Pedestrians all in black or dark clothing...

[HatethedarknightsQW]

I mostly walk to work and wear a pale coloured coat and hat to give me a chance of being seen on the pavements, crossing the road, on zebra crossings.

Driving to the gym in the morning - so many people walking all in black - the street lighting isn't great where I live and it's really hard to see people. Wear some pale clothing - especially kids!

I generally wear black. My jeans are, well, jeans coloured, but often obscured by my long coat. But I am always in well lit areas and am careful, which would still be the case if I dressed like Mr Tumble. A few times though, I have seen teenagers in dark clothing take stupid risks dashing across the road only a few yards from the crossing. I had to slam on the brakes last week due to a bunch of them. They must have thought they had some sort of herd immunity!

I so hear you - someone crossed the road in front of me last night in the dark wearing black, I could barely see them. I think part of the problem is our street lights - they used to be brighter. The pedestrian can see the car well enough but the driver can’t see the pedestrian- or the cyclist who also wears all black with no lights.

And then there’s schools who insist on a uniform of dark clothing - the kids have to chose dark coats

Exactly!!

The should bring back the ‘wear something white at night’ adverts from the 1960s with Lance Percival - everyone used to sing the irritatingly catchy song 🤣

So many schools mandate a plain dark coloured winter coat, it is mad.

OTOH I love running in the winter stealth ninja style, but I am an adult and mostly run away from roads. When I do need to cross somewhere I can see the cars coming and can be trusted to avoid them! If forced to run along a road with no pavements I have a headtorch to make myself visible.

On the third hand, my husband was knocked off his bike by a driver on an evening commute ride and he was lit up like a christmas tree and covered in reflective hi-viz so I think the problem is mostly the inattention of drivers.

🤣🤣

Yes, I agree.

I don’t want pale coats. My office at work is freezing (so I tend to keep my coat on) but also a bit grubby so I tend to stick with darker colours.

I do wear dark clothes, but walk on pavements and don’t behave like it’s my first day on earth when crossing roads.

YABU. Pedestrians always have priority. if there are people around, you should be driving slow enough to stop as necessary.

i agree.

I leave home at 4.30am and there’s no street lights round in most places until 5am.

I do t need to see you when you’re walking along the pavement.

But if you’re crossing at a zebra crossing give me a chance to see you there or even waiting by wearing something reflective as a minimum.

Dark clothes are much more practical for winter. The best thing is just to hang a reflector from your zip or your bag or something.

A reflector on a black coat is 1000% better than a yellow coat with no reflector in my opinion.

A Finnish friend gave me some stick-on reflective patches that you can put on your coat. They are about the size of a 10p piece and very dark, so don't show up in daylight but are brilliant in the dark when headlights shine on them

I've got a very uncool reflective armband which I wear if I'm out in the dark. I can take it off and stick it in my coat pocket when I get to my destination.

The point is you can’t see the people

This is something that really winds me up!

Pedestrians & cyclists you need to be seen - wearing black/dark colours does not help.

Neither does randomly crossing the road when you feel like (bonus points if you emerge from between parked cars or push-chair first), jogging on the road when there is a 10 foot wide pavement next to you or wearing flashing lights when the whole area is festooned with random flashing lights (OK, so that only applies around xmas)

Runners are another problem - I reverse park into my drive and pull out at walking speed but they are very tricky to see especially now the council has reduced the wattage of the street lights.

YABU. It is the responsibility of the driver to be careful in pedestrian areas, and they should be slowing right down at Zebra crossings. In most cases, pedestrians have right of way.

Hitting someone, and then claiming that they were wearing the wrong clothes sounds like victim blaming to me.

Hi-viz gilets are cheap and lightweight.

Agreed. I had to replace my waterproof jacket recently. It was so hard to find something that wasn't black. I ended up with a dark green one. There seemed to be nothing that was bright colours

I don’t care if it winds you up. I will wear what I please and that is not light clothing. I’m walking on pavements mostly or crossing at pedestrian crossings so if a car hits me in those circumstances it most definitely isn’t my fault. Plus as another poster mentioned, there are other reasons why some of us women don’t want to advert our presence by standing out.

I remember - they suggested carrying a newspaper.

ETA I have a light coloured thick waterproof (Didrikson) and a light coloured waterproof shell (Craghoppers). Both are at least 5 years old and wash easily.

Pedestrian crossings and zebra crossings are well lit but they should always be approached with caution. Someone walks out in front of you between parked cars and gets hit - it doesn’t matter whose fault it is if someone’s injured doesn’t change their injury! Of course you should be careful as a driver but pedestrians need to be careful too - anything on the road needs to be visible at night to be safe - it’s not rocket science.

I had this debate with a Head Teacher a few years back when they brought in a new uniform that included wearing only a black or navy coat to school. In an area where a lot of the kids walk to school it was downright dangerous. It took months but finally they saw sense after a real push from parents.

The primary school in our street give various prizes through the year of reflective patches that the kids stick to their bags. Lots of kids walk to school here as we’re in a small village so it’s a great idea. Very effective as well.

Absolutely agree, but if you haven't seen them, then you don't know they are there. I drive along country roads a lot in winter and have seen runners and pedestrians not on pavements dressed all in black.

Also even on pavements, it helps if you can see someone approaching a junction or zebra crossing so you can plan.

Obviously pedestrians have priority and if it sounds like victim blaming that an all in black ninja in the rain with headphones on has stepped out to cross the road between parked cars...well I'm sorry but they haven't helped themselves or the driver....

Most secondary schools insist on black coats which is, IMO absolutely stupid.

Country roads - you need to be mindful on blind bends that there could be another road user. But I would always wear hi-vis in that setting.

Pavements - it sounds like you need to pay more attention and slow down.

Drivers always blame pedestrians!