This post may annoy you. Sorry. I’m going to conflate two pieces of advice about what clothing to wear.

For pedestrians (and cyclists) at night on dark roads: do not wear black.

For lovely young women in unsafe locations: do not dress like sluts.

I’ll take these in reverse order.

The ‘slut’ comment was made by a senior policeman. It made quite a stir and was apologized for. I mentioned this at the time. What bothers me about the stir (not the comment) is this:

• Nobody pretended not to know what ‘dress like a slut’ means.
• Nobody pretended not to think that such apparel was in vogue.

Unfortunately, we live in an imperfect, and unsafe world. Dress as you like, but do consider the consequences of added risk in already risky situations.

Someone might bump into you in a way you don’t like.

Which leads me to the ‘dark clothing at night’ point.

I nearly drove over a pedestrian once. It was late at night, the street lighting was weak, and there were overshadowing trees. The pavement was dull black with no white lines showing, in a light drizzle. A person dressed entirely in black was walking down the centre of the road.

This was in Coldwater, Ontario. After about ten o’clock on Sunday it’s about as dead as a small town can get. I was not speeding. Yet I saw this person just in time.

Later, I mentioned this near-miss to a local. To my shock, it appears that this same person was fatally struck at this same location wearing similar dark clothing. Only a week after my near-miss.

So, dress as you like, but do consider the consequences of added risk in already risky situations.

Someone might bump into you in a way you don’t like.