The only outfit associated with a significant change in mean passing proximities was the **police/video-recording jacket. **
Notably, whilst some outfits seemed to discourage motorists from passing within 1 metre of the rider, approximately 1-2% of overtakes came within 50 cm no matter what outfit was worn. This suggests there is little riders can do, by altering their appearance, to prevent the very closest overtakes
This is quite discouraging, but it seems to ring true in my experience. I’ve had quite a few drivers, who have come close to hitting me (even while walking at a crosswalk), claim that they “didn’t see me” while I wore high-viz everything and had lights to further improve visibility.
How do we, as cyclists, even deal with “driver blindness”?
Yup. It’s often said that the sidewalk is the most dangerous place for a cyclist to be (for them and everyone else). I’ve been saying that for years in the Reddit e-scooter community after far too many people post their crash videos while riding on sidewalks.
The only time I’ll use a sidewalk are in areas that you’ll never see pedestrians in. Typically, these are industrial zones where big rigs have destroyed the road. Very low risk to be on the sidewalk here, but about as safe as you can be in a horribly dangerous area.