The high-visibility vest itself is actually a good thing. Many cyclists wear them in order to be a shining example of the traffic turnaround even at dusk. As a driver, you can see them from afar and brake with a cheerful smile when a cyclist once again takes the morally justified right-of-way at the red light.
The high-visibility vest was once the Gucci bag among functional clothing items. Whoever wore them was noticed. And it awakened longings for a vacation in Bella Italia, where it was already part of the scene on the Strada del Sole in the noughties.
Along with sunscreen and swimming trunks, it was an integral part of holiday luggage – and when loading the car, people often cheerfully hummed “pack the high-visibility vest, . . . and then let’s go to Lake Garda”. The Italians had shown the way: If you’re going to end up stranded on the side of the road with a breakdown, then at least do it in style – and as is often the case when it comes to fashion, the rest of Europe eventually followed suit.
Then, due to the yellow vest movement in France, the image of the high-visibility vest plummeted to the level of moon-washed jeans and Ed Hardy jeans. The Gilets Jaunesthey were the ones with the burning roadblocks and gasoline in their brains.
The climate activists today are of course completely different. For them, the high-visibility vest is a symbol of the peaceful and friendly message that global warming cannot continue like this. For many petrol and diesel-savvy people, the yellow or orange vests are a red flag because those wearing them deny them free travel. The Bavarian judiciary and the executive also see red; for them, the high-visibility vest is something like the Hells Angels logo of the superglue mafia.
In Munich, this not only has consequences for the men and women stuck on the streets. Like now in the Evening News As was to be read, construction workers are not immune to spontaneous police checks. Road users should even call emergency services in a panic as soon as there is a neon yellow or orange light somewhere in the distance.
The fear of traffic jams is greater than that of climate collapse. Because of the latter, no one has ever been late for a beer after work. When that happens, those behind the wheel howl louder than their engines, something that even the most hard of hearing representatives of law and order don’t want to listen to for long.
So it’s better to immediately suspect everyone who wears high-visibility vests. So that the personal data recordings do not stop its people from working and the construction sites in the city are not delayed even further, the construction department should already be thinking about neon pink high-visibility vests to rule out confusion with climate stickers. Pretty in pink on a jackhammer, a Barbie outfit for construction workers: If only that weren’t the It accessory of the year!