HAVE you made a New Year resolution? I won’t bore you with mine, it’s not very original. Once when I was a child I renounced sweets for Lent and proudly kept that up for years, before I finally gave in to a butterscotch.

What I didn’t let on was that after the first Lent, I decided chocolate was not a sweet because there was no way I was going without Easter eggs.

A common resolution, often made by people collapsed on the sofa and stuffed full of turkey and Christmas pud, is to get fit or go on a diet. As a result there are a lot of people running or cycling on the roads after dark at the moment.

As a cyclist myself, I like to think I keep an eye out for bicycles when I’m driving, but they can be difficult to see at night. Good lights help, but, speaking as a motorist, it’s not easy to pick out a small rear bike light amid all the big car and motorbike rear and head lights, traffic lights, etc.

That’s not to provide motorists with an excuse. I am in favour of the proposal to bring the UK in line with other European countries where the more powerful road user is assumed to be at fault in a collision, so the lorry driver has more responsibility than a car driver, a car driver more than a cyclist and so on. But cyclists and joggers can give drivers a helping hand.

The other evening long after dark, I was waiting at the lights to come out of Micklegate Bar when a black human shape suddenly appeared across the ranked waiting headlights opposite on Blossom Street. The cyclist concerned had just come out of Queen Street. Without the headlight backdrop, he or she was totally invisible. As they turned right, I saw their rear red light. They were riding legally. But how much better it would have been if they had had some kind of reflective clothing on?

The bike gear manufacturers won’t like me for saying this, but you don’t have to wear an expensive custom-made high-visibility jacket to be seen. There are plenty of cheap fluorescent yellow tabards around. Riders on last September’s SkyRide through York city centre were given one each for free.

Later on the same journey, this time on Holgate Road, I spotted some small flashes bobbing up and down at shin level as they headed towards Acomb.

They belonged to a couple of joggers who had high visibility strips on their tracksuit bottoms. It made them visible, so I was ready to react should they have wanted to cross the road. As it happened they didn’t while I had them in view, but somewhere along their journey they must have needed to cross a road of some description.

According to the latest sport participation statistics, there are more people regularly taking part in athletics and cycling than playing football; two million each for cycling and athletics compared to 1.8 million footballers. The figures probably include those in training for marathons, fun runs and bike sportives.

That’s four million people potentially on the roads after dark, plus all those in the other sports who use running and cycling for general fitness training. The roads are crowded with potential accidents waiting to happen.

So here are two New Year resolutions if you haven’t already made one. If you’re a motorist, that you will take more care while out on the roads after dark to keep an eye out for cyclists and pedestrians. And if you are a cyclist or a pedestrian, to buy, borrow or beg some high-visibility clothing and wear it every time while out on the roads after dark.