I'm bumping this thread because 1) I was making more observations last night and 2) it complements Denise's recent great thread about dusk/night visibility.

Watching Bubba last night, I noticed that the white reflective tape which appears to have the reflective material sprayed on such as this stuff from 3M is far more visible than the tapes (of any color) which look more like gel coating. My guess is that the 3M coating is really a bunch of little beads that catch light from all angles where the gel-type tapes require directly light from almost straight on. The reflective edges to zippers on tights and pipings on jackets seem to be very similar. The white spray-type tape just leapt out no matter what the light conditions while the gel-tapes came and went from sight.