SUMMARY – if you’re a driver, you need to understand how you’re likely to make the ‘looked but failed to see’ error before it happens… far from being ‘dangerous’ or ‘badly-behaved’ road users, both the driver and the rider in a SMIDSY are likely to be riding and driving as they usually do… turn your head more slowly and remember that bikes can be harder to spot… on busy roads take a moment longer to give bikes chance to appear from where they might be hidden… on faster roads take a moment longer to see how quickly bikes are moving… move your head from side to side to check behind the car’s blind spots…

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The material is free to all to access and use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. That means you can share it with your family and friends, and re-use it for club magazines and websites, so long as you acknowledge the source and author and include the same Creative Commons license in the derived works.

Please note, this Creative Commons license excludes commercial use. If you wish to use any of my work for commercial purposes, including (but not limited to) articles in pay-for magazines or commercial websites, please contact me.

Kevin Williams has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work.

Photo credit Paul Townsend
https://www.flickr.com/photos/brizzlebornandbred/20001313491

SUMMARY – solving the SMIDSY collision may sound simply but it’s not… whilst there is limited evidence that conspicuity aids reduce the collision rate, their use is far from a guarantee the rider will be seen… even when seen, drivers may still misjudge speed and distance… pink hi-vis, the night-time ‘ghost jacket’ and yellow lights would seem to be more effective than conventional hi-vis and DRLs…. but whatever strategy we do adopt, there’s no guarantee we will be seen…

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IMPORTANT:

The material is free to all to access and use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. That means you can share it with your family and friends, and re-use it for club magazines and websites, so long as you acknowledge the source and author and include the same Creative Commons license in the derived works.

Please note, this Creative Commons license excludes commercial use. If you wish to use any of my work for commercial purposes, including (but not limited to) articles in pay-for magazines or commercial websites, please contact me.

Kevin Williams has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work.

Photo credit Paul Townsend
https://www.flickr.com/photos/brizzlebornandbred/20001313491

SUMMARY – collisions between cars and motorcycles increase when it’s dark… drivers misjudge ‘time to collision’ more often when motorcycles have single headlights… retro-reflective material is often too high up or the approaching bike is at the wrong angle for the car’s lights to illuminate it… garments used at night feature blocks, stripes or even random patches of retro-reflective material and fail to create a recognisable shape…

 

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IMPORTANT:

The material is free to all to access and use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. That means you can share it with your family and friends, and re-use it for club magazines and websites, so long as you acknowledge the source and author and include the same Creative Commons license in the derived works.

Please note, this Creative Commons license excludes commercial use. If you wish to use any of my work for commercial purposes, including (but not limited to) articles in pay-for magazines or commercial websites, please contact me.

Kevin Williams has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work.

Photo credit Paul Townsend
https://www.flickr.com/photos/brizzlebornandbred/20001313491

SUMMARY – it’s long been recognised that a dipped headlight is not the most effective day-riding light… making the bike stand out has become a more difficult problem now cars also have day running lights… an effective DRL has to work under multiple conditions… DRLs are most effective at dawn and dusk but less effective in daytime conditions of bright sun… single headlights offer poor help to drivers in judging speed and distance… but DRLs also have to provide a ‘visual signature’ so drivers realise they are seeing a motorcycle and drivers are quick to recognise single headlights as belonging to a bike… twin lights may be mistaken for a car… the ‘triangle of lights’ is ineffective in terms of daytime conspicuity but help drivers judge speed and distance more accurately… unusual lights risk not being recognised as being fitted to a PTW… like hi-vis clothing DRLs are not ‘fit and forget’…

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IMPORTANT:

The material is free to all to access and use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. That means you can share it with your family and friends, and re-use it for club magazines and websites, so long as you acknowledge the source and author and include the same Creative Commons license in the derived works.

Please note, this Creative Commons license excludes commercial use. If you wish to use any of my work for commercial purposes, including (but not limited to) articles in pay-for magazines or commercial websites, please contact me.

Kevin Williams has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work.

Photo credit Paul Townsend
https://www.flickr.com/photos/brizzlebornandbred/20001313491

SUMMARY – the 1975 Ride Bright campaign in London encouraged riders to ride lights-on in daytime… studies proposing safety interventions nearly all state that dipped headlights are effective in reducing collisions… but the claim is often based on laboratory studies or poor quality evidence from the roads… when legislation forced riders to switch on headlights in daytime in Malaysia, 80% complied but the overall reduction in collisions was only around 7%… the pan-European MAIDS study found that in collisions with drivers who did not see the motorcycle, 69% of riders were using their lights… we cannot rely on day riding lights to be seen…

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THIS PAGE HAS MOVED

IMPORTANT:

The material is free to all to access and use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. That means you can share it with your family and friends, and re-use it for club magazines and websites, so long as you acknowledge the source and author and include the same Creative Commons license in the derived works.

Please note, this Creative Commons license excludes commercial use. If you wish to use any of my work for commercial purposes, including (but not limited to) articles in pay-for magazines or commercial websites, please contact me.

Kevin Williams has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work.

Photo credit Paul Townsend
https://www.flickr.com/photos/brizzlebornandbred/20001313491