Bicycles and automobiles- can’t we all just get along? @Kah writes about this universal (do aliens have this issue also?) problem of us co-existing with humans in cars. We all drive cars too and have cursed the occasional cyclists for some good reason. Cars are our greatest threat. We can crawl away from our own bicycle crashes, thanks very much. We always lose when a car is involved. Thanks for contributing @Kah.
Yours in Cycling, Gianni
High-visibility jackets offend me. I’m not in the position to judge fashion really, and generally don’t care what other people wear, but something that tarnishes an entire mode of transport as unsafe and dorky is not okay. These garments misinform the general public that cycling is an unsafe activity (look, that cyclist looks like a lit up flare and a Christmas tree had a baby!), they make all other cyclists look like dorks.
Now, I’m not picking on genuinely introverted people, but people who are just less comfortable interacting with other vehicles on the road. As someone truly in love with spinning pedals on the road, I don’t see why there is this reticence to spend time on the road. The footpath is by far the worse option: congested with pedestrians, littered with signs, and unpredictable in its ebb and wanes.
There’s a spectrum of how happy you are with sharing the road: going from very uncomfortable to exuding quiet confidence before becoming attention-seeking and finally there is a thin line to obnoxiousness.
Uncomfortable, more introverted cyclists tend to hug the kerb, trying to stay out of everyone’s way. Every potential interaction is exaggerated; every passing car becomes a danger. Confident cyclists who are experienced know when to draw attention to their intentions, when to back off while negotiating between quickly moving cars, and how to tell the difference between a passing maneuvere that is actually dangerous and one that is not even worth commenting on. This comfort around other road users is something you can cultivate, but not one you can fake.
Attention-seeking cyclists and obnoxious cyclists tend to feel more self-entitled. “I’m a vehicle/road user too!” is the common mantra of these cyclists who don’t feel inclined to offer the same courtesy they demand to the other road users. To be fair these rolling douchenozzles tend to be the same regardless of vehicle.
My problem is, the introverts are trying to make up for their meekness with the artificial posturing afforded by the YJA. Their mistaken assumption of course is that this magical garment bestows visibility, and thus invincibility in traffic, leading some to jump to the illogical conclusion that they have automatic right of way in every circumstance by virtue of the highly visible jacket.
Magic jackets are not the answer to safer cyclists. Learning to share the road on a bicycle is the answer. Anticipation, not hindsight.
Fucking cyclists.
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Off topic but eggtimer is retiring (about time): http://www.pelotonmagazine.com/Feedzone/content/6/2324/Leipheimer-Retires
My VMH makes me take a YJA (I call it the Dork Jacket) on Rule 9 rides or twilight/dark rides. It raises the bar for Looking Fantastic; if I'm a rolling eyesore, I sure as hell better be a FAST rolling eyesore.
The last time I got hit the driver told police he never did see me from the cab of his diesel garbage truck, just heard my helmet cracking on the grille. The YJA has its place. (That place is not a group ride, and certainly not any time during daylight hours.)
@Ron I have a rosa Rapha wind jacket. It is stunning.
@balexander and @ron: i view it similarly. i have a hi-viz gilet that i take with me when i know a significant portion of my ride will be in the dark. but even then, it's only on while it's actually dark out (just like my lights). and at least it's rapha, form-fitting and hi-viz pink, not yellow :)
i'm actually ok with the whole hi-viz trend (which the rapha pink/chartreuse gear falls into, also items like neon defeet slipstreams), i just think it needs to be done in a more fashionable manner than the general big, baggy, reflective-striped, nuclear green, YJA even in the middle of the day approach. but the only time i really get close to that route is in the winter months when the majority of my riding is in the dark, it's freezing cold and the last thing people are expecting to see is a cyclist.
@mcsqueak
The Sottile? I've got that shell in grey. I like the packability of it, but they cut the sleeves way too baggy.
Anecdotally, subjectively, I believe drivers (on average) give me more space when passing when I'm flashing a light during the day, which I sometimes do and sometimes don't. I don't know that this will ever save my life, but it does suggest that running a light during the day gets attention. I still feel like a dork, but not the biggest dork ever.
@pistard
Um, I think it's you who might have the wrong end of the stick here. @Kah actually wrote the article, so it's hard to see how he doesn't understand it!
And he certainly understands, and obeys The Rules. He has to, he rides with me ffs! Always looks fantastic, always lays down The V.
We'll be riding tonight, on the road, in the dark, and I guarantee he'll be decked out head to toe in black (but with awesome lights).
Another shout out for the reflective Gaerne G.Coste shoes - they really do reflect like that in light and proper comfortable too.
I couldn't be bothered to read all 3 pages of messages (love this community), but I will say this about the YJA, it is part of the reason I started cycling in the first place. As a father of 3 kids, 2 of which are under 5, I have a lot to lose if I were to get hit. The YJA gave me some confidence that drivers would see me and that equated to peace-of-mind on the bike.
I agree its contribution to my safety is minimal, and it does look atrocious and it now sits in the closet except for on rainy days as I don't have a proper jacket for rain yet (its sunny most of the time in Colorado) - but I don't know if I would have tried cycling were it not for, in part, the peace-of-mind that comes with any YJA purchase.
I think of the YJA as a rite of passage for the uninitiated...that they may get enough experience to be safe and comfortable on the road and in time, look sharp.
@brett Ha! Got me. Missed the emoticon...
@Kah I am an idiot. Please accept my apology. Hill repeats for penance.
@pistard Agreed. I was leading a group ride of neighborhood kids last year (in June, in daylight), and a motorcycle rider pulled up to my wife, who was riding sweep, and pressed a high-viz vest on her, because "if you're at the back, you need to be safe". (Size XXXL, of course). We sent it home with one of the kids, who was psyched to look like a traffic cone.
More recently, I've started seeing people walking with lights on their person, high viz shoes, jackets, dog leashes, etc. The idea that you need special high visibility crap just to exist near roads is ludicrous. The onus is on drivers to not be jackasses, not on me to dress like a traffic cone whenever I'm cage-free.