There was a person on a bicycle hit by a car the evening of 9 January 2018 down in southern Maryland. "Witnesses said the cyclist was wearing dark clothing and bike did not have any lights or reflectors on it"
Now it was dark and by Maryland law bicycles operating at night are required to have a white light up front and a reflector or red light in the rear. Pretty clear, pretty basic, and pretty common sense. I've often commented on the 'stealth bikers' that I see riding at 5AM on their way to work or other places. Lights - dude should have had lights on his whip - plain and simple...but dark clothes...lets think about that for a minute or two.
Back to the article - I scrolled down to the comments - always bad move and saw things like:
- "They choose to wear dark clothes, enabling them to fade into the shadows…making them harder to see before and after committing illegal acts."
- "That’s what they get for not wearing reflective gear"
"They choose to wear dark clothes, enabling them to fade into the shadows…making them harder to see before and after committing illegal acts." - That's cute. I wonder who "they" are....
Now back to dark clothes - Seriously? I cracked open the Maryland Traffic code and went to the section that talks about bicycles and pedestrians - and you know what there's nothing in there that says I have to wear light colored, reflective clothing to ride my bicycle at night...same for walking at a night.
Then I looked down at what I was wearing as I walked into work at 6AM...Dark pants, dark jacket and dark hat - Cause it's cold, yo!
Then I looked around to see what everyone else was wearing - dark pants, dark jackets and dark hats. Holy Shit - it was like the aliens had come down and dressed us all in dark. Fucking E.T.
Maybe it was just where I worked - you know because I work with a bunch of dark, soulless people. So I went be-bopping into the Target - cause I'm classy. Lo and behold - everyone was wearing dark clothes and dark jackets. So I wandered back to the clothing department and started looking at jackets. Dark colors abounded - everywhere. Dark, Dark, Dark. Hmmmm.
Now to be honest, when I ride at night, I wear a bright colored jacket that has reflective stuff. However, the reality is there are lots of folks out there - especially people that are just riding their bikes to/from work - that can't afford to go get a cycling specific jacket that's bright and reflective.
Hell, go down to the store and look at jackets, coats, clothing, etc suitable for working. How much is brightly colored? reflective?
The other reality is that too many people are driving their car whilst doing other things - texting, yakking on their cellphone, face-timing, giving themselves a clipper cut, shaving, drinking booze, smoking dope, etc....but you're going to say somebody deserves to die because he was wearing blue jeans and a gray t-shirt?
