hi vis v polite hi vis

[mtj]

Following the joy of having a driver obnoxiously accellerating as he passed me today, i'm considering upgrading the hivis to the polite stuff.

Does it make any difference?

for the record, this is the first time i've encountered this type of driver - me and dobbin are in hi vis and try to avoid causing any inconvenience.

 

[Shantara]

I've found it doesn't work as well if you're in a group, even if you're at the back, but it worked VERY well alone or just with one other horse.

I even had a cyclist stop and say we nearly gave him a heart attack!! I wonder what he had to hide, haha XD

 

[niagaraduval]

It's a shame things like this don't exist in France. I find the range really good and TBH was just waiting for someone to complain.

I always used to pull off the road when there were more than 1 car behind me. I found they were more ignorant towards us than letting them go past. I now don't bother, although I have found looking behind all the time makes people slow down for some reason ?? When I turn round and look at them coming up behind me they slow down. They obviously know they should be careful but don't care.

 

[Charlie007]

I always always ride out in hi vis even in summer. I have recently changed to a polite vest and the difference is amazing!! In the last 2 days I have had two cyclists either ring their bell or shout to ask if ok to pass!! Thats the first time in four years of hacking round these particular roads!! The cars also seem to slow down more which can only be a good thing!!

 

[lovinyourwork]

The polite stuff is immense, got some for xmas and has such better manners from drivers. One of my mums friends asked her when i became a police officer as she saw me riding in police gear last week.

 

[chestnutmarelover]

I either wear polite tabbard or hi viz coat depending on weather (as well as hi viz brushing boots & martingale) and have found to be honest both as good/useless at slowing cars down Think it depends on the drivers on particular day, you can have a lovely ride where pretty much all drivers slow down or going same route another day most will be ignorant buggers that just don't care

 

[cob&onion]

Am buying my mum some polite viz fr a late xmas present. She lives in a very built up area and often gets idiots speeding past/souding their horns
Luckily the cob she rides is brilliant in traffic despite only being a baby himself......

 

[starryeyed]

I've noticed a HUGE difference when I wear it - I only have the tabard at the moment (and add yellow non-polite leg bands) but it's incredible how much more respectful drivers are when I'm wearing it compared to when I'm just wearing my pink "please pass wide & slow".

 

[unbalanced]

I have noticed a huge difference going out in polite hi viz compared to normal, and have been mistaken for a police officer several times. When I wore my polite jacket into the feed store they asked me when I joined the police, I was stopped by pedestrians when out on my horse and asked about credit card fraud , and morons yelling at each other after writing off each others cars stopped when they saw me .
However, the long sleeve jacket seems a lot better than the tabard. Today the long sleeve jacket was in the wash so I went out in my tabard. We may have been holding up traffic a tiny bit - well, there was traffic coming in both directions, I couldn't move onto the pavement to let it pass as there was a cyclist on the pavement, and I had acknowledged the lovely driver behind me who was waiting politely and thanked him. Moron three cars behind saw a tiny gap in traffic from the other direction and decided to roar past three cars and one horse who was cunningly disguised as a police horse. Idiot. Luckily my horse is a saint and didn't bat an eyelid and the driver approaching from the other direction was able to stop in time.

 

[PeterNatt]

I always wear a long sleeved Hi-Viz jacket when riding out. Other road users can see my hand signals more clearly.