Dear Casper Pedestrians: Black Is NOT a Night Time Walking Color

In elementary school, we were taught to wear bright colors when walking at night. It seems that for a lot of folks, that very sound advise has been forgotten.

I have bene noticing a disturbing trend in the Casper area for a while now of people wearing very dark colored clothing while walking the streets at night.

It's not that big of deal on well-lit streets and main roads, but on the not as busy back streets and more residential areas, its downright dangerous. Add in inclement weather, like this evening (Thursday, February 16th, 2024), and it's even more perilous, potentially even fatal.

As a matter of fact, according to a Multiple Linear Regression (MLR) model:

Dark clothing color increased the probability of an accident occurrence. In fact, the most dangerous situation for pedestrians was walking in the direction of the vehicle’s movement at night, as it was very difficult for drivers to see a pedestrian at night.

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Data gleaned from the NYTimes.com shows a rise in pedestrian deaths at night. Something even more disturbing about the study is that pedestrian and cyclist deaths at night have been increasing at an alarming rate since around 2009.

While drivers fiddling with smartphones and other bad driving techniques are to blame for some of these numbers, lack of visibility plays a big role as well. You may not be able to control drivers, but you can control how easy you are to spot.