I thought you were a police car

...A quote from a person I met on a very dark road.

I have been getting to the gym 2 or 3 evenings a week, and trying to get in a good fast walk on the other evenings. No biking during the week, but I need to maintain some semblance of being in shape both for my ongoing sanity and for my ability to quickly jump back into cycling when the weather changes. Tonight was a walking night.

Since some of my walking is done on narrow roads without sidewalks and without lights, I've tried to make sure that I am visible to cars. It's good to get an occasional comment to confirm that my visibility is acceptable, and tonight's comment definitely did that. I've fine-tuned my visible components this winter, and I think I finally have my walking visibility to a good level. So what am I wearing? I start with an Illuminite cycling jacket, then add a neon yellow belt with a reflective stripe. I have 2 bright blue flashing lights that face forward - one on my belt, and one strapped to my right arm (because since I walk facing traffic, that arm is closest to the vehicles), and a red flashing light facing backward, again clipped to my belt.

If you're looking to pick up some of my visibility toys yourself, here's where I got them: little blue flashing lights (they also come in red & green) and neon yellow Firefly belt are from RoadID.com, and the larger flashing light (in purple, but it flashes red) is from Team Estrogen.

As I passed a house on a very dark street, a woman walking out of the house said "I thought you were a police car". When I told her I used the lights in the hopes that I would be seen, she said "there's no way anyone could miss seeing you". Ah, success!

A somewhat funky view of my flashing blue lights