Tips to Make Yourself Visible

[mustang1]

I've gotta say a hi viz jacket is more visible than flashing lights, at least from the rear. It's not that lights don't have enough intensity, it's that a jacket is very large compared to a light.

 

[r04DiE]

All you need are good lights, and to take your piece of the road. The hi-viz thing is nonsense.

 

[boydj]

The most important element of your visibility to motorists is your road positioning. Take a strong position in the lane, at least 4ft from the kerb where the road is wide enough to allow easy overtaking and take the middle of the lane through junctions - motorists emerging look down the middle of the road and easily miss cyclists who are too close to the kerb - and at road narrowings. At lights, stop in the middle of the lane and only move over once it is safe to do so. Good reflectives help in the dark, but you've got to be in a good position for them to be effective.

 

[mjr]

Lights or hi vis won't help in a low sun scenario.

Worse than that, they reduce your contrast against the low sun.

As others said, take the lane, dark clothing, no H or H and plenty of motorists will let you know that they've seen you and don't much like sharing the road

Best way to be visible? Exist. Everything else is just down to whether they bother to look properly.

 

[Joffey]

If it’s low sun you might be better wearing black, you’ll be a silhouette rather than your hi-vis blending into the sunlight.

 

[Banjo]

I change my route home from work when low sun lines up with the usual road I take. Seeing a car that had run into a skip and then claimed sun blindness prompted me to be wary.

 

[snorri]

driver couldn't see me in the low sun. ................... trying to think of ways to mitigate the risk.

Get off the road and walk, it's the only way, you can't compete against nature.
I'm reminded of the cartoon featuring a guy with a torch, but this was no normal torch, when the battery went flat this torch emitted darkness so that sunlit areas could be darkened. One day these will be available for cyclists everywhere, maybe.

 

[mjr]

And you'll need to be a long way off the road:

source

 

[summerdays]

There are a couple of occasions when I've taken to the path due to being unable to see ahead myself. It tends to be first thing in the mid winter sun, after a wet night. If I'm struggling to see ahead and therefore going slower than normal then I assume the following car is (except they don't seem to slow down.)

Unfortunately my commute starts with half a mile directly into the low winter sun.

 

[k_green]

The most important element of your visibility to motorists is your road positioning. Take a strong position in the lane, at least 4ft from the kerb where the road is wide enough to allow easy overtaking and take the middle of the lane through junctions - motorists emerging look down the middle of the road and easily miss cyclists who are too close to the kerb - and at road narrowings.

I think this is often underestimated as a be seen tactic.

 

[ColinJ]

And you'll need to be a long way off the road:
View attachment 384565
source

My family knew a local driver who killed a grandfather and grandson in a country lane and then his car went through a hedge and ended up like that!

He had form ... He killed a cyclist in a separate 'accident'.

 

[Banjo]

The very worse thing you can do is constantly keep moving into and out of gaps between parked cars.

 

[PaulSB]

Solid colour kit can help. I believe the research shows the colour of kit, other than black, doesn’t make much difference but one single block of colour does.

I have to confess my club kit, while very bright doesn’t conform to this, but if I was buying jerseys I would chose blue or red. For me red stands out above all colours.

It is though impossible to ignore drivers simply don’t see us. Three weeks ago in bright daylight I was 15-20 yards from our road, indicated I would turn left, when my wife pulled up at the junction, stopped, looked and pulled out. I waved at her before and while she pulled out.

Later she got home and the conversation went like this:

W: “What time did you get home?”
ME: “Same time as you were leaving. I waved at you at the top of the road”
W: “I didn’t see you. Obviously your shirt isn’t bright enough”

I couldn’t believe what I’d heard.

Really you can’t win. For years I’ve been pointing out to my wife how to spot cyclists and how to approach them safely.

 

[LeetleGreyCells]

I have flashing lights front and back for use during daylight but set on non-flashing at night. A yellow hi-viz jacket and a black helmet for contrast. I also have two reflective bands around each of my calves (just above ankles) as I figure a constantly moving reflector is more noticeable than a stationary one.

I also treat every other road user like a complete idiot where you never know what they are going to do. Constant Vigilance! (and yes, guilty, that is a quote from the Harry Potter books!).

 

[Katherine]

I think it is important, not only to make your bike stand out with lights and reflective surfaces, but also you as a person, so making your person stand out too makes it easier for other road users to judge your distance and pace.

A reflective Sam Browne belt is simple addition to make yourself stand out as a cyclist.

Flashing lights are good to mark out that there is something coming but I can't judge cyclists coming towards me on a shared path if I can't see them or the bike with a solid light or piece of reflective clothing for my lights to catch.