Make your commute safer with a Pass Pixi
I commute to work by bike.
I love my commute. Genuinely. It takes about 15 minutes (sometimes longer if a go a more interesting route), and I'm a paid up subscriber of the school of thought that a bit of gentle exercise is the perfect way to get the grey mush between my ears fired up ready for a day at work. Also brilliant is cycling home, where the trundle back is great way for the thoughts and stresses of the day to gradually fade away, as my focus drifts onto the myriad of sights and sounds one is subjected to when being outdoors.
So what don't I like about my commute; the weather? Nope, doesn't bother me at all. I've got a decent jacket for the winter, and it doesn't rain much. Cycling in the dark during the winter months? Honestly, I love it; I've got a modern dynamo and decent lights, and sometimes I'm a bit disappointing when my commute is over. Nope, what grinds my gears is drivers. Not all drivers, the vast majority are excellent, patient and courteous. Unfortunately, even a small minority ends up (on average) of a couple of encounters each commute that are not desirable. Which is to mean their disregard for the safety of others is upsetting. Which is to say their driving is dangerous and illegal. The most common suboptimal interaction I experience is The Close Pass.
In 2022 the Highway Code was revised, with a notable clarification regarding the space a driver should leave when overtaking someone on a bike; 1.50m at 30 mph, and more when travelling at a greater speed. As mentioned above, the large majority of drivers leave about this distance when overtaking me on my way to work, some leave even more (check out Most Excellent Overtakes in this blog link) but on the whole it's a sensible distance, certainly from the perspective of the person on two wheels, and plenty of space if there's an unintentional wobble, a gust of wind or an obstruction in the road that needs to be avoided. If the distance gets less than 1.00m it can be unnerving, and less than that usually results in a hefty spike of adrenaline, and the nagging feeling as to whether the driver has got something against you (or cyclists in general), was otherwise distracted (on the phone), or maybe under the influence of drink or drugs. Or just an arsehole.
The revised rule means that sometimes, as a driver, I have to slow down, and wait for an appropriate time and / or location to overtake someone riding a bike. No worries, seems sensible. Unfortunately this message still needs to sink in for many people behind the wheel. That, or they perhaps feel pressured by drivers behind them to overtake, worried about other people's impatience and indifference to the safety of others.
What's that? You bet I'm one of those cyclists who dress all in black, on a secret service radar scrambling stealth bike with no lights or reflectors and so it's my fault? Sorry, but nope. As mentioned I've got a modern dynamo so lights are on all the time. I also tend to wear regular clothes when cycling (can't be arsed getting changed at work) and tend to like bright colours, and for winter have a bright blue jacket with reflective shenanigans in all the right places. If anyone claims they can't seem me, please direct them to Specsavers.
A couple of years ago however I became aware of a simple device called a Pass Pixi, a small reflective sign that can fit to panniers, rucksacks or jackets that is the same design as the sign used on UK roads to designate a speed camera. The idea goes that drivers spot the sign which is enough to signify that perhaps the rider is using a camera, and as such the driver behaves differently in their interaction with the cyclist, notably providing more space when overtaken them. So I bought one, and much to my delight it appeared to work! Suddenly cars were giving me a much wider berth, or slowing down and waiting to overtake. My perception was it felt like riding with a forcefield, with no cars invading my personal space. Of course, there was still close passes, but less of them...I think?
I was sold. I spoke to fellow bicyclists about it, encouraging them to give it a go, Bike Worcester dipped into their limited reserves to buy a few and give them away, and we received a grant from West Mercia Police to purchase more and do the same. I think I gave mine away at some point, and all of a sudden my protective blanket was gone, and the frequency of close passes went back up...I think? I couldn't really remember. Had I imagined the whole thing? Is my fragile memory so fickle I just make up whatever narrative suits my current mood?
So this time last year I thought I'd do a bit of rudimentary science. I'd fix the route of my commute and count the number of cars that passed me, and also the ones where I perceived the overtake to be too close. I'd do this for a few months without a Pass Pixi, then do the same again but with a Pass Pixi attached. A year has now passed since I started, so I thought it a worthy anniversary to share the results.
The graphs below show all the data. Each data point represents a single commute. The graph at the top is there to show that there doesn't appear to be any notable differences when considering the number of vehicles overtaking me, with and without a Pass Pixi, which needs to be ruled out. Bottom left shows the number of close passes for each journey, and bottom right shows the same data, but the number of close passes on each journey divided by the number of cars.
My conclusion is that there's enough of a difference between the with and without datasets to convince me that using a Pass Pixi is worth it, and that it reduces the frequency of getting close passed, and therefore is a viable method to reduce road danger for the user. To provide some headline numbers, I got close passed on average every 14.9 cars (6.7%) without a Pass Pixi, and every 24.6 cars (4.1%) with a Pass Pixi, with a total set of 303 commutes (a commute in either direction counts as a single datapoint).As can be seen on the graphs the number of cars overtaking on each commute varies depending on the time of day, and even at any given time, but on average I was passed by 39.2 cars on each commute. Rather sadly, this still means the chances of being on the receiving end of a close pass on every single journey is more likely than not.So my recommendation would be to get hold of a Pass Pixi. At just shy of £10 it's seems like a pretty good investment. If you've a family member who regularly uses a bike as a mode of transport, get them one. Keep your eyes peeled for when Bike Worcester buys some more; you can have one on us.So yeah, I love my commute, but one where a close pass becomes a rarity would be even nicer. The more that people behind the wheel are aware that driving dangerously around folk on bikes might be recorded and reported, the more (I hope) driving standards will improve.
