Lifepaint

[Crow]

Just surfing web, and i came accross www.volvolifepaint.com . Seems it is paint that is invisible at daylight, but turns reflective at night when car headlights hit it. You can basically add it to your clothes, bicyckles, etc gear for making yourself more visible at dark hours. This is basically designed for bicycklists and pedestrians, but there surely is more useful functions.

Has anyone here tried it?

[Grant Lamontagne]

I've never heard of it but I should give it a shot.

Def

[Zed]

Ive submited for updates 

[Mike, Lord of the Spammers!]

Yeah Volvo has be insisting that all bicycle manufactures use it and apparently has seen about making it mandatory in the EU.

[Chako]

What a lovely idea....too bad it isn't permanent and wears off in a week. Sounds like you might need to keep buying the paint over time. Can we say cha ching.

[Etherealicer]

What a lovely idea....too bad it isn't permanent and wears off in a week. Sounds like you might need to keep buying the paint over time. Can we say cha ching.

Or maybe not, Volvo has a track record of not profiting from life-saving technology (3-point seat belt patent)

that said

Problem I
As a avid cyclist I doubt this will help a lot, because the biggest problem is that with the ever brighter headlights, the car drivers don't see anything outside of their cone of light. As a result they don't see (or spot it very late) anything coming from the side. Best thing you can do as cyclist is have strong head-/back light and additionally some side facing lights.

Problem II
Also they are obviously car-drivers that invented this. They should think why their instruments are dimly lit for night drive. If the bike lights up like this you make the cyclist completely blind. I have those scotch reflectors on my spokes (see below) and already those can be irritating.

[hiraethus]

Forcing more vulnerable road users to adapt doesn't solve the problem.  If the driver's not looking or doesn't give a smurf all the reflective paint in the world won't make a blind bit of difference.

Could make for some awesome graffiti though.

[Cupboard]

As someone who drives on a lot of single track country lanes which are very popular with cyclists, I am so grateful when they wear hi-vis jackets/helmets. It makes a huge difference in spotting them early and they're easy to spot as they're high up too.

I'm really not so keen on cyclists that pootle round with dark clothing and dark bikes - especially when it's dark, I've come so close to killing one when I came round a corner with a car coming the other way and a completely unlit cyclist in between us.

Cyclists in Norfolk would also do well to learn what passing places are for and to actually use them. Me stopping a tractor and trailer by a passing space is not an excuse to try and push past me. 

[Mike, Lord of the Spammers!]

I use those spoke reflectors on mine and my boy's bicycles and they work really well at junctions

Multiple good quality lights and a switched on cycling style are your only real protection sadly. I almost got knocked of four times yesterday in the midday sun!!!