Four cycle commuters from the Alzheimer’s Research Trust in Cambridge this week started an experiment into the possible road safety benefits of wearing the colour purple. Or to be more precise purple Alzheimer Research Trust (ART) t-shirts. The experiment came about when Andrew Scheuber, who works for the trust, noticed that motorists seemed to give him more room when he was wearing his ART t-shirt on his commute to and from work. He mentioned this to a colleague who said that her husband had said the same thing, in fact says Andrew: “He went further, because he’d noticed that our white t-shirts didn’t produce the same effect: it only seemed to happen when he wore the purple one.” While Andrew is happy to acknowledge that experiment is partly a way of raising the trust’s profile he is quick to point out that this does seem to be a genuine phenomenon. The Alzheimers Research Trust encourages employees to cycle to work because a healthy lifestyle can help reduce the risk of developing Alzheimers, so anything that might boost safety is worth pursuing. So what will the ART commuters be doing to test their theory about the colour purple? “Four of us are going to ride in to work on our normal commutes for the next two weeks, two will wear the purple t-shirts on week one while the others will wear the trust’s white t-shirts, then the following week they will switch around and see if we notice any differences in driver behaviour from one week to the next,” explains Andrew. For what it’s worth our pet theory is that purple is an unusual colour to see on the roads, where many cyclists and workmen wear high viz yellow, that it registers more profoundly in a driver’s brain and he or she moves out accordingly. There has been some talk that high viz signage and clothing is now so common that for many road users it has just become an accepted part of the roadscape so while they might see it, they don’t notice it as much. Mind you, purple is not likely to work so well in the dark. That’s what we think, have you got any theories on this one? Andrew will report back on how the experiment goes in a couple of weeks.
Commuters explore the safety benefits of purple
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I'll counter that by saying the Bryton 750se I have drives me nuts at times. Inconsistantly picks up on routes created on Komoot and the app re-syncs every few seconds when trying to set up the device and sends me back to the home screen. The most infuriating one is that I turned live track on. Once. It now won't turn off and repeatedly flags up the live track is starting, and then disconnecting every few seconds whilst riding. I haven't timed it but it wouldn't suprise me if 10-20% of the time the the screen is covered with an error message. That's been about 6 weeks now. Other than that it's great :/
RE: Police launch road safety operation... by clamping down on cyclists using footbridge Meanwhile in Glasgow, Police Scotland are riding their motorbikes over the pedestrian and cyclists only bridge. https://x.com/FietserGlasgow/status/2065106152917012523?s=20
@Paul J Van Schip certainly seems a bit of a dick, but he's a European and multiple World Champion on the track, pretty sure you don't get there without having some talent in your legs.
Poor Vincent cannot get over the simple fact that given the choice people prefer dedicated cycling spaces, rather than pretending to be cars like vehicular cyclists.
What is the point of the fancy air sensor if it can't account for changing weather conditions?? If all you care about is a delayed approximation of aerodynamic watts in steady conditions, you don't need any special sensors for that. Just your speed on a decently flat course is enough to approximate rolling resistance and drivetrain losses. And the rest must be aero. If you assume a less aero body position at the same watts, your speed will drop while rolling resistance also drops, which means approximated aero watts goes up. And that's enough to demonstrate what you've shown in your testing protocol ("I sat upright and the number went up a little while later").
Your correction is accurate - it's almost always been "the (lack of) thought that (doesn't) count". "Massive" - less than a billion a year spent on active travel (trying to catch up / building a network across the entire country) Not massive - 6 billion every year (2026-2030) spent on road *maintenance* of existing "already built, goes everywhere, very convenient" road network for inactive travel Ultimately the reason "cycle infra" is *needed* is those unbelievably colossal amounts spent every year (and for more than a century now) on making mass motoring not just viable but apparently the "best choice" for most journeys. As the Dutch and others have shown, the majority of people *are* prepared to cycle and even mix with very light, slow local motor traffic *if* cycling is also made safe and convenient for the whole of their journey (including secure parking at both ends). (The history of the financial drivers of the current situation are a complex topic but note that while people complain about "crumbling roads" and underfunded motor infra - with some reason - by us continuing the fuel duty escalator freeze (for example) we're actually helping motorists pay *even less* for that activity / subsidising more of the cost of driving than ever.)
yes, but people will still object - which was my point.
So ' Priority of Road Users' and 1.5 metre clearance at 30mph has been been reduced to 'sharing'? NCN route 2 here in South Hams is an absolute scream with white vans, tractors and total idiots who refuse,or are totally incapable,to reverse on high Devon banked lanes ...means you have to get off and pedal back to a passing place....could be at that all day...so I don't bother...
@MaxiMinimalist Agreed. The big problem I see now is today's parents grew up being driven to their schools, and therefore, see private motor vehicles as the only viable form of transport. The vast majority of UK infant and primary schools have a catchment area that is within easy walking distance from home to school. Yet, the traffic caused by pupils being driven to/from school is astonishing. Banishing the "School Run" should be a priority for all schools.
When I was a kid (that was during the previous millenium when phones were connected to a plug in the wall), I rode my bicycle to school, music academy, sport grounds, parties even during the winter. The government didn't have to spend, correct that, didn't have to think of spending massive amounts of money to build cycling specific infrastructures. Over the past 3 or 4 decades, cars have grown bigger, taller, safer (for their drivers) and faster. Meanwhile, motorists have become abusive, aggressive, hypersensitive to people moving on two wheels, aka cyclists. Spending billions upon billions on new infrastructure won't address the crux of the matter. Sadly.