Using retro-reflective cloth to enhance drivers’ judgment of pedestrian walking direction at night-time

•Fatal pedestrian collisions are over-represented at night.•Poor pedestrian conspicuity is a leading factor in these collisions.•Retro-reflective material on the moveable joints (biomotion) can enhance pedestrian conspicuity and safety.•Biomotion clothing increase drivers’ accuracy in judging pedestrians’ walking direction. Purpose: Fatal pedestrian collisions are over-represented at night and poor conspicuity is believed to be a leading causative factor. Retro-reflective clothing enhances pedestrian conspicuity, particularly when placed in a biological motion or “biomotion” configuration. In this study, we explored how various retro-reflective clothing configurations affected the ability to judge the direction of a pedestrian walking across the road, which has important implications for collision avoidance. Methods: Participants included 21 young drivers (mean age 21.6 ± 2.0 years) with normal vision. A closed-road circuit was used to assess the accuracy of drivers’ judgement of the direction of walking of a pedestrian at night-time wearing one of five different clothing configurations: four with retro-reflective materials placed in different locations (Biomotion, Legs + Torso, Torso Only, Legs Only), and a control wearing only black clothing (Street). Participants were seated in a stationary vehicle with low beam headlamps, 135 m from a pedestrian, who walked across the road from both sides, in different directions (towards the car, straight across the road, or away from the car). Outcome measures included drivers’ response accuracy and confidence ratings for judging pedestrian walking direction. Results: Accuracy in judging pedestrian walking direction differed significantly across the clothing configurations (p