Gosh! It was 11 years ago that I wrote about how evolution had provided certain species with protective colouration, either to protect themselves (usually from being eaten), or to warn others that they are a danger. (See: Black and Yellow means Danger)
The post was about wasps and cyclists both wearing black and yellow so that they could be easily seen and avoided.
What has happened since is proof that evolution is a continuing process - nothing to do with wasps, which continue to dress in their bright, fear inducing, warning colours - but cyclists. When I wrote the earlier post I lived in urbania, streetlights, wide footpaths, and traffic at 30mph or less. I now live in deepest, darkest Devon.
The cycling clones who either live in, or visit the countryside for their holidays, have, by and large, evolved from the conspicuous, brightly coloured pestilence that you could see from afar, your heart sinking with dismay at joining a queue of slow moving traffic unable to pass with the compulsory 1.5 metre gap, to a covert, secretive, and almost invisible camouflaged shape lurking in the shadows and hedgerows.
What has happened to the gaudy, hi-viz, eye-screechingly yellow tops? They have been replaced with, grey, green, brown, and black - and not on their own, sometimes in combination.
Now, the lanes of north Devon are lined with banks, bushes, walls, and trees. These, in turn, cast shadows so the standard colour-scheme is ... grey, green, brown, and black, usually in combination.
I've tried to understand this change. Has being visible caused them to become targets? Is there some fashion where yellow is no longer de rigueur and wearing it is an embarrassment? Have cyclists, like lemmings, some kind of death-wish? As a keen motorcyclist I was more than happy to wear bright reflective gear to avoid the SMIDSY effect (Sorry Mate I Didn't See You|).
I shall continue to give them a wide berth - assuming I see them, of course - because; I have no desire to hear their inane drivel if they think I'm too close, pathetic whinging should I bounce them into the bushes, or have to polish off the nasty marks they leave on the paintwork.
I can't envisage that being camouflaged will do their cause any good, and will be interested to see if any court cases are decided against them on the grounds of failing to ensure their own safety.
I'll revisit the matter in another 11 years.
