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Hi vis discussion thread (read post #1)

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Comments

  • Moderators, Politics Moderators Posts: 42,846 Mod ✭✭✭✭Seth Brundle



    The problem is that dressing up in yellow is not as safe as a decent set of lights despite what we have been led to believe by the media. If you want to be seen in the dark then lights are by far and away the best way to go. I've been knocked down in the past (100% driver's fault). I am now quite conscious of my own personal safety. I cannot however control how others behave around me but what I can do is let them know of my presence and provide sufficient notice of my presence. Wearing yellow does not do this as efficiently as having a bright light. In many cases, drivers will only see the high-viz when they are close to you and by then they may not have given enough time to react whereas lights can be seen from much further distances.

    What you have managed to do in your few lines is placed the entire burden of road safety onto the victim. There should be no issue in being seen the vast majority of the time if you have good lights. However, if the driver is simply not concentrating, no amount of safety gear is going to do anything. I've had drivers tell me that the didn't see me despite a big high-viz rucksac on my back and two rear lights. If some drivers don't see me because they weren't looking ahead. What more am I expected to do?

    If people were serious about road safety then things would be a lot different. Roadways would not be designed principally for cars but would initially focus on the movement of vulnerable road users and then accommodate cars around them. Cars would also be slower and more visible. But that won't happen because!!!


    Still, you want to believe that yellow clothes are the be all and end all despite the evidence - fine, go ahead!



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,331 ✭✭✭thefallingman


    Hi all, cyclist here in dublin, and my his vis top has seen better days, anyone have any tips on where to buy new and good high vis jackets or waterproofs, sorry if answered earlier but i'm not going through 88 pages ! I have googled obviously but would like a recommendation from a fellow cyclist.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,652 ✭✭✭Macy0161


    Yes, light yourself up with, eh, lights! Lights are what matter, not fluorescent material which does not work in the dark (because - Science!).

    More energy should be focused on updating our half a century bicycle lighting "standards", than giving out builders vests.



  • Moderators, Politics Moderators Posts: 42,846 Mod ✭✭✭✭Seth Brundle


    The RSA will send you out some high-viz bibs and stuff for free via https://www.rsaorders.ie/orders-online/ Would I recommend them? If that's all you would depend on to be seen then I would say "no".

    If you are looking for a high-viz type jacket then any bike shop will have something e.g. https://www.cyclesuperstore.ie/shop/pc/showsearchresults.asp?idCategory=201&withstock=1



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,331 ✭✭✭thefallingman


    thanks Seth much obliged



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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,652 ✭✭✭Macy0161


    I don't know who they are post brexit, but in the past Polaris have had decent black friday deals on their "Really Bright Stuff" gear.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 31,647 ✭✭✭✭AndrewJRenko




  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,458 ✭✭✭MojoMaker


    The guy to whom you replied was suggesting that the accident was humorous, despite some nasty injuries occurring.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,370 ✭✭✭cletus


    You only quoted my post, so I assumed you were replying to me



  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 52,232 CMod ✭✭✭✭magicbastarder


    plus, a garda on a motorbike attended the scene of a bicycle on bicycle crash? colour me surprised.



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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,908 ✭✭✭✭tomasrojo


    Also, not quite sure how they had a head-on collision if they weren't on a a two-way cycle track. I didn't give the story any credence anyway.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,400 ✭✭✭07Lapierre




  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 52,232 CMod ✭✭✭✭magicbastarder


    that looks like it could be fatal.

    about 20 years ago, probably more, there was a fatality on the (i think) N7 - in heavy fog, a fire tender was attending a crash, and a woman driving a car drove into the tender at such speed she didn't even have a chance to brake. she was killed instantly; i can't remember if there was an estimate of how fast she was driving, but as mentioned, it was heavy fog and as is standard, the fire tender had all blue lights flashing, but she was still driving that fast in those conditions.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,081 ✭✭✭Large bottle small glass


    For a thread where many regulars call out low brow comments on journal.ie (and others) comments like above should also be condemned.

    It's in the same vane as some of the low ball comments on the Twitter link.

    There's probably a man dead there.



  • Moderators, Politics Moderators Posts: 42,846 Mod ✭✭✭✭Seth Brundle


    I remember that incident and whilst any fatality is awful, her reckless driving led to her death.

    I recall driving back to Leixlip one night after a wedding in Mullingar and there was desperate fog that I could barely see the grass at the edge of the road (pre-motorway days). The headlights from any approaching cars only became visible at the last moment. There was no option but to drive slowly. Despite all of this, the number of cars that overtook us at speed was unreal. I honestly don't know how they could make it home without carnage.



  • Moderators, Politics Moderators Posts: 42,846 Mod ✭✭✭✭Seth Brundle


    Apparently the truck in the above video had a large crash cushion and the speculation was that the driver's airbag went off so hopefully no fatality.

    One of the replies to that tweet shows images of of damaged maintenance vans (despite the high-viz)...




  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,161 ✭✭✭buffalo


    Can we set a bot to auto-reply that photo to anyone who says high-vis should be compulsory/saves lives/etc. ?



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 679 ✭✭✭ARX


    I think that part of the problem is that people fail to anticipate stationary vehicles on a motorway if there isn't a queue of vehicles. And that perhaps the perceived size of a stationary object does not increase linearly with distance - so if you're approaching a stationary vehicle at speed you may not perceive that it is not moving until it's too late to stop.

    A few years ago when the M50 was being widened I was driving in lane 1 at 100 km/h. There was very little traffic and it was moving freely. The car in front of me had its brake lights on, which is nothing unusual as people often apply the brakes for no apparent reason. I was getting closer and then I realised that the car was not just moving slowly, it had come to a complete stop. Fortunately I had been keeping plenty of distance and was able to safely move into lane 2. As I passed, the driver had the rear offside door open and was standing outside the car with both offside doors open, leaning into the back of the car as though they were getting something from the back seat.

    Had I been driving as close to that car as people normally do on the M50, I would probably have been doing 80-90 km/h when I drove into it.

    I will always remember the surprisingly short interval that elapsed between "that car is moving more slowly than I'd expect" and "that car is not moving at all".



  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 52,232 CMod ✭✭✭✭magicbastarder


    anyway, one area that i do think hi-vis (in a general sense, i guess just 'visibility') may be important, and paradoxically is difficult to cater for, is turn signals.

    e.g. a builder's vest, whatever it does offer; if the person is wearing dark sleeves or gloves, doesn't provide for a turn signal from a cyclist being visible. and the extra issue here is for a motorist approaching from any direction in any urban or suburban area, their headlights are 99.9% likely to be dipped, so even if the cyclist is wearing some sort of retroreflective gloves, the headlights are unlikely to catch them in a significant manner.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,908 ✭✭✭✭tomasrojo


    I know (very well I know) that no one is interested in wrist lights, but they do a great job of making hand gestures conspicuous, and they do seem to cut down on people pulling out of side roads. The bio-motion of arm movements is also something onlookers seem to register very quickly.

    I'd go so far as to say that in urban scenarios, I'm happy enough to have a fairly mediocre front light, once I have wrist lights as well, as in urban contexts the be-seen effect is more important than the to-see-by, and they're more versatile in the be-seen sense.



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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,908 ✭✭✭✭tomasrojo


    Sounds like a phenomenon related to motion camouflage, where someone approaching smoothly is harder to notice than someone approacing with a bit of lateral motion.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,652 ✭✭✭Macy0161


    I would've said the motion aspect was well known/ well discussed, hence reflectors on pedals. I'd nearly have some time for the argument if the demand was reflective ankle bands rather than builders vests when the torso is probably the worst place for reflective detail in an urban context.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,908 ✭✭✭✭tomasrojo


    Yeah, there's an Austrlian study mentioned ages ago in the thread were they figured reflective material around the knees and ankles was more effective, because of biomotion. You can see this effect when you see firefighters on the news walking in front of the cameras in the middle distance.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,060 ✭✭✭Markcheese


    On many major road work sites , the guys are wearing orange hi-viz suits with reflective strips around the lower arm /wrists and and lower legs-

    The dayglow colour is really only any good if it contrasts from the background - you may easily distinguish one hi-viz wearing pedestrian who's walking on the road ...

    But won't see him at all if he's walking along side a stream of hi-viz wearing pedestrians on the foot path -

    Slava ukraini 🇺🇦



  • Moderators, Politics Moderators Posts: 42,846 Mod ✭✭✭✭Seth Brundle


    But won't see him at all if he's walking along side a stream of hi-viz wearing pedestrians on the foot path

    That's the same reason motorcyclists are against the mandatory use of daytime running lights on cars.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,652 ✭✭✭Macy0161


    Well "hi viz"/ reflective panels were of limited use this morning given the amount of motorists with no lights (never mind the number with DRL only)



  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 52,232 CMod ✭✭✭✭magicbastarder


    i hadn't know that was the sentiment with motorcyclists. i've been driving with lights on all the time, out of habit, for 20 years.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,652 ✭✭✭Macy0161


    I heard it mentioned when there was a push (used to be annual) for motorists to use their lights at all times over the winter/ clock changed period. It has seemed to die down - both the requests and the campaign against it (maybe it was just a battle lost). fwiw I don't feel the high percentage of DRL has made any difference on the bicycle - biggest issue is still people not looking, or going when they're not 100% sure.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,370 ✭✭✭cletus


    I just turn my lights on in the car any time I drive, regardless of time of year or time of day.



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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,081 ✭✭✭Large bottle small glass


    Section 8.6 is the relevant section of manual for mobile lane closures.

    There is a reason it is so detailed; having vehicles stopped on a high speed road will lead to high speed impacts if there are shortcomings in terms of planning, training and implementation of controls.

    Typically driving on a motorway, especially off peak (which is a requirement for MLCs) doesn't require a lot of input from driver and perception reaction time is typically longer than in a lot of other situations.

    Some drivers on motorways (in particular) are really poor at anticipating traffic ahead of them.

    Here's the accident location (from the co ordinates on the tik tok video). It's the M2 near junction 3


    https://goo.gl/maps/xioBX4smmUbtCwqn7



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