I agree with you slowLearner.
A recent paper was published about conspicuity and smidsys... Nov. 2012 from New zealand and published over here. It looked at over 300 papers from other countries and in the past and examined more fully about 30 of them where conspicuity was the main issue.
It mentioned four driving occurancies where what we call a smidsy happens but forgot about the fifth one, the one you just mentioned. see eye to eye and yet they totally disregard our presence on the road..... because they dont care about a motorbike or scooter or cyclist or any vehicle smaller than themselves.
Therefore not a smidsy but a direct attack upon ourselves.
The paper comes out in agreeing that tho hi vis can in some circumstances help avoid an accident in others it could be a contributory factor.every junction being different, in 1] making us more camflaged, melting into our background so we dont stand out anymore and 2] mentally making one feel that we are more visible and riding as tho we have been seen, which has been mentioned before [ ie lulling us into a false sense of security]
It finally mentioned lighting and suggest more illumination on bikes, not just facing forwards but allowing others to determine the shape of a biker by shining lights on ourselves. also to have at least two additional lights, diferent in colour to the headlight, showing to the front but having them being placed vertically, one above and one below the main beam so that as we approach say a car at a junction he can see us better and also make a better determination of our distance away and how we are looming towards him by the lights getting bigger. Its like watching a giraffe and a zebra running towards one. the larger of the two ,the giraffe appears to get bigger sooner but the zebra gets run over. Oh well, never mind. [this was my explanation and not in the report by the way.]
We will have to wait and see what happens next..
or all ride Goldwings with all the aditional lighting on.
