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Being seen is the job
Make yourself visible on a dark or wet walk, and know why that is the whole point.
1Watch
Four o'clock in November
Four o'clock in November
A kid in a dark coat and dark trousers walks home under a grey sky. A car comes up behind, headlights on, wipers going. The film stops with the kid stepping off the kerb, looking at the far side of the road.
22 secondsWatch it from the driver’s seat. Ask yourself what the driver can actually see.
2The idea
The driver is not looking for you
A driver in the rain is looking at brake lights, the wipers and the turn ahead. Their eyes are on the road, at car height, and a kid on the pavement is below that and off to one side. A kid in a dark coat on a dark pavement is nearly the same colour as the pavement.
Being seen is the whole job. Everything else is detail. You cannot make a driver look harder. You can make yourself the easiest thing to see.
3The idea
Three things, and any one of them helps
Light clothes. A pale jacket, or a reflective strip on your bag, shows up in headlights from a long way off. Dark clothes do not.
A light in your hand. Your phone torch, on, pointing at the ground in front of you. It moves as you walk, and moving light is what eyes notice.
A lit crossing. Cross under a lamp, never between two parked cars in the dark.
Do all three and you are the most obvious thing on the street. The lamp is the one people skip, because it is twenty metres out of the way. Twenty metres is thirty seconds.
4The idea
The same walk, done properly
Take the kid from the film. Same street, same rain, same car. Now she has her yellow jacket on over the dark coat. Her phone torch is on and pointing at her feet. She walks past the gap between the vans and on to the lamp before she stops at the kerb.
The driver sees a moving light and a pale shape under a lamp, a hundred metres out. He slows without thinking about it. She did not do anything clever. She did three small things and let the driver do the rest.
5Decide
Which of these kids does the driver see first?
Pick one to carry on.
6Look
The place you cross
The same road, two crossings
A road at dusk. One crossing point is under a street lamp with a clear view both ways. Twenty metres along, a second one sits between two parked cars in the dark.
Twenty metres further is thirty seconds. The lamp is where the driver sees you. Walk to the lamp, and wait there until a driver has actually looked at you before you step off.
7Find them
On a dark walk, which of these make you easier to see?
Tap the ones that count.
Find all 4.
8Your turn
Spot the invisible pedestrian
Spot the pedestrian
Four dusk street scenes from a driver's seat. In each one, tap where the kid is. The last two are hard on purpose.
If it takes you a while to find them, it takes a driver longer. The driver is also steering.
9Do it
Before you leave this page
Tonight, at dusk, stand at your kerb in what you would wear tomorrow. Have a parent walk to the end of the street, turn round, and tell you honestly whether they can see you. If the answer is not a quick yes, change something.
Tick it when you have done it.
Lesson done.
If a driver cannot see you, nothing else you do matters. Be seen.
Next lesson: Two is harder than one