Tips to be more visible to vehicles?

My two cents…

In winter, I’ll always have a flashing front and rear light. The concern about distracting or blinding drivers is a mute one in my view. The point you’re trying to make is about being seen. If the driver is complaining about being “blinded” or distracted by your lights then they done their job.

Low light, I’ll always have something reflective and high viz. I have a pair of bright pink Rapha overshoes and gloves. My riding buddies commented last ride that they didn’t really notice my lights, but my pink overshoes. Again, they’ve done their job.

Expect the unexpected. Ride courteously and obey the rules of the road. Don’t get into agreuments with drivers as yo’ll never win, and they’ll never be educated. All you’ll do is make them more angry, and then you risk the good old punishment pass. There’s only one loser there.

Signal your intentions on the road clearly.

There’s only two weather condiditons that keep me inside - fog and low sunlight. The blinding light reflecting of damp roads leave us practically invisible. Almost counterintuitive, but I’ll keep off the roads when the sun’s at it’s brightest in winter.

Know how to use the roads and be confident riding in the primary position.

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Front and rear flashers always for me. This was reinforced the other night when I was driving home from work at dusk. I passed a cyclist with a rear flashing light that was very visible, but after I passed him I looked in the mirror and I could barely see him because he had no flashing front light. Some one coming out of a parking lot or side street might not see him as well.

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+1 on the Bontrager lights

My teammates are reporting issues with the Flare R (tail light) while using them in the rain, I am experiencing zero issues using them in rainy Belgium.

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Bontrager Flare lights, even in daytime make you very visible, especially if you ride in locations with sporadic tree cover and you are going in and out of the light. Makes you far easier to see.
As others have said not “guttering” yourself is important to. If you act like a vehicle it forces a person in a car to treat you like a vehicle and they can’t try and squeeze by if there is oncoming traffic. 2’ left of the white line on the side of the lane is my rule of thumb. It also gives you room to move right when you hear a car coming so that you can increase the distance as they pass beside you.

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My go to combination is the new Garmin Varia rear radar and light coupled with the small Bontrager Ion 200 RT in the front.

I started with a rear blinking light a few years ago and immediately noticed I was getting more respect from drivers and they were giving me a little more room with passing. The Varia takes it to the next level and alerts me to the presence of a car coming up behind. In these situations I glance back and move onto the shoulder. I mainly ride fairly quiet country roads on my long road rides.

The Bontrager creates a “light network” when synced with Garmin, but this has been a little buggy for me with the connections dropping periodically for brief periods of time while riding. It looks like others have experienced this as there are multiple posts on the Garmin forums, but no consistent answers in terms of how to fix.

Tougher laws for texting and general cell phone use while driving are needed. In Ohio the laws are soft and there are infinite number of drivers who are staring at their phones will driving. In contrast, I went to Canada for Thanksgiving and I only saw one driver over the entire 4 days on a phone while driving. It seems the strong penalties ($500+ fines) are effective is curtailing use.

Garmin, and others, are also working on some sort of active communication with vehicles. Ultimately if drivers can be alerted to a cyclist being up the road, this would be another critical safety measure.

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Mine packed in on a soaking wet ride a few months ago. Dried it out and it works fine again, but doesn’t really fill me with confidence for the next time it rains!

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I’ll add my thumbs up for the Varia radar system. Where I ride in southern Manitoba, there are roads with no shoulders and the Varia, combined with my 520 helps to increase my awareness of cars coming behind me. This is especially valuable when riding into head winds and you can’t hear cars coming from behind (I’m also looking behind). I’ve recorded near misses on my Garmin camera of drivers who had to pass me into oncoming traffic. One of my best investments.

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Lights on the bike and on your helmet, and get some good reflective high visibility kit as well. I run constant on front and back and flashing front and back with high vis kit and a helmet light. Exposure lights (made in UK) make amazing helmet lights (one that does forward and rear light is best and simplest.

What everybody said. I bought the older Varia and paired it with Bontrager Flare RT. Saves Varia battery as I have a light network on Garmin 520 and Varia lights are disabled.

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I can very much relate to the topic. I had a few close calls within a few weeks. All during day time, on straight wide roads … and from behind.

Much worse, a team mate got run over from behind. Survived but can’t do the sport competitvely anymore.

My counter measures were:

  • replaced my road bike with a gravel bike. I mostly race MTB but do 90% of my training on the road or gravel bike. I can avoid many roads now.

  • only wear bright clothes. Unfortunately our team kit it black. I don’t care.

  • I got a Lupine rear light which is bright enough for day time use. And it has various pulse modes. As a cyclist, as well as a car driver I can’t stand flashing lights. They are actually illegeal here and in my oppinion for a good reason. Pulse mode works just as well without being a blinder. And even a distracted driver has something like a peripheral view. Something like a rear light may help here.

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Was just about to recommend these lights.

Likewise. Thanks Joe!

That’s very unfortunate to hear about your teammate. +1 on the gravel bike. I plan on buying one once I move from Miami. The riding opportunities aren’t ideal here to say the least.

Trek has a ton of great research around cyclist visibility that they did with Clemson University over the course of a few years. It breaks down to this: https://www.trekbikes.com/us/en_US/abcs_of_awareness/

Always On
Use front and rear lights any time you cycle. Vehicles/bikes with daytime running lights are less likely to be involved in collisions.

Biomotion
The unique up and down motion of pedaling a bike is the most recognizable human feature we have. Adding visibility to your ankles and feet greatly improves the likelihood of drivers seeing you.

Contrast
Be seen - your clothing should be fluorescent during the day and reflective at night.

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Totally agree Nate! I would have thrown my Garmin 1000 (I am part of the Garmin hate club!) in the trash in favor of the Wahoo Element Bolt if it was not for the Garmin Varia product. I am amazed how well the Varia unit works. It isn’t very bright though so I use a Bontrager Flare as well. Glad they made the new one brighter too.

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I live in Florida too. Driving, I routinely see the light turn green for me and five or more cars left turn from the opposing left turn lanes (meaning, 5+ cars in each of the two lanes), blocking the intersection because their turn in backs up, and looking at you like you’re the one in the wrong if you pull out or blow your horn. No real solution for that kind of stupid other than jail–or making it a capital crime and enforcing it.

In light of that, I am hyperalert at intersections, never trust drivers signals (another idiot driver story there, but his wife mitigated my bike’s lack of a car horn :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: ), and always be ready to stop fast or sprint hard. Likewise when I’m going straight and have a right turn lane on my right–no telling if they’ll decide they want to turn (from the left) or not turn (from the right).

Which is why I either get out of town as early as I can as fast as I can or use the one or two short, but low traffic routes at low traffic times.

+1 the Bontrager lights or something similar (designed for daytime with irregular flash). There’s some decent science behind that.

Some studies show that people wearing high-vis or spandex are more likely to be hit that people wearing non-high-vis or normal street clothes. There’s debate about how much of that is the cyclist taking more risks because they believe they’re more visible vs. the driver doing 73 things other than driving. YMMV.

Reflective is always a win, especially reflective bands on your legs. Or glue lights on the backs of your cycling shoes. The bands are probably less weight and no less aero, though. :rofl: You can also find some clip-on shoe lights for runners on Amazon. I assume if they stay on a runner’s shoe with all that pounding, they’d stay on a cyclist’s. Again, YMMV.

Flashing lights, both Front and rear for daytime running, and Slid front, flashing rear at night.

I also wearing the Giro reflective shoes ACC Empires, and this year I also picked up some Proviz stuff (backpack, and gloves) these light up when sunlight or car lights hit them.

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  • Front and rear flashing lights.
  • Try to stay in the middle of the lane, as opposed to hugging the gutter. This forces drivers to overtake you correctly, rather than trying to squeeze you out.
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