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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
To be fair, cars have headlight and taillights.
Here in Sweden cars are required to allways have their headlights on when the car is moving, making them far easier to see even during the day.
It us frankly one of the most annoying things about crossing the street when being abroad, cars having their headlights off during the day, it is much more difficult to see if a car is moving if it has the headlights turned off, than if they are on.
Right. You're not going to see the car color at night.
Bikes have lights too though?
That is not a requirement, you to have to have front and rear reflectors, I don't remember if side reflectors are required or not.
One thing that a lot of bikes has that is illegal here but ignored by the police, is a flashing front light.
Rear lights can absolutely be flashing, but front lights can't.
Depends on the country you live in 😂 here they are absolutely required and also are not allowed to be blinking.
They are actually required at night. https://www.transportstyrelsen.se/sv/vagtrafik/Trafikregler/Cyklist-mopedist-motorcyklist/Trafikregler/Regler-for-cykel/
Reflectors are also required.
And yeah the rear light are allowed to flash.
I still agree that cars are way more visible.
That is not a requirement
It is, actually: https://www.transportstyrelsen.se/sv/vagtrafik/trafikregler/cyklist-mopedist-motorcyklist/trafikregler/regler-for-cykel/
You're liable to pay 500 SEK if you bike without lights when it's dark outside.
The front lights are allowed to flash in Denmark and it's super annoying, and dangerous in my opinion. The lowest allowed blinking frequency is also way lower than rear lights in Sweden, so it's like being flashed by a camera repeatedly.
I still don't understand why lights even have a flashing option
Wait what? There are countries where you can drive without headlights?
Here in the U.S., (and I'm assuming it's the same elsewhere, but just explaining for simplicity), cars used to have a simple headlight switch, which also lit up the instrument cluster on the dashboard. It was an easy heuristic: If you can't see the gauges because it's dark, turn on the headlights.
Now, every car has a marketing-gimmick dashboard lit up all the time with all sorts of multi-color lights. In the cars I've been in, the headlight indicator just a small, green light in the corner. Drivers accustomed to the old way think that their headlights are on because the dashboard is lit up. The Toyota Prius was notorious for this when it was new; I used to joke that they didn't come with headlights as a way to save fuel.
It's not as bad now, but people just forget o sometimes. It's worse when cars have day-time running lights, because then the drivers see light coming from the front of the car and think all the marker lights are on.
Places I've lived in the US people keep them off as the default. Here in Seattle people don't even turn them on at night half the time, I guess they think the street lighting is good enough. I try and signal people to turn on their lights if I'm biking at night and so far none that I know of have actually turned them on
ho, you are still using street ligths?
It’s been years that we cut them on a lot of major axis and after midnight in my town for all the classic roads.
It’s mainly to reduce the electricity bill, have less night pollution (more stars in the sky!) and reduce the speed of the cars when the road is empty (quite effective!).
Side note: since now few years, our cars are sold with front lights always active for visibility purpose (these small lights are cut only when we switching to the big ones)
At my previous apartment the lights outside were so bright it was unreal. Sixth floor, curtains, I could still read books at night without turning on an inside light. Can't remember the last time I saw more than a dozen stars in the sky even at my new place. Light pollution is a very present thing here
Modern cars also tend to have daytime running lights that are switched on automatically when the ignition is turned on, and are meant purely for visibility.
Cars used to have lots of reflectors on them in the 1980 and 90's. Especially I'm the head and taillight clusters.
Cars should also be required to have high vis strips like commercial vehicles.
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.
I personally prefer the option of equipping a comically bright headlight to the bike to emulate a lifted truck.
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.
Seeing as many people drive WITHOUT LIGHTS
I only wear hi-vis to take one more excuse away from the driver when they hit me. It doesn't actually help people see me in my experience.
In my city, the roads are not lit very well so high vis helps me see bikers a lot better.
Can confirm. My car is that colour. Am yet to collide with a cyclist.
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.
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".
It's not like there's always the choice. My previour car was red, and I wish I could have bought me current one in a bright color, like red or orange, but there was just black or grey, it's so boring
There you are right. Anything but black, gray, and white has become nearly extinct.
Arguably, if everything is high-viz, then cyclists may just blend in between the cars and be overlooked again. It does make sense that weaker participants in traffic are more visible, as long as everyone else is also visible.
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.
If only it had lights
(I know what community I’m in and that the original post is satire)