Ben@Forest wrote:On the visibility of black or not l can only say that 15 years ago l and a friend cycled from St Malo to Bilbao. He had two jerseys, one black and one yellow. On the days he wore the yellow he was significantly more visible at greater distance.
I also have a gilet which has a black back; some years ago l finally donned it towards the end of a long ride and the cold was beginning to bite.
The reaction of the bloke l was riding with? - 'It's amazing how much less visible you are'.
Wearing colours that stand out is no silver bullet, but drab or dark colours don't seem to provide some greater contrast in my experience.
And yet he still saw you! He like many others have been brain washed to such a degree and got lazy that anything that isn't immediately in front of your nose or has big flashy neons at 1000000 candela is 'less visible'
It's precisely like the comment that many say, I
saw a cyclist wearing all black with no lights on the other night ... a good job all those other hazards on the road that might occur are lit up or your mate might not see them, wandering animals, broken down motorvehicles, a person who has fallen in the road, a disabled or elderly person struggling to cross the road just around that bend you're bombing around unsighted and not able to stop well within the distance you can see to be clear.
Your anecdote only proves that you and your mate have been lulled into thinking that black/dark colours are the problem, well read upthread and you'll see were I have collected some stats regarding car colours that are dark being less crashy than some lighter colours, but if you're actually paying attention properly all colours in any conditions are visible, people simply don't take the time to actually look and see correctly.
I was driving my mum to my aunts new house by the coast last weekend whilst i was up visiting, it was a drab and overcast day as it had been all weekend, about 1/2 mile into the distance I saw a grey/black object that seemed to be by the side if not on the road. it was certainly wasn't moving fast if at all but it was clearly something. Sure enough as we came behind him a few bends later it was a largish chap riding a mountain/hybrid type thing, black trousers, black top, no magic hat, OMG how could I have seen him from such a distance on a grey day,, I must have 6 million dollar man eyesight
You might want to have a look at this YT video, shows how the driver is easily able to spot all the cyclists in dark colours and the bright coloured ones that are blending in a bit to the bright surroundings, but easily enough to spot if one bothers to actually look. There is no excuse and thinking that the colour of your jacket/jersey makes any difference is at best misguided and by sticking to it you become part of the problem that we should change our behaviour/garments for the 'benefit' (except there is none) of those that are doing the harm, it simply never works to increase safety. There's simply no logical sense in it other than to aid victim blaming and excuses for those doing the harm and to back up the flawed thinking.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8pX52v_yNA