Fed up of cyclists not wearing hi viz clothing and no lights on bikes

[Jdot]

Yesterday about this time I saw about this time 10 cyclists including food couriers on bikes with no lights and no hi viz clothing. Black clothing

This really makes me cross. If car drivers hit cyclists that are not visible, drivers should not be punished for this

I recently saw a cyclist riding without lights and all dressed in black the WRONG WAY down a main road. Absolute idiot.

Round here it’s usually either young men/teens cycling with no lights and a black hoodie with the hood up, or Deliveroo/Just Eats riders.

Of course they understand that, they're just being contrary for the sake of it.

Its not contrary, if you see them you can brake

It’s a shame that pedestrians and cyclists have to worry about their safety due to cars, but this is the world we live in now. You need lights / torch at a minimum. High viz is ideal.

It is frightening to have near misses. Around here it’s people going for leisurely bike rides on 50mph roads after dark, at 5pm.

completely agree. It happens a lot here where people aren’t cyclists as such but are just cycling to work on the local industrial estates. Black bike, black clothes and pitch black streets don’t make for safe driving or cycling.

Sometimes the light does block view and it would be the drivers fault.

my dad is a cyclist with all the lights and safety gear and he has still been hit multiple times and every time people have blamed him (not the law but police tried and his friends etc) so I’m not sure why these guys are seen as ok.

I always wear high viz, reflective clothing, use front and back lights and hand signals to drivers, it’s already very scary with the number of drivers who ignore the hierarchy of road users and 1.5m passing distance amendments to the Highway Code, let alone putting yourself more at risk!

DH has just come in with same complaint. We live near a university and I think a lot of the international students genuinely don’t realise how early it gets dark here in winter (Scotland). I worry about them.

Happens where I live, too. They like to take the shortest route round the town centre one-way system, regardless of which way they're going. Thankfully, there is street lighting, but it's not up to much.

It also doesn’t help how ridiculously bright some car headlights are now. Cars coming towards you are often completely dazzling even with their lights dipped. That split second where a car has come past in the opposite direction does impede your vision where your eyes just can’t keep up. It makes seeing dim lights and anyone not wearing them much harder to see.

l’d never ride my horse on the road without hi-viz, thank every driver that passes considerately & pull in to gateways/lay-bys at the first opportunity. Cyclists rarely show any such consideration for other road users.

As a regular cyclist and driver, I agree on the lights, and it's a legal requirement after dark so totally reasonable. Hi vis isn't a legal requirement but I usually do wear this as I want to be seen and stay safe. Incidentally as I cycled home yesterday I had to stop a car driver about to pull out from their drive to tell them to put their lights on as they'd forgotten. I do worry with the high numbers of darkly clad lightless cyclists (a lot but not all delivery cyclists) that they give all cyclists a bad name. I do think the delivery companies could do more to encourage safe cycling e.g. fit rear red lights and reflectors on the insulated containers for the food and provide helmets with front and rear lights - they coykd even get their brand colour and logo on the side.

I honestly despair about some cyclists. There seems to be an increasing amount who don’t realise how invisible they are on an overcast day when they are wearing dark.

I also don’t get the mentality that is spouted that if a car driver hits a cyclist, it’s the driver’s fault. So what, the cyclist is more likely to be seriously injured or killed than the driver so just put some high viz and your lights on as most car drivers really don’t want to hit you.

Agree 100%, I worry about them too. International student welcome weeks should definitely incorporate road safety information, including how to use all the different types of pedestrian crossings. Maybe they should all be inducted into the Tufty Club!

These kinds of idiots on bikes don't have brains to protect 🤷‍♀️
It's generally young men delivering drugs food and they've never bothered reading the Highway Code.

Unfortunately following the Highway Code, using hi-viz, reflectors and lights is no guarentee that people will see you especially when looking at their phones; it improves the odds and is well worth doing, but a lot of these idiots don't want to be seen and want to lurk from shadow to shadow. It's the same league of young men that fart around in modded cars, ignore speed limits and wrap their cars around trees late at night.

Motorists need to be observant for the unpredictable. While these kamikazee ninjas on bikes could be preventable, there's always potential for the unexpected such as animals darting into the road.

The more all types of road user look out for each other and think about each other's needs/ behaviours, the better, but it's mundane reality that there's a lot of people out there that just don't and won't.

I dont not understand people who refuse to get a set of lights.

Don't they want to be safe and be seen.

Don't they want to live?

Given the number of motorists who try to run me down on a bike, I'm almost tempted to go ninja so they can't do it deliberately as I'm convinced many do.

Yes, it's not a good idea to go stealth, but lots of things you don't expect to see on a road are not lit up - deer, fallen trees etc. It's still ultimately the responsibility of a driver to be able to react and brake within the distance they can see.

These guys are usually breaking other laws, there's a reason they don't want to be seen.

I don’t care if hi viz clothing isn’t cool.

Also saw 3 cars at 5:15pm with no headlights on!

Surely it is highway code to have lights on your bike at night! What a stupid thing to do. No lights or high visibility clothing but everyone else's fault if you cant see me. Typical cyclist opinion!

I think that if a cyclist isn’t wearing a helmet, if they get knocked off by a vehicle, their head injury shouldn’t be the fault of the driver. It should be mandatory to wear a helmet.
Around here we get runners in the road cycle lanes, again all in black.

It is the law to have lights
Hi-vis is optional and not always practical tbh
The problem is that lights on a bike just isn’t as easy/simple as in a car.

It’s frustrating when they don’t have lights but I also see many motorists breaking the law.

Australia.

Bikes must have front and back lights.

Research is dicey about whether hi-vis is even a little helpful during the day. That and helmets apparently make drivers who do see the bicycle treat it as somehow less vulnerable than bicycles without.

But being seen at night - stupid not to have laws requiring that. And stupid idiots riding on shared roads without making it easy for drivers to know.

Just look at what you’ve written there.

I think that if a cyclist isn’t wearing a helmet, if they get knocked off by a vehicle …

victim blaming

Whilst I agree it's a drivers responsibility it is incredibly scary when you come across a cyclist on a dark road who has no lights or high vis at all, you really can't see them. Teenagers in particular are the biggest culprits for no lights round here.