When the sardonic cycling clothing company ELEVENGEAR designed the Traffic Master cycling jersey they had a point to make.
The issue of whether Hi-Vis clothing should be worn by bike riders, or not, is contentious (see e.g. Copenhagenize). Without getting caught in arguments, we think it’s your road positioning that has a much greatest impact on your safety and visibility in traffic. Take for example this video demonstrating the visibility of some riders positioned in a truck driver’s blind spot. It doesn’t matter what you’re wearing, the driver is not going to see you if you’re positioned there. Similarly, if you ride past a side road or through a roundabout, your visibility is greatly affected by where you choose to position yourself in the travel lane. If you ride near the centre of the lane, you are far more visible there than on the far left of the road near the ‘door zone’.
"My argument here isn’t against high vis clothing. My argument is: Don’t just rely on high vis clothing. There is something that far surpasses the power of high vis. Road positioning."