Pedestrian Reflectors

RantWoman's friend who got hit by the car is doing phenomenally. Broken bones are healing nicely. Physical, speech, occupational therapy are all making a difference. RantWoman's friend is blessed both by a huge stream of wonderful friends and an almost indomitable sense of humor in the face of numerous necessary medical intrusions and inconveniences.

Still, RantWoman's friend who got hit by the car is not going to be out in our incredible shrinking daylight very much anytime soon. This post is for the rest of us, the ones of us who ride the bus, walk, who do not want to be fenced in just because the weather is threatening to achieve its usual autumnal sogginess and who most assuredly do want to try to prepare for what comes.

A cool item from the City of Seattle website, rediscovered because RantWoman consulted an actual artifact, a reflectorized zipper pull she stuck on one of her jackets a couple years ago. RantWoman was hoping to acquire more of these actual artifacts. Alas the webpage is from a project that ended quite awhile ago but did leave behind some excellent pedestrian safety info in several languages.
http://www.pedestrianreflectors.com/

A wonderful website full of nerdy statistics and excellent reflectorized gear, as well as many topical links. As an added bonus, this site has frequent references to Finland, a country RantWoman's friend and family returned from visiting just a few days before her accident. Even if now is not your first choice for going to Finland, hang some Finnish glow-in-the-dark animals off your clothing!
http://www.pedsafe.com/

Another really fun site with great copy, at least on the home page. Several other pages appear to be under construction. Also, the site designer really needs to pay better attention to visual contrast.
http://www.pedestrianreflectors.com/

Another site oriented toward kids, but RantWoman suggests borrowing a kid and getting some that match for kids and grownups alike
http://www.finnishgifts.com/unikko-reflectors.html

A company more or less just down the road. Website has some eccentricities for screen reader users. Some pages are fine. Others not so much. Sigh. Excellent mix of lights, reflectors, items RantWoman can happily inflict on several wheelchair users she knows exist on city streets after dark as hulging invisible masses. Also a cool hat if RantWoman decides to do actual hat rather than hatband for her numerous other hats.
http://pedigreen.com/?gclid=COH_39G9l50CFSFRagodWzur_Q


(RantWoman thinks she has about spent enough time shopping and not getting anything bought. For future reference, "pedestrian reflectors" seems to be a fruitful search phrase.)


Some other previous whines, kvetches, fantasies, and raves from RantWoman.
http://rantwoman.blogspot.com/2009/08/hey-who-took-my-daylight-away-and-now.html

http://rantwoman.blogspot.com/2009/04/mail-order.html

http://rantwoman.blogspot.com/2009/02/make-me-glow.html

While RantWoman is in Fantasyland, she must confess to another fixation. RantWoman knows that running shoes and some other footwear come with reflectors of various sorts sewn in. RantWoman though has footwear envy: RantWoman secretly envies all the children she sees with footwear with flashing lights in it! RantWoman is not sure "business casual" covers shoes with flashing lights in them, but if such footwear were available in RantWoman sizes, RantWoman would be more than happy to give it a try. She would though like sensible white and low-key for dress shoe occasions such as the symphony.