 
I firmly believe that the two most important things for a cyclist are a helmet and being visible. A helmet provides protection in case of an accident and being visible helps avoid an accident. How many times have we heard the excuse that the driver of a car that has just struck a bicyclist did not see the bicyclist? Yes, often times the driver is distracted by something else. But I also believe that many times the bicyclist simply blends into the background and is easily not recognized if the driver is not alert and paying attention. I am not defending motorists, but stating my disdain for the current trend of black and dark colored clothing for bicyclists. I find these bicyclists hard to spot when I am driving and I am more conscious of the possible presence of bicyclist than most. A recent bicycling safety issue of the Journal of the Australasian College of Road Safety has an article entitled: "Cyclist visibility at night: Perceptions of visibility do not necessarily match reality." Following is an abstract from that article:
My experience is that visibility is not only a problem at night, but at other times of the day such as cloudy and rainy days. I believe that some of the results of the above article are also applicable to riding on cloudy or rainy days. The best way to be visible is to buy high visibility clothing. Unfortunately this is difficult in that manufacturers are more interested in selling "cool" looking dark clothing. If maybe your wardrobe is complete and new and you really don't want to replace good stuff, there are options. One thing that I found that works very well is a high visibility vest. I purchased a lightweight yellow vest that will fit over my "dark" winter jacket and give me that extra bit of visibility. In the spring and fall I have a high visibility wind breaker vest that I wear over my long sleeve jerseys. In the summer time I wear my LMB yellow share the road jerseys as often as they are cleaned. In the winter I wear a bright yellow helmet cover. Over the years I have watched the riders in our tours go down the road. The thing that one sees first is the back of their helmet. Helmets with blinky lights located here are an excellent means to help visibility. I urge you to think about your bicycle clothing as not only "stylish," but also a way to be visible and not blend into the background.
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Visibility limitations make cycling at night particularly dangerous. We previously reported cyclists' perceptions of their own visibility at night and identified clothing configurations that made them feel visible. In this study we sought to determine whether these self-perceptions reflect actual visibility when wearing these clothing configurations. In a closed-road driving environment, cyclists wore black clothing, a fluorescent vest, a reflective vest, or a reflective vest plus ankle and knee reflectors. Drivers recognized more cyclists wearing the reflective vest plus reflectors (90%) than the reflective vest alone (50%), fluorescent vest (15%) or black clothing (2%). Older drivers recognized the cyclists less often than younger drivers (51% vs. 27%). The findings suggest that reflective ankle and knee markings are particularly valuable at night, while fluorescent clothing is not. Cyclists wearing fluorescent clothing may be at particular risk if they incorrectly believe themselves to be conspicuous to drivers at night. 
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