At this time of year, the headlights sweeping our hall flash off a panoply of reflective and hi-vis gear. We have jackets, tabards, gloves, gaiters, covers for backpacks, all in neon yellow with reflective silver stripes. Depending on your point of view, it\u2019s dumped or kept sensibly ready by the front door. <\/p>\n
You\u2019d think we were all out mending the roads all day, but we\u2019re a cerebral bunch. We just get around on bikes.<\/p>\n
I am in favour of cyclists being visible, because I am in favour of cyclists being alive. I drive as well as cycle<\/a> and I know the flash of horror when you realise almost too late that the dark shape ahead of you is a human being, moving fast on two wheels without lights in a place where drivers are navigating by traffic lights and street lights and indicator lights. I sometimes lean out of upstairs windows and command departing sons to go not one turn of the pedals further until I\u2019ve assessed their visibility and run out in my socks to press additional kit on their bodies and bikes.<\/p>\n We have a family agreement that a person not in possession of a bike helmet is for functional purposes not in possession of a bike. Leave it, even in the city centre overnight, and get a bus. Wrestle it on to the Dart and wheel it home. Better a stolen bike or a long walk than a broken skull.<\/p>\n All that said, I prickle at the RSA\u2019s injunctions to cyclists to \u201cLight up\u201d and especially the vests that say \u201cBe safe, be seen\u201d. Whether I am seen or not is not in my control. The slogan makes no sense anyway; worn on the cyclist\u2019s back, it seems directed towards drivers, who are by definition already safe and seen because they are in cars. It has a tendency to reassure drivers that it is the cyclists\u2019 responsibility to be seen rather than the drivers\u2019 responsibility to see.<\/p>\n