We investigated the nighttime conspicuity benefits of adding electroluminescent (EL) panels to pedestrian clothing that contains retroreflective elements.

Researchers have repeatedly documented that pedestrians are too often not sufficiently conspicuous to drivers at night and that retroreflective materials can enhance the conspicuity of pedestrians. However, because retroreflective elements in clothing are effective only when they are illuminated by the headlamps of an approaching driver, they are not useful for pedestrians who are positioned outside the beam pattern of an approaching vehicle’s headlamps. Electroluminescent materials—flexible luminous panels that can be attached to clothing—have the potential to be well suited for these conditions.

Using an open-road course at night, we compared the distances at which observers responded to pedestrians who were positioned at one of three lateral positions (relative to the vehicle’s path) wearing one of two high-visibility garments.

The garment that included both EL and retroreflective materials yielded longer response distances than the retroreflective-only garment. This effect was particularly strong when the test pedestrian was positioned farthest outside of the area illuminated by headlamps.

These findings suggest that EL materials can further enhance the conspicuity of pedestrians who are wearing retroreflective materials.

EL materials can be applied to garments. They may be especially valuable to enhance the conspicuity of roadway workers, emergency responders, and traffic control officers.