urban environment, and it doesn't help you get any more space.

Regardless, Tony is a sensible and intelligent poster, and worthy of some thought.
 
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Chuffy

Chuffy

Veteran
BentMikey said:
I'm convinced, as is Nuttycyclist and quite a few others, we've all experienced fewer close calls when we stopped wearing hiviz. It's not necessary to be seen in the urban environment, and it doesn't help you get any more space.

Regardless, Tony is a sensible and intelligent poster, and worthy of some thought.
Ok, so (anecdotally) hi-viz isn't the bees knees. But would you give up lights and reflectives?
 
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