A GUIDE to driving in the fog was published on the Oxford Mail website yesterday giving 10 handy top tips, compiled by the AA, on how best to tackle low visibility at this time of year.

It was all useful information like turning on your fog lights, not tailing rear lights and opening your window and listening for traffic as well as looking.

But to my surprise there was no mention of watching out for cyclists.

It’s not a good time of year for cycling on roads – as well as the reduced visibility there are leaves everywhere, impending frosts and cycling in fog can often leave you as wet as cycling in pure rain.

As I cycled along the foggy residential streets of north Oxford I couldn’t help but notice how even with hi-vis clothing and rear lights other cyclists were not appearing in the fog as quickly as they should have.

Scarily, as I overtook one such cyclist with a rear light that was to their credit, once close, visible, another black figure appeared in front of them – a complete nutter cycling with no rear light at all and dark clothing.

I am a big campaigner of cyclists realising how important it is to have lights on their bikes but to my discredit the brightness of such lights has not featured heavily in my argument as the overarching dispute has been to persuade that lights are needed in the first place. The only lights that stand out properly in thick fog are bright flashing ones –he mind instantly recognises the light as a cyclist because cars and motorcycles don’t flash.

Once recognised as the slower road user, hopefully the traffic will slow down and give a wide berth.

We owe it to ourselves and other motorists to stand out and by doing so we give adequate warning to slow down.

Of course, reflective materials and pedal reflectors are helpful – anything that screams cyclist will make you more visible on the roads.

Look out for the new Proviz 360 jackets to replace your old yellow mac. With a 100 per cent reflective outer-shell the reflection in the car headlights is out of this world.

But we cyclists also need to be kinder to each other. Accidents happen when we are confused as to each other’s movements. Guilty of this myself, I once signalled very quickly right which caused the cyclist behind to swerve as I manoeuvred myself into my turn – the arm signal should have been longer, especially in foggy conditions.

And for some reason we don’t tend to signal when we are stopping in the UK. In Holland they bring their hand up in a halt position to let the cyclist behind know they are coming to a stop.

I have seen a three-cyclist pile-up due to insufficient stopping distances, but there is now a handy brake light by Sigma that could help warn of imminent stopping.

Mirroring the sentiments of the AA’s handy driving tips we as cyclists must also take more care in the fog. The importance of being seen couldn’t be more evident, but as we strive to achieve visibility in the normal conditions we must also go further in the fog and really make ourselves stand out.