“Pedestrians deserve a brake.”
After dark, help everyone be seen sooner.
Illustration made with AI assistance. Detection distances are estimates based on published ranges; reaction time (1.5 s) and braking (0.7 g) are standard planning assumptions. The end card shows the project's earlier web address. Our real footage will replace it. About our field study
In low light, dark clothing can hide a person from a driver until it is almost too late. BeVizible turns official crash data and vision science into simple, kind guidance, so people get spotted sooner: first by human drivers, and by the cars that are still learning to see us.
Bars: share of the 7,080 U.S. pedestrian deaths in 2024 in each 3-hour window. Sunset and dark hours are calculated live for San José. NHTSA, Pedestrians: 2024 Data (Figure 2)
Which color disappears first at dusk?
Drag from sunset into the dark. As light fades, your eyes shift toward blue-green and away from red, so colors do not fade at the same speed.
Illustration of the Purkinje effect, an established finding in vision science. The fade rates shown are not measured. BeVizible's field study is filming this at sunset to measure it for real. Britannica: Purkinje effect
Help every pedestrian be seen, by people first and machines too.
Most safety advice stops at “wear something bright.” Research shows where you place reflective material matters far more, and that some automatic braking systems on new cars can miss the very patterns that help human drivers most. We turn that into clear, kind, non-alarmist guidance anyone can use tonight.
Verified, sourced numbers
Every number on this site links to its original source: NHTSA, GHSA, IIHS, the City of San José and peer-reviewed studies.
Placement matters
Research shows reflective material on the moving joints is recognized far sooner than the same material on a vest. An open standard for brands is an idea we are exploring, not a program yet.
Our own field study
Students are preparing a filmed visibility test and a blind viewer survey to measure what published research has not tested yet. Results will be posted once measured.
Our city is not immune.
San José adopted Vision Zero in 2015, the fourth U.S. city to do so. Its 2025 Vision Zero Action Plan aims to cut deaths and severe injuries 30% by 2030 and end them by 2040.
Be part of the number
Every tap is one more person choosing to be seen after dark, and it helps us learn what actually changes minds.
From open data to a decision in seconds
We start from the research
Published detection distances and official crash data from NHTSA, with every source linked.
We translate the science
Vision research becomes a plain-language read on how soon a driver could see you.
You get a clear answer
A simple visibility level plus specific advice on what to wear and what to skip.
Who are you?
Pick yourself. Each group faces different risks on the street, so each gets its own number, three tips and the research behind them.
Being seen starts with where the light is.
In the dark, a person in dark clothing can stay hidden until a driver is dangerously close. Reflective material helps, but placement is the real lever.
How your eye finds a person in the dark
Contrast comes first
Headlights only reveal what bounces light back. Dark fabric absorbs it, so a walker stays hidden until the beam is nearly on them.
Motion says “human”
Reflectors on ankles, wrists and knees swing in the rhythm of a walk. The brain reads this “biological motion” almost instantly.
Placement beats brightness
A vest on the chest barely moves as you walk. The same material on the joints reads as a person far sooner.
Same reflective strip. Two very different results.
BeVizible serves both audiences: the human drivers on the road tonight, and the automatic systems learning to see us.
In closed-road testing, drivers detected a walker with reflective markers on the joints at 3.4 times the distance of the same walker in a vest with the same amount of reflective material (Wood et al., 2005).
In a January 2025 IIHS test, two of three pedestrian braking systems did not slow at all for a dummy wearing reflective strips on its limbs and joints. The third stopped in nearly every run. It is a fixable blind spot.
How far a driver detects you, by placement
Bars use the verified 3.4× vest-to-joints ratio (Wood et al., 2005). The dark-clothing bar is illustrative.
When and where it happens (2024 U.S. data)
Why every second counts
Progress is real, but fragile
U.S. drivers struck and killed 6,732 people walking in 2025. That is down 7% and the third straight yearly drop, but still 5% above 2019.
GHSA, 2025 preliminary data (July 2026)Myths, meet the evidence
The evidence, and what is a model
We keep hard facts and estimates separate. Here is every claim on this site and where it comes from.
76% of U.S. pedestrian deaths in 2024 happened in the dark.NHTSA, Pedestrians: 2024 Data (June 2026)
Drivers detected joint reflectors at 3.4× the distance of an equal-material chest vest.Wood et al., 2005 (closed-road study)Figure stated in Tyrrell et al., 2009
Two of three tested braking systems did not slow at all for reflective limb strips.IIHS, January 2025
6,732 people walking were killed in the U.S. in 2025, down 7%.GHSA, 2025 preliminary data (July 2026)
Dashboard detection distances are demonstration estimates, not measurements.BeVizible model, labeled wherever it appears
What the research says about being seen
Eighteen findings from peer-reviewed studies and official safety agencies, grouped by when, what you wear, and who is doing the seeing. Each one says what it means for you and links to its source.
When: light and timing
Across 193,000 U.S. nighttime pedestrian deaths (1975 to 2022), deaths were 5% lower on the brightest moonlit nights, 17% lower under clear skies, and 39% lower in rural areas with little street lighting.
What it means: Even a little extra light makes a big difference. Dark streets are the problem, not just night.
Tyndall, Economics of Transportation, 2025In the 5 weeks after clocks go back in the fall, fatal pedestrian and cyclist crashes rose 13%. After the spring change, they fell 24%.
What it means: Early November is when the walk home suddenly happens in the dark.
Woods, Weast & Monfort (IIHS), J. Safety Research, 2025Of the crash types studied, those involving pedestrians were the most sensitive to light level, in some cases showing up to seven times more risk at night than in daytime.
What it means: Darkness raises the risk for people on foot more than for people in cars.
Sullivan & Flannagan, Accident Analysis & Prevention, 2002In the Netherlands, road lighting cut injury crashes by about 50%. Pedestrians' crash risk in darkness rose about 140% on lit rural roads and about 360% on unlit ones.
What it means: Where a street cannot be lit, being seen matters even more.
Wanvik, Accident Analysis & Prevention, 2009At intersections, crashes linked to sun glare were more likely on east-west roads, and glare was worse in spring, fall and winter than in summer.
What it means: Dusk is not only dark. Near sunset, drivers heading west may be looking straight into the sun. (This study covered all intersection crashes, not only pedestrians.)
Mitra, Safety Science, 2014On Halloween, the risk of a pedestrian death was 43% higher than on the same evening a week before or after. For children aged 4 to 8 it was about 10 times higher, and 5 to 8 p.m. was the riskiest window.
What it means: Add reflective tape to costumes, carry a light, and drive slowly through neighborhoods.
Staples et al., JAMA Pediatrics, 2018 (UBC summary)What you wear
On an unlit road, drivers noticed pedestrians wearing white, grey or black clothes at only 17 to 50 m. Reflective vests were noticed beyond 200 m.
What it means: Color helps a little. Reflective material helps a lot.
Babić et al., Safety Science, 2021With no glare, drivers recognized a pedestrian wearing reflective markers on the moving joints at about 165 m on average, roughly three times farther than the same pedestrian in a vest with the same amount of reflective material. A later paper by the same group put the ratio at 3.4 times.
What it means: Where you wear reflective material matters as much as whether you wear it.
Wood, Tyrrell & Carberry, Human Factors, 2005, as reported in Tyrrell et al., 2004Response distances were longest for the full set of joint markers, and stayed surprisingly long with markers on just the ankles and wrists.
What it means: Simple wrist and ankle bands are a practical, low-cost option.
Balk, Tyrrell, Brooks & Carpenter, Perception, 2008From 135 m away at night, drivers judged a pedestrian's walking direction correctly 80% of the time when reflective material was on the joints, versus 33% for black clothing.
What it means: Drivers can tell not just that you are there, but which way you are going.
Black et al., J. Safety Research, 2021In daylight, a cyclist wearing a fluorescent yellow jersey plus matching leg covers was recognized from 3.3 times farther away than with the jersey alone.
What it means: Highlighting movement works in the daytime too.
Edewaard, Fekety, Szubski & Tyrrell, Accident Analysis & Prevention, 2020Fluorescent yellow, red and orange improve detection in daytime. At night, lights and retroreflective materials do, especially when arranged to show the movement of the limbs.
What it means: Neon for daytime, reflective for the dark.
Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, review CD003438In dim light, red objects look darker and blue and green objects look brighter, because the eye switches from cones to rods (the Purkinje effect).
What it means: A red jacket may fade from view first at dusk. BeVizible's field study is testing this.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, Purkinje effectWho is doing the seeing
Pedestrians overestimated how visible they were to drivers at night and dramatically underestimated the benefit of reflective clothing.
What it means: “They can see me” is usually wrong.
Tyrrell, Wood & Carberry, J. Safety Research, 2004High school driver-education students who heard a focused, graphic lecture gave visibility estimates 56% shorter, meaning more realistic, than a control group.
What it means: Teaching people how visibility really works changes how they think about it. That is why BeVizible exists.
Tyrrell, Patton & Brooks, Human Factors, 2004Pedestrian automatic emergency braking cut pedestrian crashes by 27% overall, but made no difference at night on roads without street lights.
What it means: Do not count on a car to see you in the dark.
IIHS, February 2022In IIHS's first nighttime test of pedestrian braking, 4 of 23 vehicles earned the top rating and more than half earned a basic score or no credit.
What it means: Systems are improving, but night performance varies widely by model.
IIHS, August 2022Two of three tested vehicles did not slow at all for a dummy with reflective strips on its limbs and joints. The third stopped in all but one run.
What it means: Reflective material helps human drivers. Some car sensors still need to catch up.
IIHS, January 2025What research does not know yet
A Cochrane systematic review found no trials measuring whether visibility aids reduce actual crashes and injuries. The evidence shows drivers see people sooner; the effect on real-world safety has not yet been proven. That gap is one reason BeVizible collects its own data.
Cochrane review CD003438How we check
Every finding above was read from the study's own abstract or the agency's own page, not from news coverage. When a widely shared number did not match its original source, we left it out.
Our field study: measuring it ourselves
Published research tells us a lot, but not everything. It has not tested plain white shoes, a reflective patch where a shoe logo sits, or which color fades first at dusk. So a small team of students is filming it and asking people to spot the pedestrian.
Status: filming planned for October 17, 2026. Results will be posted here once they are measured.1. Film at dusk
Starting at sunset, the same person stands at a measured spot in red, neon yellow, blue, black and white tops, filmed every few minutes as the light fades.
2. Film at night
From a parked car with low beams on, the same person walks in place in 8 outfits at 6 measured distances, from 10 m to 50 m.
3. Blind viewer test
Short clips are shown in random order to viewers who do not know what to expect. They answer one question: is there a person in this clip?
The 8 outfits we are testing
How to read our results
This is a video-based viewer test, not a driving study. A phone camera and a screen do not see exactly like a driver's eyes. The results compare outfits under identical conditions; they are not real-world detection distances. The car never moves while anyone is in front of it, and every person on camera has a signed release.
The visibility dashboard
Answer three quick questions. Get a visibility read, what that distance really means, and advice tuned to your state and the time of day.
Your situation
Your state changes the local facts and tips shown here, not the distance estimate, which depends only on lighting and where you wear reflectors.
Your visibility read
How this estimate works
This is an illustrative model, not a measurement. It scales a baseline detection distance by the research-backed 3.4× advantage of joint reflectors over a chest vest (Wood et al., 2005) and by a rough lighting factor. The 140-foot stopping figure at 40 mph comes from VTA. At launch, the model will use open crash and lighting data for your area.
What to wear
Do this
Avoid this
Trusted sources to go deeper
Official programs, data and research we rely on. Every link was checked in September 2026.
San José and Santa Clara County
Vision Zero San José
The city's plan to end traffic deaths and severe injuries, with its action plan and crash dashboards.
Walk Safe San José
A pedestrian safety plan focused on council districts 3, 5, 6 and 7, where the most serious crashes happen.
VTA Safety Campaign
County-wide safety tips, key stopping-distance facts, and links to every local city's road safety plan.
TIMS crash map
A free tool to map and download California crash data, including pedestrian crashes.
National data and research
Pedestrian Safety
Federal safety tips for people walking and driving, plus the latest national numbers.
Pedestrians: 2024 Data
The official national breakdown by time of day, location, lighting, age, state and city.
Pedestrian Traffic Fatalities by State: 2025
Preliminary 2025 counts for every state and the trends behind them.
Reflective clothing and car sensors
The study showing some automatic braking systems missed reflective limb strips.
The Safe System approach
Zero Deaths and Safe System
The framework behind Vision Zero: people make mistakes, so roads and cars should be designed to forgive them.
Vision Zero Network
Resources, case studies and a map of U.S. Vision Zero communities.
Links open official websites in a new tab. BeVizible is an independent student project and is not affiliated with these organizations.
Hi, I'm Aanya
I’m a high school senior in San José and a new driver. I live by a line from the movie Robots: “See a need, fill a need.” Technology lets us fill needs faster and at scale, and that’s what drives me: data, technology, and solving one problem at a time in ways that last. At the end of the day, nothing matters more than our safety and wellbeing.
Why I started BeVizible
Not long before I got my license, I watched a car nearly hit a pedestrian. The brakes screeched, the car swerved, but a minute later everything was ordinary again. In my head, I declared the driver careless, as assuming is easy and it avoids further thinking.
Getting behind the wheel changed everything. On my first solo drive after dark, I felt how finite the headlights really are. People in dark clothes did not appear soon enough.
So I went back to that near-miss and broke it into parts: when could the driver first see the person, and how much road did they need to stop? The answer was an eye opener. Data spoke for itself. So “How do we solve this?” returned two options:
- Convert this information into awareness. There is already a lot of information that most people are not aware of.
- Identify the gap without any bias or blame game.
BeVizible does both. I am inviting similar-minded innovators who have social impact and safety at their core to come together and spread the same in their respective communities. For the main research, data collection and gap-filling part, I am preparing a field study to bridge the information gap and to stay absolutely unprejudiced and transparent in my approach. In most cases, pedestrians are drivers themselves too, so there are no biases here. It’s about owning our part and passing the awareness on.
At a glance
What we stand for
Agency, not blame
We give people something they can control, never the message that a crash was their fault.
Evidence first
Every hard number links to a named source. Estimates are labeled as estimates.
Open by default
Free tools, public data, and a standard nobody can buy their way into.
Depth over hype
A few verified partners and clean data beat a map full of empty pins.
The journey so far
Ideas for helping people get home safe
These are ideas we’re exploring, not programs that are running yet. If one interests you, tap the button and check back for updates.
Students
A way for students to clean their area's open crash data, find where night risk clusters, and turn it into a short brief their school or local paper could share.
Brands and partners
An open, criteria-based way for brands to place reflectors where the science says they work best. Nothing is final yet.
Supporters
Ways for supporters to help with the free dashboard, open data work, and reflectors for people who walk at night. No donations are being collected right now.
Questions, answered
Does reflective clothing really make that big a difference at night?
Yes. In closed-road testing, drivers spotted a walker wearing reflectors on the joints from 3.4 times farther away than the same person in a vest with the same amount of reflective material (Wood et al., 2005). At night, that extra distance is often the whole margin a driver needs to stop.
Where should I put reflective material?
On the parts that move: ankles and wrists first, then knees and elbows. Those swinging points create the “biological motion” your brain reads as a person almost instantly. A strip across the chest barely moves, so it works far less well.
Isn't this blaming pedestrians instead of drivers?
No. Drivers and street design cause crashes, and that is where the biggest fixes live. Visibility is simply one thing a person can control on any given night, offered alongside safer driving and safer streets, never instead of them.
My car has automatic emergency braking. Won't it stop for everyone?
Not reliably in the dark. IIHS found pedestrian braking has little effect on crash risk on dark roads, and in a 2025 test two of three systems did not slow at all for a dummy with reflective limb strips. It is improving, but it is not a guarantee.
Is the dashboard free? Do you collect my data?
It is free. We never ask for your name, email or location. We only count anonymous taps (visits, reactions, pledges and shares), one per device. See our privacy note.
Spread the word
The fastest way to help is to send BeVizible to one person who walks after dark.
Privacy note
The short version: we do not collect personal information.
- We never ask for your name, email or phone number.
- If you tap "Use my location" or search for a ZIP code or county, it is used only on your device to work out sunset times and county numbers. It is never sent anywhere or stored.
- Your dashboard choices (state, time of day, clothing) stay in your browser. They are not sent or stored.
- We count anonymous taps (visits, thumbs up or down, pledges and shares) in a simple spreadsheet to measure reach. No names or device IDs are stored with them.
- Your browser remembers your language choice and that you already tapped, so each device is counted once. Clearing your browser data resets this.
- Links on the Resources page go to other organizations' websites, which have their own privacy policies.
- No ads, no tracking pixels, no selling of data. Ever.