by Robert Vaughan
Conspicuity means more than just making yourself seen—it means making yourself easy to recognize. Placing a strobe on your helmet will make you visible at night, but it certainly doesn’t make you recognizable. Seeing the two headlights of an oncoming truck doesn’t help if you think it is two motorcycles and try to go between them. Even if you could make yourself look the size of a tractor trailer truck, it wouldn’t be enough. Several studies have proven that reflective markings make even trailers safer.
To be conspicuous, an object must be recognized without confusion or ambiguity. Every second counts in avoiding a crash. A few tenths of a second spent deciding the meaning of what is seen can mean the difference between a close call and a hospital call.
Drivers go through four stages in responding to an object they see:
They detect it.
They identify it.
They make a decision to react.
They act.
Good conspicuity acts to shorten the reaction time in the first three stages.
White reflects five times more light than red but red means danger. It says stop. Red and white are used for stop signs and railroad crossings. Red also appears brighter to the human eye than it really is.
Drivers are used to interpreting these colors as something to avoid. Using the same colors at night on retroreflective tape on helmets or vests when riding a motorcycle will undoubtedly reduce our chances of being hit by making us both visible and recognizable as a motorcycle.