Product Review

Like many of you that cycle, I am well and truly sick of being endangered by motorists who do not give us enough room on the roads. Sometimes the motorists are stupid and are intentionally trying to bully us off the road--like a certain Deputy Constable from Montgomery County. Other times they're just ignorant and don't know how to safely pass a cyclist. Well there's no cure for stupid, but ignorance can be educated away.

"Share the road," is fine, I guess, but it's just too general and might even imply that cyclists are required to get out of the way and "share" with cars. In reality, it is cars who are to yield the right of way to cyclists that they overtake on the road, passing only when they can safely do so.

That message is what this "3 Feet Please" jersey is for--to educate and remind motorists concerning how much space they should give us on the road. There are two versions, one with a blank front for states that don't have a safe passing law, and one with a front that says, "It's The Law."

I bought one here with my own money and I have no connection or association with the cyclist who developed the jersey. I bought the one with "It's the Law" on the front in anticipation that Texas will pass the "Safe Passing Bill" currently pending in the Legislature. And even if they don't it is still against the law to fail to yield the right of way, and 3 feet seems little enough to ask.

The jersey is a high quality Voler jersey with superior graphics. It is a looser club fit so order a size smaller if you want skin tight. It is cool and wicks moisture well, and comes in short or long sleeve. As far as materials or workmanship, it is as good or better than any of the other jerseys I own, so you don't have to skimp on functional equipment just to send a good message.

I wore mine last weekend as I was riding an unfamiliar and potentially highly trafficked route. It could have been my strobe blinky light (which can be seen from space) or my special attention to take the lane where it was not safe to share, or it might have been that I was riding in a more enlightened area of Texas than my normal Houston route, but whatever it was, the cars did seem to give me more space and I only had a couple of incidents in which motorists (one of which was a motorcycle in too damn much of a hurry) failed to give me enough space. Even there, none of them were as close as I commonly get in the Houston area.

So, Trigreyhound gives this two very enthusiastic thumbs up. It's a good educational tool, it makes you highly visible, and it just might save your life. If there were hundreds and thousands of such jerseys on the roadway, maybe the safety message would start to take hold. I encourage anyone who rides on the road to click on over to here and pick up one for yourself.