Best practices for increasing daylight visibilty
 

Since I started commuting to work this year my wife has been on me to add lights to my bike and start donning one of those neon construction worker vests. I have resisted until now, but after getting hit by a car last week I'm rethinking my position. Luckily I survived with only a few scrapes and bruises, but it was obvious that the driver never saw me.

My problem with adding things like lights and reflectors is that they seem to be a solution for night time visibility. What about the daytime? I'm reading mixed things about the effectiveness of neon clothing and I'm not sure what other options are out there. i'd love to hear what more experienced riders are doing.

Use quality lights.

I use a CatEye Rapid 5 taillight and the instant positive responsive from passing cars have eliminated any feelings of needing the safety vests that I used to wear all of the time.

I have thought about the CatEye front light but ride almost always on country roads and have not as of yet had a problem to make me really feel that I need one.

The Rapid 5 is a touch expensive at $25. I have two of the mounts, 1 saddle and 1 rear rack, moving the light from bike to bike is a ten second swap.

I have PDW, Planet Bike and several other twenty buck taillights that I just haven't got around to selling on eBarf yet. I don't use them at all.


I don't even have a headlight to ride at night. My praise of the Rapid 5 is from daytime use.

I wear cycling-specific clothes when commuting, so instead of the construction worker vest, all my commuting tops (jerseys, long-sleeve shirts, jackets) are hi-viz. AlertShirt.com is a good source for the construction worker stuff, and hi-viz t-shirts. I like their long-sleeve wicking t-shirt in the 'tween seasons.

I also run daytime running lights. I have a DiNotte 200L-AA in front, and a DiNotte 300R in back. See DiNotteLighting.com. There are now some less expensive blinkies that seem okay in the daytime. Sadly, most still are toys.

Your positioning in the lane also can improve visibility. Too far right and you're not noticed. This is especially true at intersections. Drivers look where they expect other cars to be. That's where you want to place yourself--where drivers are already looking.

Up to a certain point, there isn't much you can do as part of this can be due to the driver doing something else while driving like surfing on internet, reading, eating, putting some make-up or whatever...

You can try this selective attention test:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGQmdoK_ZfY

My best bet would be an active light source rather than a passive one. Put on some powerful blinking lights.

If you go for some passive light sources put them on the moving area like your legs and the bicycle wheels

I run blinking lights night or day.
I also wear plenty of reflective
clothing at night.

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5173/5...8082bf2f_z.jpg
NITERIDER by 1nterceptor, on Flickr

I need to spend some time on AlertShirt.com. Great prices.

Lots of good info above. Hi-Viz clothing helps. You will definitely notice a difference in drivers reaction when you run blinking lights day or night. Lots of good options out there at different price points. I have had good luck with these. http://www.modernbike.com/itemgroup.asp?IGPK=2126198643

Excellent customer service too. A couple of years back I bought more of the hi-viz wicking long-sleeve t-shirts. They had changed suppliers since my last order and the sizing ran larger.

I phoned, they explained what happened and had me sent the tent-sized shirts back. Before the returns arrived there, a new package arrived here with the smaller shirts, and a bonus knitted winter hat, some swag, and an apology note. Truly a pleasure doing business with them.

Hi-Viz.

Bought it at Aldi for £6.99 along with some UHT milk, a bike repair kit and some pineapples.

Looks like this:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Crane-Hi-V...-/261281735968

Hi-Viz. I have a couple of orange and yellow pieces I can wear if I feel I need to be seen better - usually if I'm commuting more on the road rather than the bike paths.

I also often run my rear blinky during the day. I imagine this is useful if you go say, under a bridge or shaded area from bright sunlight.

I've been considering getting one of these:

www.niteflux.com/buy/white-zone-5/

Not sure if it's too expensive though.

This is all you need. Add some high-viz if you want, I do, but DiNotte and lane positioning will keep you rolling safely.

Hi-viz clothing is your friend in daylight. Reflective gear does no good whatsoever unless its dark/dim and drivers have their headlights on (and many do not even when it's nearly dark outside). I have a collection of neon yellow jerseys, jackets and vests that I almost always wear when commuting. I was convinced of their effectiveness when I spotted a jogger 1/2-mile ahead of me during early morning hours. I also run my head and taillights during the day. My taillight is a super bright Dinotte 140 that is powerful enough to be visible in daylight, and my headlight is even brighter. Last but not least, you always need to ride defensively and assume that drivers don't see you, no matter how brightly lit and dressed you are.

I've found three things that have made a noticeable difference.

#1 . Construction vest or other hi-viz clothing. I've found the neon green/yellow color to be better than orange, but both are better than nothing.
#2 . An upright position. My only close calls have been when I'm tucked down coming down a hill.
#3 . Riding more towards the center of the lane when approaching cross streets. I've had people start pulling out on me when I'm on the far right, so if I see them waiting to come in, I move left (assuming no cars to my left of course).


Lights make a difference in low visibility conditions (fog, rain, etc.) but I didn't notice any difference in the daytime so I stopped running them.

If you carry a backpack, get a respro hump.

Construction vest is #1 at night. I like this style:
http://www.harborfreight.com/reflect...rge-94701.html

The ones with the shiny vinyl reflective stuff doesn't work very well in my experience.

I've updated the reflective vest review I did 5 years ago here (by "updated" I mean I fixed the broken photo links):

http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...-Freight-vests

What spivonious says about upright position is no doubt true. I only got a road bike this year so mostly in the past I've been pretty upright, I bet I'm a lot less visible when I'm on the road bike, let alone when I'm in the drops.

In the daytime, I run a fairly bright (Serfas Shield, 60 lumens) light on the back. I used to not run a front light, but TWICE this summer I had someone in an oncoming lane pull out and pass another car in my lane, so now I run my headlight in strobe mode. It's a very rapid strobe, like maybe 5 flashes per second, and it's irritating, but people see it. I do point it down a little bit and I have a wide angle lens fitted so it's not blinding, but even so I can see the strobe reflected back from street signs in the daylight, so it's got to be very visible. I can see my taillight reflected back in the rear at night even when I'm quite far past the sign.

Here's a quick video I uploaded to show the reflection:
http://youtu.be/OD1XMUeFAow

If you are going to buy a safety vest, buy one with LED lights (you don't have to turn them on if you don't want, but boy are you visible when they are on).

For day time running, as others have, I recommend flashing lights. At night, I recommend two lights (front and back each), one flashing, one solid.

And having a loud horn doesn't hurt either.

I failed to see any difference in motorist awareness when wearing hi viz so I stopped wearing it years ago.

There is no more outstanding piece of hi-viz on the road that one is likely to see, save for a police cruiser that has pulled someone over and its driver has exited the vehicle. They can be seen literally for miles. They get hit anyway. Notwithstanding this, the lights and hi-viz graphics remain standard equipment on police cruisers and the vehicles of other municipal fleets. For years I rode (safely) without flashers, mainly because they were not yet invented. Now they have been with us many years and I own a few. I never use more than one per bike and never in the daytime. Sometimes I get home and find out that I lost a flasher somewhere along the way... I suppose I could take from that that flashers are a waste of money. Hi-viz clothing too. Just run Ninja. Yes that is one conclusion one could come to. I choose to come to another one. That is, on one or more occasions my flasher and/or hi-viz soft shell jacket did, in fact, save me. The times when I didn't have them, I was lucky. There is only so much luck a person can have. You can use it all up by relying on it every night or you can help it out by doing what you can for yourself between miracles. All that said, it disturbs me greatly that so many of you "get hit". All those years I ran without helmets, flashers or hi-viz clothing, all the thousands of bombed stoplights and roasted stop signs... never, ever, a collision with another road user. There isn't that much luck in the world. Some of it comes down to rider skill and awareness. To put it another way: you can still get hit with your daylight flashers and your hi-viz or whatever you decide to spend your money on if you simply go out there, smug in the knowledge that they see you. What if they don't? Will you know? Are you aware of the warning signs of impending disaster? Can you do something about that? Often you can. Or when you can't, or shouldn't, proceed, there are often clues about when that is that a savvy cyclist just knows by instinct. They don't get hit because they don't put themselves in situations where they can get ht. I'll leave it there.

H

I have a Neon lime reflective banded Carhartt zip hoodie.

But does it help? IME not a whole lot. I've yet to be in the situation where using a horn would have been more effective than stopping, slowing, swerving or otherwise taking decisive defensive action without relying too much on the other guy's cooperation. I mean... s/he has already demonstrated that their judgement is questionable, now you want to give them even more opportunity to take you out?

H

Bright Strobes Front and Rear.

http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/h...eslight002.jpg

I do believe in hi vis closing and very hi daytime running lights for rear and front. The Dinotte are the standard for day running lights. However I have not (maybe soon) made the investment on this lights. I use a Cygolight 700 on day time flashing mode and I see a difference in traffic behavior when I run them.

For the back I use the Serfas 35w rear red lights on bright blinking. they can be seen during the day time, but not even close to the hi visibility of the Dinote 300r lights.

Lane position is also a good way to increase vis on the road for a bicycle. Like said before, cars are looking for big things in the middle of lanes, not skinny things all the way on the side of the lane. If you take the middle, your chances of been seen increase, run bright running lights, and you increase been seen some more. Now, add hi vis clothing and horn (if you have it), IMO you have done the max you can do to bee seen. Still be ready for a driver not to see you and take evasive action (stop, turn, jump the curb or what ever).

Agree, not a whole lot, but like everything, if you know it's limitation and usage, its another tool to be seen. I don't use horns, but use my very load voice to avert a pull out in front of me. I don't relay 100% on the driver to hear me and see me and react accordingly, but its a tool. I start to slow down, if the driver is distracted I scream (horn), if he sees me, acknowledge me and don't move, I keep on going. Better than coming to a complete stop when you have the right of way.

Double O

I personally find that it helps a lot. 80% of drivers that hear an air-zound or Hornit stop whatever behavior to which I was objecting.

Should you count on it to save your life? No. Is it yet another effective tool? I think so.

This. You'll be pleasantly surprised at how many more people notice you with bright lights and bright clothes. But don't forget to keep riding like everyone is out to run you over.