Originally Posted by
79pmooney
I came upon two women riding Portland's popular but narrow Skyline Blvd driving. I'd been on full alert for cyclists. This stretch of road was straight, uphill, wooded and in partial shade. It happened that the woman wearing a bright jersey was in front and completely hidden from me by the following rider in a dark jersey and a medium intensity blinking tail light. I never saw that following rider....
Bicyclists really need to think about how visible they are. Or aren't.
Last summer on a 200k, there were three of us in a group. We had to do a detour on a very busy road with narrow shoulders. I was the only one wearing high vis jersey and I was the only one with taillights, so I volunteered to follow the others.
Photo below is ten years old, I was on a bike tour. My touring buddy was ahead, I took this photo simply because it fits the discussion, in and out of shadow on a curvy winding road, I had both of my taillights on. Some of the thorn bushes that were encroaching into the traffic lane were thorn bushes.
On this road a driver could easily come around a curve and find themself three or four seconds away from a bicyclist. And in intermittent shade and sun, your eyes are always adjusted for the wrong lighting.