Monday, September 24, 2007

I think I may go out and get a reflective vest. I am going to sit and think on it a while to determine if it is overkill. I have reflective stripes on my shoes, a reflective armband that I carry my ID and key in, and a blinky LED that I wear on my iPod armband.

This morning, somebody wasn't paying attention and very nearly ran me down. He was speeding and turned in to the wrong lane. He was being lazy - it was 6 in the morning and dark. He just didn't expect anyone to be there, I am sure. I was less than 10 feet away from the sidewalk on the left side of the street. He stopped 3 feet short of me and I had nowhere to go. He was in the wrong, clearly, but when you're roadkill, it doesn't really matter who was right.

What scared me was that I wasn't as visible as I could have been. Todd the iPod wasn't with me so I didn't have my flashy LED. Instead of a white t-shirt, I was wearing grey. My shorts have white stripes down the side, but the shirt sleeve was covering up the reflective armband.
Am I overreacting by adding more to what I am already doing? Maybe if I go back to white shirts only and make sure that all of my other precautions are in place...

At least if he had smooshed me, I had my ID and they would have known who I was and who to call...

2 comments:

Pete said...

If it's dark out, you should wear a vest. No question about it.

Renee said...

And a headlamp! I just made that up, but that's really scary.