17 January 2023
Among the energy saving measures that many French municipalities are adopting is the reduction of lighting hours on the streets, as well as the available light points. Faced with this reality, the agency of the French Ministry of the Interior in charge of road safety has launched a campaign to encourage pedestrians, cyclists and scooter users to pay more attention to their visibility, while inviting motorcyclists and motorists to be more attentive to these users.
To do this, it advises vulnerable users to wear light-colored clothing and include retroreflective devices such as a vest, armband, gloves, backpack straps, etc. As they explain, lighting based on car headlights makes other road users visible only 28 meters away when they are wearing black. But it so happens that, at 50 km/h, a car needs at least 25 meters to stop on dry ground and 38 on wet ground. With reflective accessories, it is pointed out that those same users are visible from 150 meters away.
For bicycle users, remember that the high visibility vest (yellow, orange, green) is mandatory outside urban areas at night or when visibility is insufficient. The same is true for scooters, at night or in lighting circumstances in which the user of that vehicle is not easily identifiable.
Likewise, it is recalled that bicycles must be equipped with red reflectors at the rear, orange at the level of the pedals, visible from the side, and a white light at the front; For their part, the scooters must have a white light at the front, a red one at the rear, and rear and side reflectors.