How can bright yellow/flo green possibly blend into the landscape. There would have to be hundreds of them on every corner. These colours stand out in an urban background.

Camouflage my a***

Richard,

I don't really understand how the law can favour the motorist when the driver will get prosecuted even if they might be able to argue they couldn't see the cyclist i.e. the driver always gets it.

The chain of  reponsibilty and liabilty in road use and accidents is motorists> cyclists>pedestrians.

A car hits me on my bike, the driver's fault.

I (on my bike) hit a pedestrian, my fault.

Nice article in Rouleur by the way.

DJ, glad you liked it.

Your assessment of the strict legal liability is, I would suggest, flawed in that in UK law there is no presumed 'chain of responsibility' unlike in some Continental jurisdictions. It is perfectly possible for a cyclist to be at fault in a collision with a car, lorry, motorcycle or pedestrian and so on. The problem in the UK, to which I allude, is that, historically and even now, motorists have been only lightly punished even when clearly guilty of the most egregious negligence or recklessness and where proven absolutely responsible for death or serious injury.

Richard is right.

Strict liability in this area is one thing we have unfortunately failed to succesfully follow our european friends into.

There you go, two coppers giving you the same advice....surely the penny must drop now.

What? take advice from the police?

You are having  a laugh!

In my home town there is a big bike theft problem

police response to the cycling strategy consultation is to suggest a reduction in the numbers of cyclists riding in town. It also reduces the number of cyclists injured.

doh!

Then those coppers that ride bikes ride all over the pavement, jump red lights and show how far above the law they are.

Wear what you like but keep riding your bike.

Richard, point noted but....there is always a 'but'.

I think we are talking about two different countries' legal systems and their respective chains of responsibility.

Granted that motorists in the UK have got off  lightly in the past, a case in point being the Rhyl cycling club tragedy, and probably will continue to do so as long as the UK remains a car-oriented society. However, in Japan, the chain of responsibilty is how I described it. Vehicle>cyclist>pedestrian. Cycles are classed as light vehicles over here and as such are seen to be less liable/responsible than a car in the case of a vehicle-cycle accident but in the case of cyclist-pedestrian accident then the cyclist is seen to be more liable/responsible than the pedestrian.

At the moment there is reasonably large debate about accidents invovling cyclists and pedestrians as an old woman was killed by another woman riding a motorised cycle (one of those bikes with a rechargeable battery driven motor that people use for going up hills). The cyclist ( I use the term loosley here) was going downhill with the motor running, (about 30km/h)in a busy city, ignored a red light and went through a pedestrian crossing. Consequently, she mowed this old woman down and she died later. Of course, the cyclist is at fault here, 100%.

Unfortunately, this had led to a backlash of saying cycles aren't safe and there should be less cycles in the cities which is of course, bo+*ocks. That woman riding the bike was not safe and did not know what she was doing.She was going too fast on a bike with brakes not good enough to deal with stopping at high speeds suddenly.

Getting back on trackand the issue of safety....personally I'd like to see helmets made compulsory (please don't bite and start another massive fight) , as well as one piece of day-glo clothing but most importantly, clearly marked cycle lanes that cannot be used by anything/anyone else....but then again I am an eternal optimist and even think Stoke will go up to the Premier League at the end of next season.

Thanks for the compliment and the dig , Arthur.�@It has been over 20 years since my Potters have seen the dizzy heights of top flight football- it was still the First Division then-so allow me my moment of fancy.

Now if you really wanted to stand out  in a crowd we could all wear that horrendous Chelsea away strip but then again people would probably try to mow you over out of sheer contempt.

Or we could wear the grey Man Utd away strip from a long time ago that couldn't be seen at all, even by your teammates (according to Fergie)

I remember the last time you were in the first division. Good Luck.

Have you tried this camouflage tactic for riding in the countryside.