Date:         Mon, 27 Jul 2009 00:34:04 -0400
Reply-To:     Jonathan Poole <jfpoolio@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Jonathan Poole <jfpoolio@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      conspicuity
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Howdy List,

I glanced at a few of the recent posts on the thread where an idiot driver
almost caused some serious incidents.  I'm sure glad that no crashes
resulted from the attempted reverse in traffic, it sounds like it could have
been very bad.

I thought I'd chime in on the addition of reflective material on the back of
the van.  I also like to not have reflectors all over my van all the time as
one poster mentioned.  In order to have reflectors when I most need them,
but to have a normal looking van the rest of the time, I stuck on the red 3m
reflective tape on the back of the driver and passenger door and on the
bottom of the rear hatch.

If one of the two front doors is partially open then back of the door (where
the latch bits are) and subsequently the reflectors show.  This way I can
partially latch those doors if I'm on the side of the road and I gain a
short strip of red reflector near the front of the van.  I really like that
when I open my door at night to get out and traffic is coming alongside they
see the appearance of a red spot as the door opens.  The space on level with
the drip rail (in the middle of the door vertically) at back of the door
(back is towards the engine end of the van) is where I applied the
reflectors.

The other place that I added the red tape is along the bottom of the rear
hatch.  When on the side of the road at night with the rear hatch up there
is then a nice red reflective bar across the bottom of the rear hatch which
is facing oncoming traffic.  Again, this doesn't show with the hatch down
but a big red bar about 6 feet off of the ground is a good thing in some
situations, namely when trying to fiddle with an engine in the dark with
traffic rushing by (should help concentration slightly).  It has only
happened to me once that I was on the side of the interstate at night but
ever since I've slowly been upping my visibility in case it happens again.
Maybe a road worker will give me one of their nice reflective vests that I
can wear should I find myself in a late night road side maneuver?

Now for extra blinkers up high (for driving and more aft blinking hazards
while on road side) and a good third brake light.  I get sick of folks not
noticing my blinkers,, I'm sure ya'll know what I'm talking about.  Maybe
they just don't want me to pull in front of them as it is likely to slow
them down?

Jonathan Poole
'83 AC Westy.