The Highway Code reminds us we should consider riding in bright light or high visibility clothing. If you choose to ride in ex-Army kit, whilst not following the strictures of the Highway Code, the legal effect is about nil. In 30 plus years of trial lawyering I have had failure to wear hi-vis brought up twice by opponents and the point is yet to register with any judge. Not wearing hi-vis is not blameworthy but it is still worth considering how you can make yourself conspicuous. This is an area of science which has been studied for years. The reason we motorcyclists are not seen by car drivers seems to be multiple. The research shows it happens, as does our lived experience. The most obvious reason is some drivers just do not look. Your only defences then are the brakes and the horn. The most baffling phenomenon is drivers looking at the road and just not seeing the motorcyclist. Various theories have been advanced but the practical changes I have made to my riding are these.
There is a solid body of evidence that says the three-light set-up of adventure bikes significantly reduces cars pulling out into the paths of motorcycles. A small object travelling in a straight line can be seen by the eye but the information does not get to the brain. MRI scans in studies taken of military fast jet pilots’ brains show that even these individuals who are at the peak of reaction and observation powers do not process the small object approaching them in a straight line. The easiest remedy is to move laterally in your lane. I remember a grizzly roads policing motorcycle sergeant telling me “you’ve paid tax for the whole lane, so use the bloody thing” and this was then a part of Police Roadcraft – and coppers on bikes knew that moving across lanes makes the rider much more visible. Thirty years later, the science backs up their folk wisdom. Make yourself big is a good maxim. You can make yourself more conspicuous. I am not a fan of hi-vis jackets. They can do no harm but there is some fairly weak evidence that they can improve conspicuity. Anecdotally a female colleague of mine said she became remarkably more visible in her bubble gum pink jacket. I am a fan of contrast. If you have a dark blue bike and you are wearing a matching helmet and a black jacket, the only point of contrast to the dark road is your headlight – a small object in a straight line, which we know is often not perceived by the human eye. If you throw into the mix a red jacket and a white helmet, then three contrasting colours in a human form become visible. Add a bit of lateral movement and you drag the inattentive eye to pay you attention. Humans are good at spotting other humans. This is why military snipers wear a ghillie suit – it completely disrupts their human shape. We, as motorcyclists, want to do the exact reverse. We want to be bright, contrasting, making ourselves look big with lights, using lateral movement and presenting a human form of a head, a trunk and arms. Motorcycle jacket manufacturers strategically place contrast and reflectors to create a human shape. These are all things we can influence.
Finally, a word on reflectors. All of my kit has at least some reflectors after an old client of mine was found having been launched into a tree canopy in a collision with a small car. A dedicated police officer on a freezing night on an unlit motorway kept searching, even though her colleague had to ld her the rider “must have walked away”. Had that rider not been wearing reflectors, 1. suspect he would have died of shock and exposure in that tree. The police officer’s torch picked up some reflectors and the fire brigade extracted the semi-conscious rider from the tree.
Andrew Dalton
Trail Riders Fellowship – Winter 2024
