High-vis vests are vital if we want to reduce road deaths

JEREMY Clarkson, the former Top Gear presenter, once claimed that everyone who bought a bicycle during the Covid-19 pandemic was an idiot.

He criticised the UK government for installing infrastructure that helps people get around on bikes and said cycling was “anti-capitalism with handlebars”.

He also insulted the Lycra clothing that cyclists wear, criticised how they behave on roads, and suggested that most people cycling in major cities aren’t even going anywhere; they’re only out to annoy motorists.

I wouldn’t consider myself to be completely in the Clarkson camp, but I have to admit that cyclists often drive me nuts.

It’s no fun crawling behind them when they’re driving three a-breast on a secondary road, enjoying a chat while I’m trying to get somewhere.

I drove down a one-way street recently and when I got to the bottom of it, I stopped at the stop line before merging into traffic. There was a cyclist coming from my right, so I stayed where I was to let him pass.

He didn’t cross my path though. As he reached my car, he came up beside me and shot the wrong way up the one-way system against the flow of traffic. He didn’t indicate his intention to do so either.

He had a beard, so he wasn’t a child, and while these guys regularly moan about the lack of respect shown to them by motorists, many of them believe there is one rule of the road for motorists and another rule for cyclists.

They’re not all irresponsible, but there is no shortage of bikers out there who don’t make much of an effort to champion their cause.

They regularly weave in and out of traffic, break red lights, and cycle on footpaths and other pedestrian areas. They demand that drivers observe a car doors width when overtaking them for safety, yet they have no issue squeezing into tight spaces between cars to get ahead in slow city driving.

Their safety concerns can be dispensed with when it suits them.

There is another issue too, and that’s visibility of not just cyclists but all vulnerable road users, including children.

It’s not unusual to encounter cyclists dressed in dark clothing in fading light. Maybe these people don’t drive cars, in which case it’s understandable they might have less appreciation of how vulnerable they really are.

Oncoming car headlights often put these unlit cyclists/pedestrians in a driver’s blind spot, making them difficult to see, so I was delighted to see the Road Safety Authority (RSA) issuing advice about vulnerable people wearing high-vis vests when they’re out and about.

They launched its ‘Be Seen Be Safe’ campaign for pedestrians and cyclists, to encourage them to wear high-visibility clothing. It makes total sense to me, and you would imagine that anything that improves visibility and safety has to be welcomed, especially as we head into the winter.

Not so.

High-vis vests worn by cyclists don’t have any impact on the behaviour of motorists, according to one Galway City Councillor, who called for the notion that hi-vis clothes will keep children safe on roads to be challenged.

He said putting the onus for road safety on young children is “misguided”, adding: “I suppose I’d just like to challenge the narrative that high-vis vests save people’s lives. The RSA have published a lot of research looking at the efficacy of high-vis vests, I don’t think a lot of it adds up.”

He added: “There’s a lot of research out there that shows that high-vis vests make people more visible, absolutely I’m not going to dispute that. My big concern is that I don’t see how high-vis vests have any impact on the behaviour of motorists.

“In particular, the campaign about dressing five and six-year-olds up like construction workers and putting the onus on them to be responsible for their own safety, I think is misguided.”

The RSA responded by saying there is no shortage of research to prove that hi-vis clothing is effective, and cited several research papers to show that high visibility clothing improved motorists’ ability to see vulnerable road users.

That the RSA should find it necessary to defend this initiative in the first place is baffling.

Why would you even need research to demonstrate that it’s easier to see someone in the dark if they’re wearing bright luminous clothing than if they’re dressed all in black? It’s ludicrous, but there are others out there too with strange opinions on road safety.

An Garda Siochana tweeted recently on ‘X’, which most of us still call Twitter, and the tweet was accompanied by a photo of a garda in a classroom talking to primary school children.

It said: “It’s crucial that we spread the road safety message among children from the very first opportunity. Garda Michelle Doherty called in to see them all in Kincora Kids, Killaloe, Co. Clare and brought along some high-vis vests for wearing while out on the road.”

One particular social media user was incensed and Tweeted; “Stop telling children it’s their job to not get killed by drivers. In 2017/18, 26,000 motorists were caught using a phone at the wheel while driving. You should focus on that.”

It seems to me it’s possible to do both.

There are many aspects relating to road safety that need to be addressed and visibility is just one of those.

In my time as a member of An Garda Siochana, there was a structured school’s programme delivered to third class pupils in primary schools over the course of the school year. It covered many topics, and I would be surprised if the subject of wearing hi-vis clothing was delivered in isolation by the garda in Clare.

So, let’s have less of this attention- seeking nonsense and support the initiatives that are designed to make everyone a little safer on the road.