Posted on Jun 21, 2014
CW2 Officer In Charge
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I've heard people say that wearing reflective gear will help driver's see motorcyclists more easily on the road, but if a vehicle driver is on their cell or not paying attention they won't see them at all. What are your thoughts?
Posted in these groups: 5ab7caaa Motorcycles31m8esm34pl Safety
Edited 10 y ago
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Responses: 6
SSG Paul Ellis
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Wearing them during the night makes sense, but not during the day. Reflective vests don't reflect in daylight. There's no light differential.
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SSG Paul Ellis
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Let me tell you what happened at Ft. Hood. In 2009,we had a CG who rode. He enstated Phantom Thunder and set a PPE policy of full PPE and a long sleeve, bright shirt (at least) during the day. We wore reflective vests at night. He understood that reflective vests work through light differential. (That is: they reflect in the dark when a bright light - like a headlight - is shined on them. In a bright Texas day, vests don't reflect. You might as well just wear a bright red jacket.)

So he left and we got a new CG. Suddenly, reflective vests were mandatory in the day as well. Interestingly, this CG didn't ride. Even more interesting was the explanation (actually given) for the change: "The gate guards couldn't determine a brightly-colored long sleeve shirt"...after having done so for 2-3 years

Now, reflective vests are only" encouraged" due to safety stats that they don't affect daytime accidents (and because someone raised a stink about having to buy required equipment.
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LTC Acquisition Intelligence
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AR says you only need the reflective vest at night, and that makes sense. That being said, almost every post I have been to, the vest is treated like the PT belt, and it is supposed to be on you all the time. I say the reflective material is good at night (it would be nice to get some data from NTSB or DOT to show if it statistically helps).
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