High-Visibility Clothing

High-visibility clothing is workwear made from fabric in a small set of colors the eye picks out fastest against typical work backgrounds, usually fluorescent orange, yellow-green, or red, and finished with strips of retroreflective material that bounce a vehicle's headlights straight back toward the driver rather than scattering them, so that a worker on foot near moving vehicles or heavy equipment is visible in daylight by the fabric's own color and at night by the reflective strips catching the light. The garments are standard issue for road construction crews, railway track workers, airport ground staff, and warehouse workers who share floor space with forklifts, all settings where a pedestrian and a vehicle occupy the same space and a driver's failure to notice a person in time is the specific hazard the clothing addresses. National and international standards grade the garments by how much fluorescent and reflective material they carry and by the type of work they suit, and many workplaces make wearing a rated garment a condition of entering an active site rather than a matter of individual choice.