hi viz jacket in france. this seems good

[jawaka]

it will be the law to wear one at night and in poor visibility when in france (see cycle mag). i've just bought a nimrod mesh vest from spa cycles; £8, will squash up to not much and being mesh won't interfere with the waterproofness of my goretex jacket. looks good to me.

[dan_b]

I hope they're going to legislate for painting all the cars and all the street furniture fluo yellow next.

[Cunobelin]

it will be the law to wear one at night and in poor visibility when in france (see cycle mag). i've just bought a nimrod mesh vest from spa cycles; £8, will squash up to not much and being mesh won't interfere with the waterproofness of my goretex jacket. looks good to me.

It may!

Goretex and many oof the others rely on beading on the surface that then flows off. This cannot happen with a mesh vest on top soaking up the moisture, and effectively stifling the braethability as well.

"Wetting out" is possible with this combination.

[jawaka]

perhaps a yellow reflective sash would be better.

[david143]

For all sizes of Hi-Viz jackets etc. see
http://www.hivis.net/

Hi-Viz vests from around £1.

[byegad]

From what I've read the French have published a set standard for the vests. This could well be a problem for British cyclist involved in an rta in France if the vest does not bear the 'correct' label!

[Cunobelin]

This may (or may not) be a problem..

At present the standard for industry is EN471 and is techncally already a European standard.

As this would then mean that a European standard is being met with a British jacket.

[james01]

it will be the law to wear one at night and in poor visibility when in france .

I usually wear hi-viz by choice, night & day. But legislation? Let's hope it doesn't happen over here, (we're getting into helmet-law territory). Who next, pedestrians on rural roads walking home from the pub?

[byegad]

Given the lower use of street lights in France there may be a better reason for them to specify reflective vests then brightly lit Britain. As a bit of an Astronomy buff in my youth I've noticed that you get a far darker sky in rural France than rural Britain. In Eastern County Durham the light pollution makes star visibility very poor all year round. The by product of which is that road visibility is quite good and it is quite hard to find a totally unlit stretch of road.

[jawaka]

we still need something which will be ok over a goretex jacket: if it's raining visibility will be poor so you'll have it on

[thirdcrank]

I understand from something I read the other day that Daytime Running Lights for new motor vehicles are going to be mandatory across Europe within the next couple of years. Inevitably, vulnerable road users are going to be overlooked in the sea of beams. There will be a brief round of victim blaming and mandatory hi-viz togs for everybody could easily be the result.

[kwackers]

I understand from something I read the other day that Daytime Running Lights for new motor vehicles are going to be mandatory across Europe within the next couple of years. Inevitably, vulnerable road users are going to be overlooked in the sea of beams. There will be a brief round of victim blaming and mandatory hi-viz togs for everybody could easily be the result.

Daytime running lights are nonesense. As you say vulnerable users suffer whilst the sort of minor vehicle accidents they prevent result only in a few minor scrapes and paint loss.

From a cyclists pov what this means is the dimwit motorists will come to think that only something showing a bright white light is moving and use it as an excuse to not even do a doubletake.

Doest the CTC have an opinion on this?

[thirdcrank]

[Doest the CTC have an opinion on this?

My understanding is that after a period of national consultation which is now long-closed, the European Commission (or whoever) has decided so the die is cast.

[Cunobelin]

As said elsewhere....

Part of the probem is not visibility itself but the reaction.

There is unfortunately a suignificant minority who will look ans see the Hi-Viz and think "cyclist" and then dismiss you as an irrelevance.- and not alter their driving at all.

THAT is what needs to be sorted out

[JJF]

There seems to be a view in this thread that "daytime running lights " were about to be introduced. My impression was that it was discussed then dropped.
I found the following on ECF.com/2891_1
"The proposal by the European Commission to introduce Daytime Running Lights for motorised vehicles across Europe is off the table. This was announced by the Commission on 20 November 2007."

Of course it might not be the last word on the subject.
JJF