Study: High-Visibility Clothing No Solution for Bike Safety

A recent study from researchers at the University of Bologna adds to a growing body of evidence regarding their effects of laws that require bicyclists to wear high-visibility clothing.

1 minute read

April 18, 2018, 6:00 AM PDT

By James Brasuell @CasualBrasuell


Portland Cycling

Sam Beebe / flickr

A study by Gabriele Prati of the University of Bologna examined legislation mandating high-visibility clothing for bicyclists and found that such laws did not influence the number of cyclists in crashes, nor do such laws influence the total number of vehicles involved in road crashes.

Henry Robertshaw shares the new of the new study, published in the March 2018 issue of the Journal of Transport & Health. "This is the latest in a number of studies to cast doubt on the idea that making cyclists wear hi-vis clothing has an impact on making cyclists safer, even if there is more evidence that wearing hi-vis or reflective clothing makes cyclists more visible to drivers," writes Robertshaw.

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