Road Users Fail to Appreciate the Special Optical Properties of Retroreflective Materials

OBJECTIVE

To determine whether typical road users appreciate the special optical properties of retroreflective materials.

BACKGROUND

Retroreflective surfaces reflect light back towards the source of the illumination. All drivers benefit from retroreflective materials, as they are required on road signs, on large trailers, in lane delineation, and other traffic control devices. Retroreflective markings can also greatly enhance the conspicuity of pedestrians at night, but pedestrians typically underuse retroreflective markings. One possible reason is that pedestrians may not appreciate the special optical properties of retroreflective materials.

METHOD

Two experiments tested whether observers could correctly predict that retroreflective materials appear remarkably bright when illuminated by a source that is aligned with the observers' eyes. Observers used a magnitude estimation procedure to predict how bright retroreflective and non-retroreflective stimuli would appear during a demonstration designed to highlight retroreflectivity. They then judged the brightness again during the demonstration.

RESULTS

In general, observers underestimated how bright retroreflective stimuli would be and overestimated how bright diffuse reflective and fluorescent stimuli would be. The underestimates for retroreflective stimuli were particularly striking when the observers had not closely examined the stimuli in advance.

CONCLUSION

The fact that road users do not appreciate retroreflectivity may help explain why pedestrians underuse retroreflective markings at night.

APPLICATION

Educational interventions could prove useful in this domain.

Highlighting Bicyclist Biological Motion Enhances Their Conspicuity in Daylight

For safety purposes, it is critical that bicyclists be conspicuous to drivers. We report two experiments that investigated the benefits of bicycle taillights and fluorescent clothing for enhancing the bicyclist's rear conspicuity in daylight. In Experiment 1, 24 participants sat in a car parked on a closed road at each of three distances and rated the conspicuity of four bicyclists displaying taillights that varied in their placement, intensity, and mode. The results confirmed that bicycle taillights can significantly enhance conspicuity in daylight. Varying the placement of the taillights revealed that having an "always on" taillight mounted to each of the rider's ankles was the most conspicuous location to mount taillights, and this effect was particularly strong at greater viewing distances. For seat post-mounted taillights, flashing taillights were rated as more conspicuous. In Experiment 2, 186 participants were passengers on a short drive during which they pressed a button each time they recognized that a bicyclist was present. Each participant passed a test bicyclist wearing one of four clothing configurations. When the cyclist wore a fluorescent yellow jersey paired with fluorescent yellow leg covers, participants responded from a distance that was 3.3 times greater than when the cyclist wore the same jersey without the yellow leg covers. Both of these experiments demonstrate that highlighting bicyclists' pedaling motion enhances their conspicuity when viewed from behind. These results further emphasize the conspicuity benefits of biological motion and provide bicyclists with techniques to enhance their own conspicuity in daylight.