I don’t own, or have any interest in owning high-viz clothing for cycling, and would be much less likely to ride a bike for transportation if I was limited to wearing a specific set of reflective pants / jackets whenever it’s dark out.
My opinion is that I can reasonably compensate for wearing dark clothing at night by using multiple front + rear lights, and sometimes even a headlamp on my helmet.
Am I wrong for thinking that being brightly lit can negate the need for reflective clothing?
Edit: for reference here’s a (https://youtu.be/-mnYXT040wc?si=jdr_io76uIINqTer) of ~75% of my commute to get an idea of the conditions / context.
by bcl15005
32 Comments
If you’ve got lights don’t worry about what clothes you’re wearing.
Two things:
1. Make your bike high-viz in side profile as well (reflective tire side walls, reflective panniers).
2. High-viz clothing makes you visible when you are off bike, i.e. taking care of bodily needs or dealing with punctured tire.
Not making yourself as visible as possible when riding after dark is an idiots game. A hi vis vest/strap can fit in your saddle bag or pocket and can just go over your regular clothes.
You could put some 3M retro reflective tape on your bike, pack or whatever. There’s stiff for wheels too. Nice to have something not fully dependent on state of charge.
“Wrong” is a very strong word. It also all depends on where you ride – both in terms of what country it is as well as specifics of the individual streets and paths.
Bicycle being visible thanks to proper rear and front lights as well as reflective elements (especially on the sides) is a good start. And for places where you ride largely separated from cars it’s also simply good enough.
If on the other hand you are riding through car-ridden streets with shitty drivers all over, *some* sort of hi-viz reflective elements are a very good thing to have. This doesn’t necessarily mean expensive speciality clothing or a literal construction worker vest – you can just as well have [a set of straps](https://www.amazon.co.uk/hi-vis-straps/s?k=hi+vis+straps) – those are very light and can be easily put on top whatever you are wearing at any time with no fuss.
Reading these comments… someone here invented pedestrian crossing flags.
It depends on you.
Cyclist wearing dark clothing can be almost impossible to see. I get you have lights and stuff, but the more visible you are the more chance you have.
I’ve been knocked off my bike so many times by drivers, I am deeply suspicious of any drivers ability to see.
There is some great commuter cycling clothing that doesn’t make you look like a neon banana, but has highly reflective piping that only shows up in headlights. (Including jeans and casual wear), I found my stuff on Amazon a few years ago but I someone on here can recommend specialist sites.
One thing that lights don’t provide but reflective clothing does, is give other people a sense of scale. That should not be an issue, but it might.
Wouldn’t say wrong but definitely taking more risk. Up to you if it’s palatable.
I usually only wear one piece of clothing that’s reflective (sometimes), my Chrome Union shorts that have a reflective logo tag on the butt, but I do have a basic reflective running vest that I can throw on if I’m riding in darker areas or want to double down on my visibility.
Since it’s a running vest, pretty lightweight, unnoticeable when I’m riding, and rolls up super small and can fit in my pannier or under seat. Not like a panel vest you’d wear at a construction site.
I run a headlight/taillight, reflectors on my bike/wheels/panniers/under seat bag, and I’ve got a Lumos helmet I backed on Kickstarter but usually don’t use unless it’s winter.
You are hard to see. Drivers aren’t looking for you generally.
Why not wear a reflective lightweight vest? They are large enough to go over everything, compact enough to fit any where and super lightweight. you can put it over any jacket.
a possible solution is to buy some black reflective tape and add it to your bike (most bikes have a lot of black anodised components where you can add the tape and it’s completely invisible in daylight). it reflects like crazy at night, though, so you get the best of both worlds.
(why downvote this? seems like a useful tip.)
When you see how many brightly coloured, illuminated bollards are hit by cars, you’ll see what you’re wearing is incidental. Either they see your lights or not. The trick might be having lights that indicate cyclist rather than stationary lights.
Seems mental to not be as visible as possible at night
I’m glad you’re riding with those lights! Completely dark riders are way too common where I live.
Based on my own experiences riding, walking, driving and riding a motorcycle, I always both use lights and wear hi-viz.
One factor is that the lens of a bicycle’s front light can be something like 3/4″ in size, making it a tiny dot in the scenery. A high-viz jacket is huge in comparison. In some environments this can make a big difference.
Like you, I never go out of my way to wear anything different to what I normally do when riding day or night. My bike has a nice Blue Lug triangle reflector and I use bright lights with side visibility.
Basically, I’m taking a stance to show that cycling can and should be done in everyday clothes. I take responsibility for my safety but only up to a point. I also strongly oppose the victim blaming narrative that wearing high vis plays into.
Not knocking anyone who chooses to wear high vis by any means. I also ride on quiet streets and bike paths wherever possible, or just ride later when there’s less traffic.
Yes you are wrong. Reflective goes a long way. Brighter than lights.
You don’t have to wear yellow hi viz for dark when you can use some of the reflective normal coloured hiviz stuff.
I wear pink proviz shoe covers that are 100% reflective in headlights. You can literally see cars slow down when they see them. In the distance under full beam it must look like two lights going up and down and drivers thinking wtf is that!
[https://provizsports.com/?country=GB](https://provizsports.com/?country=GB)
You should but at least you have lights and are visible. I saw someone last week without any hi vis or lights and he was invisible.
If I could I would share the picture montage of all the UK emergency vehicles smashed into that are covered from top to bottom in hi-viz decals. The issue is that when vehicle drivers collide with something and claim they didn’t see it, they genuinely weren’t looking because they were distracted or, if they were looking, they weren’t taking in what they were looking at. I love the comments on news articles about cyclists by all the drivers who point out the cyclist they saw(!) with no lights on (please use lights).
There was a study done on close passes by cars. The researcher wore all different things and found that cars gave them the most room when they put a long flowing blonde wig on 😂
Make your bike look like a car and then motorists around you will see you- seriously, that’s all that a big chunk of them register on the roads around them.
No.
However my motivation for wearing a fully reflective (proviz copy) jacket when cycling at night is solely that when I got knocked off my bike the only thing the police seemed to care about was that I was wearing a black jacket. Completely ignoring the multiple rear lights and external battery powered headlight, not to mention street-lit area etc, the driver just didn’t look.
*I never want to have to have that annoying conversation again. As stupid as we all know it is.*
Traffic engineer here. Proper retro reflective material reflects light back to the source. Wearing it and/or having it on your bike can allow you to be seen at further distances sometimes before your lights could. While certain colors clothing is better than dark colors, it is not nearly effective.
I throw a high-vis vest on at night when my route takes me down busy roads.
But on bikeways and side-streets? I don’t bother.
I’d rather not have to wear it. But I also enjoy being alive and am not willing to risk that just to be able to say “Well, I wouldn’t have to wear one in the Netherlands!”
I got a high vis helmet that I then taped red and white reflective tape all over. This means I know I am always at least somewhat visible no matter the weather and time of day or what I’m wearing on my body (because I don’t EVER ride without my helmet after a dreadful accident that ended in a hairline skull fracture and a severe concussion). I wear a high vis, reflective waterproof jacket whenever it is dark or raining, except in summer, where I rely on my helmet as the high vis reflective element. I’ve also got reflective tape all over the front, back and sides of my bike – the additional benefit is my bike looks ugly af, therefore more identifiable and less attractive to thieves.
3M high visibility reflective stickers. Cut it up and put it all over your bike.
Moving reflectors are what really gets attention. Think of the reflectors on pedals, they always get my attention and the tops of traffic cones now have spinning reflector attachments to attract attention.
Things like reflective spoke covers are also a good way to increase visibility. For personal use I don’t think Hi-vis makes much difference on the road but reflective gear really does work in low light conditions.
Hi viz only works in daylight and if the driver is looking.
I have lights on my bike and wear a reflective sash (like a Miss World sash) for shorter trips, and the cycling jerseys and trousers I wear on longer rides have reflective flashes, piping and other bits. Reflective marks on the backs of my gloves, reflective piping on panniers. In the rain, I wear a proviz reflective jacket.
Never hurts to add more. I got one of those dorky hi vis vests to throw on over my clothing. That way I can wear all black off the bike and easily make myself flashy. If I do get hit I want it to be hard for people to blame me for it.
I wear a reflective vest to and from work. I like to think it adds another visible que for drivers.
If you decide to get one, I suggest a mesh material.
Being seen is only one aspect of not getting hit. The other person also needs to know where you are and how fast you’re traveling.
It can be hard to judge how far away a light source is because you can’t tell how big it is. A
Visible body is a pretty distinctive size making it easier to tell how far away it is and how fast it is moving.
I don’t wear high viz. I just use two rear lights ([one is 350 lumens](https://thebikehub.com/products/cygolite-hypershot-350-rechargeable-taillight-j913657)) and a headlight. You could also consider a fun reflective piece like [the safety pizza](https://safetypizza.com)
I was driving down a remote, very dark highway when I saw a few blinking red lights off in the distance. I figured they were bikes, but it was very hard to determine how far off they were or how many they were. I drove cautiously once I got around 20 feet away, I and saw four bikepackers on the shoulder with very bright front and rear lights. If they had reflective gear, I would have figured that out much sooner. If it were foggy or raining, I may not have ever seen them. Just get a cheap reflective construction vest and throw it on.