As cyclists, we are used to demand greater safety on streets, from bike path creation to receive more respect by motorists, but the question is… How much security do we invest in ourselves?
Many times, we don’t respect safety standards as wearing reflective vest or helmet. These simple but important elements can save our live.
Wearing a helmet protects our head in case of impact or fall, while wearing reflective vest create more visibility to motorists, mostly, during night.
Wearing both accessories is optional, at Nuevo León, Mexico plans to wear reflective vest as an obligatory measure. At least that’s how Heriberto Treviño Cantú, PRI deputy proposed.
The initiative of reform to the Ley de Movilidad Sostenible, de Accesibilidad y Seguridad Vial, propose the easy recognition of cyclists and motorists with this clothing, that must have at least the 20% of reflective materials.
“My proposal consists that people who use bike, motorbikes or similar, and dedicate to freight or service delivery, will have to use vest or jacket with at least 20% of reflective material, including arms and legs”, he said.
Is it necessary to wear reflective vest?
It’s important to mention that for Cantú, this measure is mainly for delivery motorists and cyclists. This after the accidents of these two sectors have increased due the use of home delivery apps.
However, the politician comments that the initiative tries to reduce traffic accidents in general. And, the expectation is to reduce run overs to motorists and cyclists with this.
Nuevo León has a low rate of run overs to cyclists. According to the study Ruta Segura del Consejo Nuevo León for the strategic planning, from 1997 to 2024 registered 184 deaths in this state. From those 39% occurred during morning while Monterrey municipalities Guadalupe and Apodaca have the 54.5% of those deaths.
Now that you know that most of accidents occur during day, is necessary to question about, if is worth it or not the use of reflective vest. The answer is easy, yes, the same study shows that during night, the probability of suffering severe injuries increases to a 71.7%.
For that, is essential to use reflective elements on night environment, above all, the vest. Likewise, let’s stand out than in other places reported by the Pueblo Bicicletero group, indicate that since 2005 to 2023, have been registered 142 killed cyclists by motorized vehicles.
And, how much does Nuevo León use the bike?
It seems that Nuevo León is one of the states with greater cycling growth. According to the survey Asi vamos 2022 of Cómo Vamos Nuevo León indicated that 10.9% of entity used bike to transport, for 2023 the number got to a 15.7%.
On the other hand, Nuevo León council informed that municipality with more cycling presence is General Escobedo, with a 26.1%. Likewise, the metropolitan area of Monterrey has a 15.7% of cycling.
