General Reflective Tape Articles

Best Color Reflective Tape for Day and Night Visibility

Best Reflective Tape Colors for Reducing Accidents Involving Vehicles (www.tapedealer.com)

Accidents involving vehicles are one of the leading causes of death due to injury in the United States and around the world. (source – NHTSA) In most cases, these accidents are the unfortunate result of one driver not seeing another automobile, pedestrian, bike rider or motorcyclist in time to stop or avoid hitting them. Simply put, increasing visibility day and night increases reaction time which in turn substantially reduces the number of injuries and fatalities. Brightly colored reflective tape is the main method of increasing visibility day and night.

fluorescent lime and orange reflective
Fluorescent Lime and Fluorescent Orange

There are two choices when selecting a reflective tape, glass bead or prismatic.  Roadway applications require a tape that can be seen from long distances and prismatic reflective tapes in bright colors can be seen much farther than standard glass bead reflective tapes. (Thousands of feet instead of hundreds.) The colors below represent the most visible day and night.

  • V98 Prismatic Fluorescent Lime (Great by itself or combined with other colors. Shows up well against darker backgrounds.)
  • V98 Prismatic Fluorescent Orange (Great by itself or combined with other colors. Shows up well against lighter colors.)
  • Prismatic Red (Good when combined with a lighter color like yellow or white.)
  • Prismatic Standard Yellow (Good when combined with a darker color like red or orange.)
  • Prismatic Standard Orange (Good when combined with a lighter color like yellow or white.)
  • Prismatic Standard Blue (Good combined with a lighter color.)

(Prismatic red is available in V82, V92 or V98. Prismatic standard yellow is available in our V82 product line.  Prismatic standard orange is available in our V92 and our V82 line.)

best colors for night time visibility

allv92
Orange and School Bus Yellow (bottom left)

orange_v921

These colors can be combined to create contrasting areas of reflective tape or used alone. Combining colors can greatly increase the visibility of a vehicle. A battenburg or chevron panel is very effective.

If you choose to use a single color a Fluorescent Lime is recommended on a darker background and a Fluorescent Orange is recommended on a lighter background. I prefer the Reflexite V98 conformable prismatic over all other tapes because of its flexibility, durability and brightness.

For more information or to purchase go to www.tapedealer.com .