Article: Invisibility.

The same problem exists for motorcycle riders too. As the article mentions, drivers see what they expect to see, but I’ve heard some interesting arguments about why it’s so bad with bikes/motorcycles, namely that drivers expect to see “horizontal” and not “vertical.” Cars take up a lot of horizontal space and their lights are spread out horizontally, so that’s the type of configuration drivers expect to see. Bikes, on the other hand, take up space primarily on the vertical axis, so drivers have a hard time even perceiving that they’re on the road, even in broad daylight. I can’t tell you how many times drivers will appear to look right at me, but pull out in front of me anyway…it seems baffling, but really makes sense when you think of it in terms of horizontal vs. vertical.

I don’t know if there’s a good solution, but this is mostly why I make no great effort to wear hi-viz clothing. I ride with lights, obviously, but I’m not convinced that hi-viz clothing does much of anything to make me truly visible to drivers.

@dkel 133423 wrote:

We cyclists complain about ninjas all the time.

Yes, but we are complaining about people who wear dark clothing at night with no attempt to make themselves visible. I don’t run into visible runners on multi-use trails and use “I was not expecting you to be there” as an excuse.

@TwoWheelsDC 133414 wrote:

not convinced that hi-viz clothing does much

Just outta curiousity…. how much does it have to do?

If something makes you 1% safer, would you do it?

What about 5% safer?

10%?

How much does something have to make one safer before one does it?

I drive my car during daytime with the headlights on. The cost is almost nothing (the bulbs burn out faster). I’d make a wild guess that maybe it makes me <5% safer. Some small amount that is significant (aka large enough to be measurable) but isnt all that great.

I wear hi viz for the same reason. I have had conversations with motorcycle police officers that say in training, they are trained that drivers do NOT look at them – drivers look THRU them. Motorcyclists have to assume they are not seen. That sounds true to our experience.

But I also know that * I * see high viz riders much better. Many a time I have been surprised by a ninja rider – and pleased to have good visibility on a high viz rider. Does it help with pedestrians? Does it help with drivers? And how much help.

It costs NOTHING to choose high viz over some other color of the same garment. Will it make me safer? Most likely. How much? Yeah, maybe not much – but still safer.

If, over the life of cycling (or driving or whatever) you could reduce your accidents by one – would you?

Toward the article, some drivers don’t see other drivers evidenced by the woman I watched run into the back of another car. I’m pretty sure she was on a cell phone. So sure, people will see what they’re looking for like the famous guerrilla image. At the same time, I’ve had a few motorists make comments to me about my neon green shoecovers looking like a neon green circle.

My thought process is similar to above. If it’s 1% better chance for me, great. Plus, I’m sure in any collision, the motorist will claim I didn’t see him as an excuse. The judge will similarly buy such nonsense. But if I’m lit up, reflective gear, and my neon green or another bright color on then I think the sad post-event issue may be more clear.

@rcannon100 133431 wrote:

Just outta curiousity…. how much does it have to do?

If something makes you 1% safer, would you do it?

What about 5% safer?

10%?

How much does something have to make one safer before one does it?

Let’s consider the numbers…based on some googling, the likelihood of any cyclist being killed in the DC area is about .085% (11 deaths per year, with 13000 bike commuters). That percentage is actually high, since it doesn’t account for cyclist-at-fault accidents and non-commuter cyclists, of which there are A LOT. I used deaths, since injuries are going to be really hard to calculate since the causes are so many and so varied. So the numbers of cyclist deaths are actually really really low. If you decrease your likelihood of a bike death by 1%, you now are looking at a .084% chance of death rather than .085%. Frankly, those numbers are statistically meaningless and certainly not enough to convince me to buy hi-viz gear over some other color/style that I prefer. But that’s just me.

@rcannon100 133431 wrote:

But I also know that * I * see high viz riders much better. Many a time I have been surprised by a ninja rider – and pleased to have good visibility on a high viz rider. Does it help with pedestrians? Does it help with drivers? And how much help.

Perhaps, but as a rider, you’ll naturally be more aware of other riders, regardless of what they’re wearing. You see them because you’re looking for them. Keep in mind that I’m not talking about ninja cyclists (those who don’t use lights), but rather cyclists who just don’t wear hi-viz. I can’t imagine that you’d see someone’s clothing before you saw their lights (unless they’re using really crappy lights).

@TwoWheelsDC 133444 wrote:

Let’s consider the numbers…based on some googling, the likelihood of any cyclist being killed in the DC area is about .085% (11 deaths per year, with 13000 bike commuters).

Where did you get these numbers? I think the deaths are high and the commuters are low.

From The Washcycle: “Between 2005-2013, in the DC area, there have been 34 cyclist fatalities reported in FARS.”
That’s closer to 4-5 per year.

I believe bike commuting is between 1.5% and 2% for the region (> 3% in the District itself). There are about 2.5 million people in the labor force in the greater DC region. So that makes 35,000 – 50,000 bike commuters. Maybe less during Freezing Saddles.

Of course, these numbers even more strongly validate your point.