To ask everyone to remind.... [cycling related]

[GnomeDePlume]

themselves, their partners, children, lodgers, siblings that they need to wear hi vis and have lights on if any part of their journey involves cycling on the roads.

Driving to work this morning in the dark I found myself behind someone on his bike, no lights, no hi vis. I only spotted him because a house light picked him out for a moment. Otherwise he was near invisible.

I commute by bike and the vast majority of fellow cyclists are lit up and in high vis gear.

TBH on a well lit street it shouldn’t make that much difference for drivers but on darker roads it’s the difference between life and death.

I cycle through unlit parks in the dark and although I have very strong lights it’s still hard to pick out dogs off the lead and joggers. It’s so helpful when people have a light or something reflective. The flashing dog collars are really great fir helping cyclists avoid your dog.

I’d add though that I once saw a girl cycling on a busy dark road with a red light atrached to the front of her bike helmet you really can’t help some people.

My apologies if my use of the expression hi vis has caused confusion. The hi vis I have to wear for work is neon and has reflective panels. I thought that was standard.

If I drove always assuming there was a cyclist ahead waiting to loom out at me, I would be driving around at 20 miles an hour or less.

I think that's what some of them are after.

I tell my boy, you can be right all you want. But between you on your bike and someone in their car, it's not as fun being right when you're dead.

Light up like a Christmas Tree. Flashy light to drawn attention, static light to show speed, reflectors on helmet coat and bike. Pound shop can sort anyone with the lot.

His mate took the piss, he told me he said "My Mam's quite find of me, is yours not of you?". Cheeky wee arse.

Lol, some posters are determined to get into an argument.

I do wonder sometimes if cyclists realize just how difficult to see they can be especially at dusk. It's idiotic to cycle without lights when the lights fading especially down country lanes.

...and yes, I'm a cyclist and yes I have lights and I wear hi vis.

If I may amend the OP, as a horse rider and wearer of hi viz, if you are walking/running/cycling in low light or when it’s dark, hi viz won’t help, you need something reflective that will bounce back the light from a cars head lights.

I’m also going to add a reminder to please, pass horses wide and slow. 😀
See below:

Jeez, normally I agree with cyclists on these threads but you are all being mean to the OP. She was just posting an observation, it doesn't mean she mowed the cyclist down.

Absolutely lots of cyclists now feel very entitled and don’t give a fig about others (I know some motorists are similar). We have little light pollution here. The roads are unlit and dark. They are narrow. Yet still cyclists put headphones in, wear dark clothes and fail to put lights on.
Or they think our villages are a velodrome and cycle three abreast in groups of twenty or thirty with no consideration for people trying to go about their daily work. They shout to each other at 7am on Sunday mornings. They leave bright laminated arrows and signs on our fences and posts. They fill our villages with badly parked cars where they drive out specifically to intrude on others normal lives.
I’m not keen on cyclists-particularly not Lycra clad, groups of loud townies.

I posted on a local FB page along the same lines, and got into a dingdong with a young man. I pointed out that I had no wish to be at his funeral, full of guilt and to scared to drive, watching his mother mourn, just because he couldn’t be bothered to spend £5 on some lights that are small enough to fit in a pocket these days.

I'm with you OP! I live in a part of the country where everyone cycles everywhere !! I am a cyclist, runner and I drive! I am often struck by the number of cyclists cycling with no lights in the dark. It's crazy! Sure, drivers have a responsibility to drive carefully, but cyclists also have a responsibility to be visible, and if on the road lights are an absolute must. If you think otherwise, that's seriously worrying!

I'm afraid (and you won't like this polar..) that if a cyclist got hit by a car in the dark when he had no lights on their bike or themself, He/she would be largely to blame (although would hopefully b ok if they were also wearing their helmet - something they don't always do round this way either!!)

I'm not turning this into anything. You started a thread telling cyclists to wear hi-vis - they do not need to.

But they might want to so that other people on the roads can see them better?

Had this exact conversation with DS last week - it’s not just getting dark earlier, when the weather is bad up here it gets murky and being fairly rural we have a lot of badly lit roads and drivers going way too fast.
DH didn’t let him take the bike out of the shed until he’d checked his lights were clean and working ok.
His (obnoxiously fluorescent yellow) back pack works quite well as hi vis at the moment but I’m looking for a warm bright top for him for winter biking.

Yes I have a very reflective provis backpack - not cheap though.

I’m a cyclist and I see terrible examples every day of cyclists breaking the Highway Code. There should be tougher sanctions. My dds told me that they were nearly hit by a cyclist speeding through a red light while they were crossing the road.
I hate sitting on my bike with the traffic revving behind me on a red light but I also hate the entitled arseholes who merrily speed through.

It does seem fashionable around where I live if you are a cyclist to wear 'road' colour clothing. Even the bikes themselves are often grey. Seems a bit daft to me.

And Poundland are doing a surprisingly good set of bike lights for £1at the moment.

This time of year seems to be particularly bad as people are still in summer mode and havent yet broken out the winter clothing but it is dark in the mornings and in the early evenings.

OP - my work hi vis is also reflective, I would assume that all of it is.

I think that pedestrians and cyclists don't realise how invisible and therefore vulnerable they are in the dark in dark clothing.

@Crumbs so with you!

Advice is to be visible not wear hi-vis. Lights are the mandatory bit. If you only just picked him out you should get your lights checked and slow down to match the conditions

PANTS to that. FFS.
If someone is outside of the feadlight range you'd still see them if they had lights on. You'll never see them if they don't.

I keep my horses at the end of a single track lane, people seem to think they are safe in dark clothes for some reason but they are really not.

It should be law that anyone that uses any road any time of year for part of their journey, wears hi viz & reflective at the very least, and obviously lights. This goes for cyclists, runners, walkers & dogs.

Whilst it is of course stupid to not have lights or light/reflective clothing when it's dark, it isn't a cause in that many accidents.

It's also amazing how many drivers don't seem to be able to see me even though I'm lit up like a christmas tree.

It doesn’t matter how many other people are wearing hiviz. That doesn’t make it less effective. All that matters is that people are visible.

A cyclist in the country park nearly ran my dog and I over at dusk. Neither he nor I were dressed to be seen. I couldn’t see or hear him coming, he couldn’t see or hear me.

Scared the pants off me.

Last night I was pulling out of a car park with a car parked to my right obscuring the view. A cyclist dressed in dark clothes with no lights or reflectors suddenly shot round the car, it's lucky for him that I was just inching forwards. Both cyclists and drivers need to take more care, there is a cyclist near us who wears a hi-vis coat, helmet and has stickers all over his bike so it glows in the dark, that's the way to go. Maybe cars should have hi-vis stickers too given the idiots who think lights are optional! 😜

The subject of visibility always seems to create a row (it does in the horse world too!)

No, you don’t have to wear hi viz/reflective clothing, but if you value your life (and your animals) you would surely do all you can to ensure that you can be seen?

Where I live it’s pretty rural and herds of cyclists and horse riders (of which I’m one) are not uncommon. I feel it’s my duty as a rider to be seen and as a driver to ensure I don’t speed round corners and stay aware of my surroundings.

I always wear at the minimum a hi viz vest when I ride out during the day just to give me and my horse a few extra seconds to be seen because I want to go home to my family. I don’t understand why some cyclists can’t do the same 😕

Cyclists in general seem to have become very aggressive lately. If you don't crawl along behind them until you come to a massively wide bit of the road and go right over to the other side to pass them, you risk being shouted and sworn at!

I too am a cyclist, and I think the OP is right to point out the need to be visible. And I get very frustrated with People Who Ride Bicycles Badly (who should not be confused with cyclists).
It's another example of a few giving the many a bad name.