Although placing reflective markers on pedestrians major joints can makepedestrians more conspicuous to drivers at night, it has been suggested that this biological motion effect may be reduced when visual clutter is present. We tested whether extraneous points of light affected the abilityof 12 younger and 12 older drivers to see pedestrians as they drove on a closed road at night. Pedestrians wore black clothing alone or with retroreflective markings in four different configurations. One pedestrian walkedin place and was surrounded by clutter on half of the trials. Another wasalways surrounded by visual clutter but either walked in place or stood still. Clothing configuration, pedestrian motion, and driver age influencedconspicuity but clutter did not. The results confirm that even in the presence of visual clutter pedestrians wearing biological motion configurations are recognized more often and at greater distances than when they wear a reflective vest. (A) Reprinted with permission from Elsevier.
Abstract