The best for your safety would be if the reflective elements were copying your front and back outline. But who would want to go out of the pub or evening out in a reflective vest…
“We place the reflective tape in the direction of the road, the right side of the body, on the ankle or on the wrist,” explains Martin Farad.
However, if only one tape is available, it is better to place it on your ankle. “The light of the car shine from the bottom and illuminate the tape on the ankle before the wrist,” notes the head of the BESIP. If you have a reflex tape attached to your wrist, be careful not to cover it with your sleeve.
If you feel as good as a reflective tape like a lighted mobile phone, remember that not only do you fail to comply with the statutory duty, but you risk the phone will run out and the driver will not see you.
Conversely, if you would like to underline the effect of reflection, you can shine with fluorescent colors in the shade or rain. It does not provide the reflection of the light, but it will prolong the distance the driver sees you.
Every extra meter decides
It would seem like a cumbersome recalculation of every inch. It is a necessary malignancy. Every additional meter available to the driver to brake or safely avoiding is calculated on the unlit road.
So, know that a pedestrian with visible reflective safety vests will record the driver at a distance of 200 meters. At 65 kilometers per hour, he has enough time to figure out the potential danger, decides what to do, maneuver, and comfortably completes.
In dark clothing, the distance you see on the side is shrunk to just 18 meters. At the same speed, the car is blinking in one second. “The driver has virtually no chance to react to the pedestrian and avoid him safely,” emphasizes Martin Farrar.
And we still talk about speed that only a few people get outside the village. At a speed of 90 kilometers per hour, a chauffeur needs a safe walking distance of at least 90 meters, and even in the white cloth that is the best reflex after that, you can only see it at a distance of 55 meters.