Last year we published a short survey for riders to complete.
The survey asked riders simple questions regarding High Visibility clothing which were:
Do You Wear Hi-Viz (Yes/No) and your reason for wearing or not wearing Hi-Viz.
The lead up to the survey was mainly because of the proposals in France to make the wearing of Hi-Viz mandatory in some form or another for riders.
Riders in the UK were told that the mandatory wearing of Hi-Viz in some shape or form, was coming their way from the EU.
After the decision in France in June 2013 that the wearing of a yellow vest while riding a motorcycle was not to be made mandatory, any mention of compulsion fizzled out.
The Hi-Viz debate still smoulders on and seems to re-ignite now and again, so we thought that it was time to publish the results of the survey.
Before doing so, we would like to give riders one last chance to fill in the survey before we close it and analyse the results.
Hi-Viz Survey Now Closed – View The Results – Click Here
I have no problem with added conspicuity whether it be in the form of additional lighting which is good for increased visibility all day and during evening and night riding. Just tonight we passed a motorcyclists on his bike and with dark clothing on and a dark coloured bike with little or no visible reflective strips he had only a small red light showing to the rear. I wouldn’t say that his number plate was illuminated well either. on the front he was showing a high beam front light but nothing to be seen from the sides and nothing really from the rear
As it was dark , dayglo would not have helped him to be seen and even a cars dipped headlights would have just bounced back on his dark clothing and would have been aimed to low [unless he was directly in front of a cars headlights and only a few yards away or under them] anything that would reflect light would have been useless anyway.
yes in good daylight conditions a day glo vest or similar can help the motorcyclist to be seen but the other day i was on a road with high green hedges and the green/yellow reflective jacket did at times blend into the surrounding background. When the rider rode out of the sun and under the shade of trees his jacket lost all its reflectivity and he looked just like any other dark figure.
To my mind day or night a motorcyclists should have greater illumination so that it can be seen in all lighting circumstances. Day or night.
Even a motorcycle police officer or ambulance rider will tell you that they sometimes have to avoid smidsys . They ride wearing some of the brightest day glo on and most conspicuously painted bikes on the road. yet still they are not seen.