I got this safety vest (neon green with orange reflective stripes) from Harbor Freight and just tonight I tested it on a real busy road on rush hour coming home, some part of the roads were dark and hilly:
cars and trucks literally open themselves up away from me, gave me room enough to feel secure that I'm seen, I checked all cars coming from behind using my little glasses' mirror, I could tell they SAW me!
Of course, The vest in combination with two strobes on the back of my helmet, handlebar blinking lights, and a seat rear light, plus the usual front light.

Corsaire

with that much illumination i'm surprised planes weren't trying to land on you

The one thing I don't like about Harbor Freight is that when you order online, they charge both shipping AND handling. Nobody else on the net does that (that I'm aware of), so I refuse to buy from them online. We do have their store in town, so I certainly enjoy visiting and buying from them there!

I agree, though, that those ugly safety vests are great things. When I'm wearing one, I figure that no motorist can claim they didn't see me!

Those vests are great during the winter, but make you sweat in the summer. Anyone use a police vest?? NOT!

Thing is, in darkness, no one really cares who you really are and whether you're looking cool or not; it all comes down to instincts between those cars rushhing to get home and you trying to make it safely home, it's either they SEE you or NOT.

Corsaire

Hey Corsaire & Dahon.Steve, nice to see a couple other Jersey guys here. What part of the state are you guys in? I'm just outside Atlantic City. Rarely ever see any other commuters - occasionally one guy on a mountain bike wearing a safety vest. It's a very lonely existence being a commuter around here!

Hey now!

I'm from northern Jersey, tri-state area, commuting is not bad at all by where I live, now the weather is not "good", all the few commuters I saw are gone. But I keep on riding whenever there's no precipitations or bad road conditions, cold doesn't stop me from heading out on a bike.

Corsaire

You look better in a safety vest than a hospital gown.

I'm in the Northern area also. The only year round bike commuters are Mexicans. There's a factory cross town and no bus service heads in that direction so they ride Huffys or Pacific toy store bikes. They also ride all year round on those junkers!

I have a vest that's barely there - it's a wide-open-weave of bright orange mesh, basically just enough to be visible and support the reflective strips sewn onto it. It's no problem even in hot weather.

Hey! joins us for a ride Sunday 14th 9 am at Brookdale Park in Montclair, me and another guy will go for a quick 2 hr ride through Clifton, West Paterson, Montclair. Verona, Caldwell, Little Falls and back to Montclair, about 30 miles, easy pace.

Corsaire

hehe glad to see you use safety vest . i am lily from china , YA , I guess maybe the safety vest you wear mabe by me . because I 'm the manufacturer of safety vest and export millions of safety vest in USA ,

I have a mini bike , blue colour , very like it ,now i will be by bike every day .

i will never wear one of those. somebody might see me and laugh their ass off.

I've noticed a good response from motorists when I'm wearing my HF vest. I'll keep it on when it's dark and gloomy.

Yeah, all open in back 'an stuff...

Seriously, I can't understand the mentality behind not wearing as much practical visibilty as you can. Vanity is fleeting...

I have noticed that I get a bit more respect on the road with my high-vis safety vest on... I may look like an uber-nerd, but, I'm a living uber-nerd, and that's what matters to me!

Anybody that thinks that an adult on a bike doesn't look like a dork anyway is fooling themselves. The safety vest increases the dorkage meter from 60 to 65. Get over it. The safety vest works.

Actually I kind of believe that since most cyclists are NOT wearing them, for those of us that are, the drivers think "maybe that guy's a cop." I get people being RIDICULOUSLY polite around me when I'm wearing mine (which is always when I'm wearing a jacket or it's dark out; in the daytime when it's warm I get by with an alertshirt).

I have a couple of them, one is a little heavier for spring and fall and then a lighter mesh one for summer.
Sorry with the number one excuse a cager will use, "I didn't see them", I do all I can to take that away.
And IJM is right, I gave up on scoring the dork factor the minute I took that first pedal stroke.

Just FWIW, it doesn't matter what you're wearing, they will still say "I didn't see you." People have built-in filters that are tuned to look for what they're used to seeing. You could be towing an 8 foot wide billboard painted fluorescent colors with 100 flashing lights on it and some idiots will still not see you. There's not much you can do about them, they really shouldn't be on the road.

But the vest does help with the vast majority. I've had people tell me that they could see me nearly a mile away, both in the daytime with no lights on and at night with a pair of superflashes. I haven't had any comments from coworkers since I got the Dinotte, but for the first time I got someone on the road roll down their window an yell "awesome light!"

There was a gentleman who's story I read on another forum that was hit from behind by an inattentive motorist while still wearing his vest, and rather well lit with blinkies etc, a couple years ago. He was hospitalized for about a week and off his bike for several months. That he survived was good, but just doing all you can is sometimes not enough... but I'd rather do all I can to see and be seen than leave stuff up to chance.

You can reduce risk, but never really eliminate it.

I cannot explain the sensory lapses that happen to all people. We have blind spots on our retina where the optic nerve joins with the eyeball. We let our attention drift. We "lose" one red light in a forest of red lights. We scan the whole area and "miss" a stop sign. We get blinded by the glare of oncoming headlights, or of the setting sun. Our field of view is interrupted by the A-pillar, or blocked by the rearview mirror, or a bug on the windshield. And so on.

So true.
I was a volunteer firefighter for several years around here, and we were constantly attending classes in order to retain state certification. Much of the safety training involved knowing that people can become fixated visually, but at the same time mentally detached. It's not that unusual for a motorist to run into the back of an emegency vehicle with all lights flashing. Many firefighters, cops and construction workers have been run down that way. Hence, the rules regarding reflective vests and bright battle lanterns.

A guy near me was just run down and killed in this exact situation. He was lit up like an xmas tree, and in the bike lane on a very wide 4-lane road. He was 57 years old and retired from the Navy. His bike commute was about 15 miles one way, so he was no amateur.

I am happy lighting my bike up to no end, but I will never wear a green vest.