Edit: to clarify: the message in the ad is actually ironic/satirical, mocking the advice for cyclists to wear high-viz at night.
It uses the same logic but inverts the parts and responsabilities, by suggesting to motorists (not cyclists) to apply bright paint on their cars.
So this ad is not pro or against high-viz, it’s against victim blaming
Cross-posted from: https://mastodon.uno/users/rivoluzioneurbanamobilita/statuses/113544508246569296
The satire misses the mark since cars already have strict mandatory visibility requirements by law. In the EU, you must have working headlights, brake lights, turn signals, daytime running lights (since 2011), fog lights, reverse lights, and reflectors. Driving without any of these gets you fined, points on your license, and fails vehicle inspection (TÜV/MOT). These aren’t optional safety suggestions like cyclist hi-viz - they’re legal requirements with real penalties.
I don’t know about yankee laws…
deleted by creator
State dependent. Maryland for example legally requires a front headlamp and a rear reflector in low visibility conditions. Also must have a bell or horn but can’t have a siren (?).
It’s less state dependent than you think. The feds have the last say in the safety equipment that comes on your car from the factory. They write the regulations on safety equipment for all highway vehicles.
What is interesting is that the NFPA, (the US National Fire Prevention Association), which writes the guidance for US public safety departments, has learned that you can have too much flashy-flashies and woo-woos and sparkles hanging on your vehicle. We used to hang as much as that stuff as we could on fire trucks and ambulances. Now, new rigs are toning it down to reflective chevrons and marker lights on the back end to prevent dazzling and confusing traffic as they approach a scene. The NFPA national tracking has shown a marked decline in tertiary accidents.
Reflectives and markers are important, but you can do too much can have worse outcomes because of it.
deleted by creator
If you need a rear light or not actually varies state to state. The reflectors are fed policy and that’s why all bikes sold in the US have them. The siren thing seems to be because kids were rigging sirens to their wheels attached to a chain and being a general nuisance at some point in the 50s. That said, that’s about all a car would hear that’s not electronic. That or an canned air horn.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PpQFt3biKMA
A video of the wheel siren in action.
As someone who has sat behind the wheel of an ambulance and various firetrucks, even those sirens aren’t enough to get other people on the road or sidewalks to pull their collective heads out of their arses long enough to pay attention to their surroundings and get out of the way. And it is possible to over drive the sound also. But cars tend to be so well sound insulated these days that it’s doubtful any bicycle siren is going to really be loud enough to get one’s attention.
We finally installed a “rumbler” on some of the vehicles to assist the siren and lights to get attention. A rumbler is a large speaker installed behind the grill and aimed downwards to the ground. When you hit the switch, it would emit a very low pitched note that would literally cause the ground to rumble and quake ahead of the vehicle as you drive. They have a limited usage life, so you only used it as needed to wake someone up long enough to get them out of the way.
But I’m personally of the opinion that bicycles should carry more lighting than they do. A headlight, rear facing marker/brake/turn signal lights should be a standard requirement for new bicycles. It would increase safety for everyone.
Huh? Could you explain once more why this doesn’t work?
Keep in mind that cycling also has a lot of visibility requirements, it is illegal to drive without lights at night, you need to have reflectors front, back, in the spokes and on the pedals. This also results in fines and points on your drivers license. Keep any remarks on enforcements for yourself, car drivers don’t check or even fix their headlights the moment they break either as my last few drives showed me.
Comparing the optional wearing of hi-vis west to the optional painting cars a brighter colour makes sense when the goal is to mock the immediate question “well, was the cyclist wearing hi-vis?” that always seem to pop up when a crash happens.
It’s funny, but as a driver and a cyclist, the amount of times I barely saw the person on the bike, because they had no hi viz, no lights and no reflectors (and black/dark clothing), even in moderately good visibility conditions is too damn high.
It’s not that big of a deal in cities, but I’d be really pushing it to ride my bike out on a 70+ kmph road, and you’d have to hold me at gunpoint to do it without any lights, because I’d be as good as dead anyway.
Of course black cars are kinda the same, except here in Poland every car is required by law to have at least position lights on at all times (yes, sunny daylight too), and it makes a world of a difference no matter the paint color.
I prefer when all people occupying the road, whether its a pedestrian, cyclist, motorcyclist, car, or horse rider be as visible as possible.
Its why I refuse to drive a gray or silver car. They blend in with the pavement at certain times in the am and pm and if it’s raining really hard they disappear. In a lot of ways they are worse than black cars.
What’s wrong with making sure you are visible? Why is that something to make fun of? (I’m not asking you directly, I just don’t get the joke in the ad.)
I’d even argue (this is what the Internet is for) that gray cars in rain are the absolute worst. They just disappear without any kind of lights on. I don’t know why we don’t just have headlights and taillights on all the time. It’s how I’ve driven for the past 15 years, to me it just makes sense. I’m never caught forgetting to put them on when it’s raining or when it’s dark, because they are always on. I like people to see me, I do not want to be involved in a collision.
They just disappear without any kind of lights on
My area has a law where you must have lights on when raining
Mine too.
The funny part is that it is actually “headlights on when wipers required”, which is quite strange. When I am in heavy rain and I have a freshly rainx’ed winshield, I don’t even need wipers. But I still need lights
Here in Spain is much simpler, if it’s cloudy lights go on. Anything besides a blue sky basically means lights on. Its way easier since you just always have them on and that’s basically it.
Yeah, that’s what I want. Car manufacturers should just have them be always on, and that turning them off uses some mechanic where you have to be in park or something. I’ve just seen too many people who don’t use them in the rain, and of course the folks who think their daytime lights are their headlights at night.
We have daylight running laws here as well, but those lights are different than the regular headlights and weaker.
In driving school they taught me to just put on my regular lights all the time.
They’re a lot stronger than the daylight ones and make you more visible
Cars have lights on them?
Bikes have lights on them too.
That’s legally required? Every bike has a light on it by law?
Cars have lights on them?
Yes, yes they do.
Thank you I just needed to be sure.
No worries. I had to Google that one to be safe
Good question. Yes they do. Hope that helped!
I thought I bought a blue car. It was advertised as blue, paint job clearly said blue, the rendered image of the color was blue. My insurance paperwork states it is blue (as that’s what the NVIS calls it).
In real life, i have a black car. The blue pigment is so dark that is black, except in very specific, harsh lighting at certain angles. And then you can see it sparkles blue.
Did you not look at the car before buying it?
Can confirm. My car is that colour. Am yet to collide with a cyclist.
Seeing as many people drive WITHOUT LIGHTS
I drive a Smart 451 which was silver initially. I can‘t count the amount of times that trucks and cars on the highway cut me off. At first I thought they were just assholes, but now I think its partly because its such a small car that the silver blends in with the street.
Two years ago, I wrapped my car in bright neon orange as part of an ad campaign from my company and it feels like I‘m getting noticed much more often. It‘s literally like a high vis west for my car.
I never understood people buying black cars. Not just because of visibility, but they turn into f-ing ovens in the summer.
I have a black car. I just like black. I haven’t noticed it to be much worse than any other car I’ve had during the summer. I had a white car of similar dimensions for a while before that and it felt just as hot. Or at least past the threshold of “too hot”.
I get the sentiment here but as I’ll always say the car wins.
You can’t call it a death machine and then act like it’s not one.
Cars have lights built in. Humans don’t. Wear the fucking highvis and save your life.
Either that or start wearing light strips all over yourself.
Okay but hear me out here, we design streets where bikes and cars don’t have to share a lane. Crazy idea i know.
We should design streets for the cyclists and drivers we have, not the ones we want.
Fair point that roads should be designed a lot better, but in the mean time, if you’re going to be driving on roads that got put down originally 50 years ago without cycling paths and no lights in the middle of farmland. Wear the high Viz gear or make sure you have working lights and reflectors.
Your standard bicycle has light too? If it’s about being the safest cyclist possible, you’d also need a loud siren declaring that a bicycle is on the road. At some point it is ridiculous how many non-mandatory rules you need to follow until drivers accept that they are to blame for the crash, how about we stick to the actual laws and people who can’t see a vehicle fitted with reflectors and lights get off the road.
Hint: seeing the lights on a bicycle is easier when your wind shield isn’t 2 meters of the ground.
Your standard bicycle has light too
No it doesn’t. It has reflectors but not actual lighting. I’ve almost hit a few cyclists who relied only on the reflectors on the wheels, front peg, and rear peg.
Hint: seeing the lights on a bicycle is easier when your wind shield isn’t 2 meters of the ground.
I’m not arguing pro cars here. My point is keep yourself fuckin safe. Don’t be stupid just because “bUt CaRs ArE tHe PrObLeM”
You can’t say they’re a problem and then act like they’re not a problem.
Complain all you want it’s perfectly valid. But do the shit you have to do to keep yourself the fuck alive.
Goddamn, forgot that the USA considers bikes as exercise machines.
Your standard commuter bike has lights, and is required by law to have it in most countries.
We can’t even make blacking out essential safety equipment like headlights and tail lights illegal, apparently a driver’s personality and style should come before functional lights.
What? Where is this? In Belgium you’d get pulled over for sure. Depending on if the car could get made road legal again it could get towed too.
North America. Very common on sports cars or with people who like to modify their cars. They do still light up when the bulb is on although not as bright. My bigger issue is that light won’t reflect off blacked out lights the same way it does off a regular tail light. It is a massive safety hazard but “my freedom” seems to be a valid reason for it.
It should be noted most models of cars have high-vis parts on them, usually on the rear, that work the same way.
Because if too many people and things use hi-viz, that will make it regular-viz.
so some cyclist should wear black to help their fellow cyclists
It’s not victim blaming, it’s practicality. You can be right, and still be dead. Motorbikers have the same problem as us pedalbikers
It’s victim blaming because you are acting on the wrong side of the problem: in every field where you need to mitigate some danger, self protection is the last thing to do, not the first. The first thing to do is to act on the source of danger: avoid (es. bike infrastructure) and mitigate (es: redice speed, less cars, less dangerous cars…)
Removed by mod
This user is a spam bot, FYI.
I don’t understand what this bot is for…
