Green, don't wear it for goodness sake!

Commuting, Day rides, Audax, Incidents, etc.
mrjemm
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Joined: 20 Nov 2011, 4:33pm

Re: Green, don't wear it for goodness sake!

Post by mrjemm »

Gulp, I have a green bike, and wear a lot of green clothing...

Madame is also rather greenly oriented.

At least I tend to have a fair amount of orange present too, especially with my orange bike... :D

My orange is green. But my green bike is not orange, though of course all my bikes are green really. Confusing, 'ey?

When we got ordered one bike and green was chosen as a colour, we were told that it is considered an unlucky colour. I wonder if this stems from our nautical heritage, as green is traditionally an unlucky colour on boats/ships. But, hmmm, pretty much everything is considered unlucky on ships.

Wearing all green right now in fact. :mrgreen:
iandriver
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Re: Green, don't wear it for goodness sake!

Post by iandriver »

:shock: :?

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Supporter of the A10 corridor cycling campaign serving Royston to Cambridge http://a10corridorcycle.com. Never knew gardening secateurs were an essential part of the on bike tool kit until I took up campaigning.....
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Heltor Chasca
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Re: Green, don't wear it for goodness sake!

Post by Heltor Chasca »

My pick up is green. I've had a stationary skip and a garden tap run into it[emoji55]. It's called Green Goddess...b
thirdcrank
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Re: Green, don't wear it for goodness sake!

Post by thirdcrank »

barrym wrote:I'm not defending this guy, but years ago, probably 1970s, Mercedes listed accident statistics by colour, and guess which colour came top? Yep, green!


That may be why green cars are considered unlucky by many. At least, it's one more reason for a dealer haggling over a trade in to take a sharp intake of breath and offer below the book price.

https://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/i ... 354AA6BZ2i
Tonyf33
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Re: Green, don't wear it for goodness sake!

Post by Tonyf33 »

iandriver wrote::shock: :?

People who can't see a person/s or vehicle on the roads with those colours shouldn't be on the road themselves. All the excuses under the sun regarding colour 'blindness' are just that, excuses, it's bad habits, laziness and often as not just plain old boring poor eyesight. Eyesight testing should be run in conjunction with insurance and should be every year. eyesight can fail rapidly and the current system is an epic failure.

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Audax67
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Re: Green, don't wear it for goodness sake!

Post by Audax67 »

Our club colours used to be green and yellow. Back when I was club sec. and designed the shirts, I kept the yellow dominant for visibility. A couple of years ago I jacked it in (fed up taking minutes for 6 bods all talking at once, half of them in Alsatian dialect) ( woof woof) and the woman who took over has replaced the yellow with black. I'd guess that dull green & black is even less visible than green.
Have we got time for another cuppa?
pwa
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Re: Green, don't wear it for goodness sake!

Post by pwa »

My wife's current favourite cycling jersey is an Ireland top with plenty of green but, crucially, a white background. To my eyes it looks very conspicuous.

I agree that inconspicuous clothing is no excuse for drivers not trying to see you but, hey, there is no harm in making it a bit easier for them.
Flinders
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Re: Green, don't wear it for goodness sake!

Post by Flinders »

When I had a white car, I noticed nothing particular abut how people reacted to it compared to to other cars on the road. When I then got a red car, people gave it a wide berth. Now I have a black one, people, including lorry drivers, seem to drift towards it when driving, or pull out directly in front of it, as if it was invisible.
I don't know whether they can't see the black one, or they are just scared of red ones.

Next time It'll be red if I have any choice.
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jan19
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Re: Green, don't wear it for goodness sake!

Post by jan19 »

When I had a white car, I noticed nothing particular abut how people reacted to it compared to to other cars on the road. When I then got a red car, people gave it a wide berth. Now I have a black one, people, including lorry drivers, seem to drift towards it when driving, or pull out directly in front of it, as if it was invisible.
I don't know whether they can't see the black one, or they are just scared of red ones.


You can add type of car to the way people perceive them too. Years ago, when my Mum had an extended stay in hospital she asked that we used her car from time to time to keep it running. It was a silver Rover 100 which I think you could safely say would be regarded as an older person's car. I had enormous trouble when driving that car with tailgaiting and people desperate to get past me. Being fair haired, I expect anyone behind me thought I was old and was going to creep along. The irony was that car was pretty quick, especially with just one person in it and I remember having great pleasure overtaking a lorry driver who had cut me up in his desperation to get from a slip road in front of me. His expression as I went very quickly by (the road was dual carriageway by this point!) was priceless. Yet I never had any of that behaviour when driving our own car which at the time was red.

Jan
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squeaker
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Re: Green, don't wear it for goodness sake!

Post by squeaker »

Continuing the drift...we once had a bright yellow Metro (chosen for its visibility, but all too soon yellow with brown spots on it :roll: ). Instant comment from a near relative when he first saw it was "didn't they have any other colours available?" :?
"42"
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beachcomber
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Re: Green, don't wear it for goodness sake!

Post by beachcomber »

challenger tank.jpg
challenger tank.jpg (10.43 KiB) Viewed 576 times




I'll bet not many people pull out in front of one of these and say SMIDSY.

They'd be lucky if they can say anything. I don't recall anyone pulling out in front of any of the Army wagons I drove, especially the ones carrying several tons of aircraft fuel.

In most cases drivers don't see other vehicles because they don't look properly or do see the oncoming vehicle and pull out having misjudged it's speed/distance.

My late father when still driving in his 80s and usually very safe, once pulled out in front of a double decker bus. He had seen it, I 'urgently' warned him of the approaching bus. He said "It'll have to slow down and let me out" and continued to pull out in front of it causing the driver to brake fairly heavily.

Dad couldn't see that he was in the wrong, even though the bus had the right of way and was travelling well within the speed limit and he was pulling out of a parking place into the path of the bus.

I suspect where incidents like this occur, the driver at fault feels more comfortable with the excuse "I didn't see you" which doesn't admit guilt or error, rather than "I wasn't paying attention" or "I made an error of judgement" which does.
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