Small cars are becoming less invisible as larger vehicles are becoming more prominent on the road. In turn these small cars are getting more and more SMIDSY’s (Sorry Mate I Didn’t See You).
The small cars are turning to high visibility paint to stand out from the larger vehicles.
Isn’t that the “Asbo Orange” colour that the Ford Focus ST comes in as standard?
Nice to too the credit crunch isn’t effecting everyone! That car is a hideous stain on the Aston Martin marque!
There must be some truth in this. The difference in attitude of other road users towards me varies noticeably depending on whether I’m on my bike, driving my little hatchback or driving my 1 tonne panel van.
Here is a literature review carried out for the American AA which discussed the evidence without recourse to opinion or “common sense” both of which just cloud the issue IMO.
https://docs.google.com/open?id=1KvjVkbPJ0vYuk6Oaf9lE-Hfty-BBHTOyCImM56uVUyIgNabCidoDhhTCRr2j
Interesting link.
Suggests to me that, maybe, my experience that it might be the *type* of vehicle – and other road users’ attitude/perception towards it – rather than the colour, that might have some bearing on how/whether it’s “seen”.
What I need is a polystyrene panel van shell for the bike then. 😀
If, as we’re forever told by ‘Road safety’ experts and the Police, we should be dressed up in Hi Viz and flourescents, is there not a case to mandate all vehicles to have this too?
I’m sure many motorists would be up in arms about having to cover their precious shiny motors yet no-one seems to complain that we’re told to dress up like bloody Xmas trees!
Hideous colours in a trade off for increased safety, WIN!