High-Viz: Have you been hit by a car?

[p.dath]

I'm curious about what difference wearing high viz gear makes. Yep, I've heard (I think) all the arguments either way. Now I just want to know if it has actually makes a difference.

For those people who have been hit by a car while riding a motorcycle (and if you have been hit more than once, use the "worst" hit) please vote so we can see what difference it makes. I'm only interested in impacts from cars.

If it makes a difference, you would expect a lot more people to have been hit who weren't wearing a high-viz vest. It it makes no difference you would expect the numbers to be about the same.

[DEVVIL]

Unless riders that wear Hi Vis are more careful riders?
Put to me by MSTRS made me think.

[Usarka]

If it makes a difference, you would expect a lot more people to have been hit who weren't wearing a high-viz vest. It it makes no difference you would expect the numbers to be about the same.

If the numbers are lower then the actual vest itself is not necessarily the cause. Check out this wikipedia..../Correlation_does_not_imply_causation

The actual cause may be that vest wearers are naturally more cautious (as per devil above).

So your poll won't actually answer the question about whether wearing a vest makes a difference or not.

[slofox]

I was hit by a car and I wasn't wearing a hi-viz vest...they weren't invented in the olden days...

[cold comfort]

Absolutely, as the man says, not a randomized controlled trial. Too many confounding variables. i.e worthless.

[Dave Lobster]

I was wearing a high vis COAT when I was hit, while standing still at a set of traffic lights. I think I'd have struggled to be any more visible!!

[gw555]

well I have been hit by a car twice while wearing hi vis

once at a roundabout 50km/h zone and once on the motorway at 100km/h.

stopped wearing a hi vis and now wear a black and yellow jacket haven't been hit!!!

[Highlander]

Have never hit or been hit by a car.
Have noticed less close calls when wearing a hi Viz vest.
Possible that that has as much to do with my riding experience as the increased visibility.

$10 to buy a Glow vest, costs nothing to wear it.
If it means only one other road user sees me when they otherwise would not have, there by avoiding a collision, it has paid for istself in un measurable multiples.

[Rhys]

if people can not see your lights, do you think that hi viz is gooding to help?

[Highlander]

There is nothing that will make them see if they don't look. That is a large part of the problem.

[Smifffy]

Sorry, I can't participate.

I have not been hit by a car.

Edit: If i do get hit by a car I will most likely not be wearing a hi-vis vest, unless it has been made compulsory between now and then.

[Hitcher]

Mr Dath, I generally accept fatally flawed polls as par for the course on Kiwi Biker (Have you stopped beating your wife yet? Yes? No?) but I expected you to set the bar somewhat higher.

There are way too many variables in car vs motorcycle collisions for some post coital glow that is endeavouring to surmise whether or not fluoro vests may have been a contributor.

In most cases I have observed with motorcycle riders wearing fluoro vests, other apparel and things like back packs, top boxes and pillions can successfully occlude any visibility benefit that may be attributable to a fluoro device.

Fluoro devices, whether for construction workers, cyclists, people crossing the road at night, or whomever, have generally been initially encouraged because people think that they do no harm and may make a positive difference. Then regulators gain heads of steam and, without any quantitative evidence or indeed consultation, make the fucking things compulsory.

The same thing will happen with motorcycles. I can feel it coming.

[Voltaire]

Yep,it will be a lot easier to enforce the wearing of a $15.00 bit of orange waistcoat than anything else. I wear one these days....doesn't stop the idiots doing U turns in front of me.
Still think the steering mounted glass spike at chest level would be the best.

[hayd3n]

my bike hit a car but i wasnt on it.
me and my pillion managed to jump off up a hill, i wasnt even liable for the cars damages .

location
devils staircase
i arrived at a accident scene mid blind corner travelliong at approx 70-100kms
high vis wouldent of mattered at all
but still i havnt claimed acc on a motorcycle
\its funny how they have now made that same corner a 65 km corner

[slofox]

Half of the problem with glo vests is that every man and his dog are wearing them - thereby making then less noticeable. "When everyone is somebody, then no one's anybody" (to borrow from G&S). IYKWIM.

Same with having bike headlights on. As cars start using daytime headlights as well, bikes become less noticeable in the ocean of lights.

Self defeating.