Tag: reflective tapes

Ideal for summer and winter: white roads

White roads not only do well on Christmas cards. They are also very good for the environment, which plays an important role as the reflective material does. They ensure that it is a lot less warm in the city.

There are already a number of reflective roads in North Holland, another week this week. They also try it out in Amsterdam, and since this spring you can also see them in, yes, Los Angeles. There they painted a special coating over the roads, making them white. It saved a whopping ten degrees. Dark colors absorb light, which makes it warmer. White actually fires the heat. You also notice this when wearing a white or black t-shirt in the summer.

Piet is an engineer and designs highways. He is responsible for the white roads in the Netherlands. Our summers are getting warmer because of climate change. Temperatures can rise considerably in cities in particular, because the heat is difficult to remove because of the buildings. Annoying side-effect is that more dangerous substances are being emitted by cars.

But the new roads have even more advantages. It is also safer in the winter. Just think: if you ride in the dark, you are much better visible on a white road than on gray asphalt. This means that street lighting has to be less fierce, and that also saves energy.

Reflective roads in the Netherlands look less spectacular at first glance than in Los Angeles. This is because Piet prefers not to use the coating. According to him, it wears much faster. He therefore mixes the asphalt with very fine gravel. It is called stone chips. If a lot of cars drive over it, it will wear out and the white will slowly appear. Except for using white roads, people wearing reflective vests or reflective tapes can also keep safety a night.

Reflectors to ensure passive safety

In the dark season, being a cyclist is not only important to see but also to be seen. In addition to the active illumination by the headlamp and rear light reflectors increase passive safety by wearing reflective vests at night.

It is a joke of history that still mandatory pedal reflectors were prescribed in 1937, inter alia, to the National Socialists money into the coffers. Who manufactured and sold them, had to pay royalties to Anton Loeb GmbH – major of a company of the SS, for the quite meaningful innovation turned out to be the surprisingly lucrative business.

Reflector also on battery lighting duty

Regardless of this inglorious past, reflective materials undeniably increase the visibility and thus the safety of cyclists. In addition to pedal reflectors, which, as in the Moto “Reflex Pedal” (55 Euros) – although according to the motto “better than nothing” not completely compliant – are also interpreted in a modern way, a laterally radiating passive lighting on the wheels is prescribed by the SUVs, as well like front and rear reflectors; The omission of the Dynamo obligation has not changed that!

Those who find it very different when thinking of clamping objects between their spokes man fortunately and quite legally resort to an alternative to the popularly known as “cat’s eyes” spoke reflectors: “We have virtually all touring tires fitted with reflective tapes as standard or in the entry area optional available “notes Doris Kbyte van Schwab. Also in the sports arena and with spike tires, there are corresponding models.

Two birds with one stone in a similar way strike headlights and taillights with integrated reflectors, which are even offered in the battery-powered variants. While only one reflector is needed in the front, the SUVs requires a passive second light source at the rear next to a large reflector with Z-mark.

Children are seen even in the dark

The dark season starts and it brings especially cloudy weather and poor visibility with it. Children are among the weakest road users in road traffic. They are particularly vulnerable if they are not sufficiently “visible” to other road users.

In order to be better seen in rain, fog or dusk, children should wear bright and contrasting clothing. Trade offers – quite practically – even jackets with reflective stripes. For jackets or vests, without incorporating reflectors, reflective heat transfer vinyl can be ironed on later for little money.

Also, a good choice is reflective tapes that can be worn around the wrists and ankles and are quickly put on when needed and find a jacket pocket.

For children who ride their bikes, there are even bicycle helmets that light up. The control of lights and reflectors on the bike, which are frequently used in the dark season, should not be forgotten. Because: Especially with clip-on light after a long summer, in which the lights were not needed, suddenly the battery is empty.

School backpacks also have reflective areas. But if these are “pasted” with stickers, they do not serve road safety.

The classic “blinkers”, attached to a jacket or bag, are often lost. This is what Ulrike Margrave. Rector of the Western House Primary School has stated: “They are tearing away quickly.”

That’s why for the first graders of the school for some years in bright yellow vests from the ADAC hooded. Not only are they pretty glaring and well visible a few meters away from other road users. They also have reflective stripes and look pretty fragrant. The I-males from the Western house also find that. “The West is cool,” the students have stated. Class teacher Cornelia Manley has distributed the luminous vest a few days ago in her class. Almost all of the 20 children have been wearing the reflective vest since then. With traffic safety training at the elementary school, they become the right little traffic detectives. And that’s the way it should be in the best case.

The reflective tape is not a reflective tape

Duty to have reflective elements of clothing is in the law since this February. There are still many tragic accidents with “invisible” pedestrians. Most pedestrians did not have any reflective elements. But as BESIP pointed out, some reflective tapes that pedestrians can take do not work as well as they should.

Crossing the reflective ribbon is one of the ways to meet the requirements newly imposed by the Road Act on pedestrians who go in low visibility outside of the village. However, according to the BESIP Department of the Ministry of Transport, not all tapes are the same.

Correctly, they should be seen at 200 meters. “There are also cases where the material works only at a distance of 60 to 70 meters,” said Martin Farrar, director of BESIP. How well the reflex tape should be seen should be a leaflet. Marking directly on the tape. The elements are complying with the European standard EN 13356 are well visible.

In addition to the visibility of the tape itself, the role and location of the tape itself are also played. The look may seem best placed on the sleeve. But it is not so from a safety point of view. The car’s reflectors shine to the ground, so they can see their legs first. The reflective belt on the leg is, therefore, the most effective solution that really guarantees the visibility of the pedestrian up to 200 meters.

Reflective strips this year, police and BESIP employees handed over 300 thousand. Yet many pedestrians still do not use it. For example, during a traffic safety action that took place last week in Suit nod Labem, police officers checked 193 pedestrians, 111 of whom were “invisible”.

For the time being, police officers are usually able to do so. But according to the law, people who do not use reflective vests when they go off the road outside the village under reduced visibility, up to a fine of two thousand dollars.

The police to distribute reflective tapes

Hradec Karloff, – Since the past weekend, pedestrians outside the village have a duty to wear reflective vests.

The Russian roulette of “invisible” pedestrians wandering the unlit sections between the villages has new rules, since the last weekend is the amendment to the Road Act which imposes an obligation to wear reflective elements outside the village, and it mainly takes care of drivers who come back home on the roads between Hradec and High and Vestry or Virago.

“Pedestrians have a duty to wear a reflective safety vest if they are moving outside the village on the side or edge of the road in a place that is not illuminated by public lighting,” says the Ministry of Transport’s press release, with a sigh that: “In the event of a breach of this duty, ranging from zero to two thousand block, from 1,500 to 2,500 thousand in administrative proceedings. ” However, City Police officers have not yet acceded to these sanctions.

“The law gives us the opportunity to solve the situation by agreement. We will respect this principle at the beginning of the amendment. But people, instead of fines, should be afraid of their health. “said Lena, a spokesman for Hradec policemen, but she did not want to anticipate when the” defense time “ended.

“We think better information than repression. That is why we will now focus on pedestrians warning that without reflective tapes they are easily vulnerable on the roads, “she added, saying that the most dangerous sections are located between the connectors of individual municipalities.

Revolution on the roads: The failure of reflective elements is fine!

Revolution on the roads! Today, at midnight, new pedestrian duty has begun, and now they have to wear safety vests at night and in bad visibility to see them well, otherwise, they can face a fine of up to two and a half thousand crowns. But as we found out tonight, pedestrians hardly know about it, and it does not solve it.

New people do not know about the new regulation, or they have to wear reflective elements with reflective materials, simple and simply do not solve. People who return home at night along the road are not at all visible. Police officers can now give the unlit pedestrians a fine of up to two thousand dollars, and in the administrative proceedings, they are likely to be fined by another 500 crowns higher.

For example, some publishers are already thinking about taking their reflective tapes or vests for their regulars, and they will send them on their night returns home.

Police officers across the country in the coming days and weeks are planning a special night action focused on pedestrian controls. In one breath, however, they promise to be a little more benevolent about the fines for the transgressions.

Perhaps the measures already introduced in Slovakia and the number of killed pedestrians has dropped by almost half in five years. In the last three years, more than five hundred pedestrians died in the Czech Republic, more than three hundred in the night.

Drivers must wear reflective vests in casualties

While reflective vests for pedestrians, which cost about 50 to 200 crowns, it is only considered that vests for the driver are already decided. As of January 1, all vehicles must be fitted with a vest which the driver must wear whenever their car has, for example, a fault, a wheel or a road accident.

The amendment to the Road Act, which could begin to apply in the middle of the year, will bring further news on Czech roads. Especially tougher penalties for aggressive drivers.

Overtaking the man or entering the track around the gates that have been launched will be seven points behind, “mice on the roads” in five. These are maneuvers in which most people die on the roads. Much more has to be borne in mind by the motorists for safety belts sewn-in reflective tapes and car seats for child passengers. Here, penalties are tightened.

Conversely, no penalty points would have been made for banal offenses, such as daylight-off or ride-on lanes.

The new feature is also a much tougher fight against illegal car racing in common traffic, such as the Gumball or Diamond Race. Police officers did not have levers. This will change. In the future, it will be possible for drivers who, for example, to drive on the highway at a speed of the twenty-kilometer speed, can take up to two days in a car.

From the beginning of November, reflective safety vests should also be mandatory on all roads.

Police officers want to order reflective vests

While the number of dead drivers is falling rapidly, pedestrians are getting more and more. In November, they accounted for more than a third of the victims of accidents. Police officers want the pedestrian rules to be tightened – perhaps to wear reflective clothing. What other changes can be expected on the roads?

Taking a blue coat and going out in the dark over the road to the next village can be likened to a suicide attempt. According to the BESIP study, the driver of a moving car sees you in such a garbage when it is 18 meters behind you. She has no chance to react. At eighty-kilometer speed, it needs a minimum distance of at least two times.

While the number of dead drivers in the Czech Republic has fallen sharply in recent years, there are more and more victims among pedestrians. Every fifth death on the road is a pedestrian. Nearly two-thirds of them die outside the village.

November’s statistics are even scarier. Of the total number of 82 deaths in traffic accidents, there were 33 pedestrians. “This number is one of the last reasons why we will require the introduction of mandatory reflective elements for pedestrians next year, at least outside the village,” said Leo Trail, head of the traffic police.

In order for the driver to be able to react in the dark in the black, blue or even red dress in time, he would only have to go for forty. On the other hand, with reflective tapes on the clothes, one can see on the road at 200 meters.

Policemen would like to have the obligation to wear reflective vests or elements in the amendment to the Road Act.

BESIP: “Do we see?”

BESIP sends a clear signal: “Be Aware!” In the fourth year of Signal festival, he tried to highlight the importance of using reflective vests and to show a new pedestrian visible trend. On the Fruit Market in Prague, human beings literally lit for four days…

BESIP, with the support of Europe’s “Transport 1” 2, has prepared an exhibition on the Fruit Market in Prague, based on reflexive elements, from their use to clothing to more and more popular reflective tapes. An attractive part of the exposition and some look into the future, was the use of active light on clothing.

Being a festival of light, BESIP also showed the future of pedestrian visibility. He contacted the Technical University in Liberec, where he patented the unique use of nanotechnology to illuminate various items, including clothing. While others lit up a variety of objects, people and dummies lit up in BESIP’s presentation.

As of February 20 this year, an amendment to the law, which clearly sets out pedestrians outside the municipality, is obliged to wear reflective elements that are visible to all other road users, i.e. front, back, and side. In this sophisticated period, it should be remembered that the reduced visibility is not only the time from sunset to its exodus but also fog, heavy rain or snowfall, so reflective elements are mandatory under these conditions even at the time of day.

Above all, reflective elements have saved many lives

Foreign experience has shown that reflective elements can reduce the pedestrian’s participation in a fatal accident by up to ten times, in poor visibility. In other words, 10% of pedestrians would have the chance to survive, and for cyclists, this percentage is even higher – up to 30% of riders on bicycles could live if they were sufficiently visible. That is why it is very important for pedestrians and cyclists to use reflective elements that will clearly increase road safety.

That such elements have their merits, they know, for example, in Estonia. While there were 47 pedestrians killed in 1999, there are only seven in 2010! The fact that the obligation to wear reflective materials in reduced visibility has been enforced in this country has certainly contributed to this. Since 2011, they have even been obliged to wear reflective elements in Estonia even when moving under reduced visibility in the city. However, Estonia is not the only one in Europe. For example, pedestrians in the Scandinavian countries, in Spain, or with our neighbors in Slovakia have this obligation.

Do you know retro reflection?

Unfortunately, in the publication, the most important thing is to define what “retro reflective materials” are and what they should look like. “For example, we have fluorescent materials that increase visibility in daylight and at dusk, but they lose their function in the dark”, explain the pitfalls of a simplified search for Bezique Chief Martin Farrar. In addition, we have found that not every orange or light green working vest is wearing real retro reflective tapes – those that reflect light at night and draw attention to the character in the dark!

Although the transport legislation suggests that the term “retro reflective” refers to the emergency stop of a vehicle outside the village or the permissible pedestrian signs, the executive decree shows examples of orange “roadside” assemblies and reflective vests with the inscription “School”, which in both cases, it is difficult to dress the participants.

In addition, this link is missing in the passage about their new designation. Members have already been caught up during the vote. “Retro reflective materials – it’s a very difficult word and I admit I’m a little confused. It is the Latin word of origin. The reflector means bending, turning, returning. How do I translate retro reflex, I do not know. I probably turn, bend back, back. Or I turn, bend back. I wonder why this term was born. “said Daniel Corte, a deputy, and linguist from TOP 09. For the sake of order: a term that has been spelled out for years is commonly used for the principle of the retro reflection of light…