Reflective gear - useless?

A comment from Rowing Service reader Neil Smith, 29th September 2005

This reflective stuff is all fine and well, but it's designed for road use, where reflection from headlights provides a very strong visual cue to the driver. Out on the river, there's usually not this sort of light source and so reflective gear is of very limited use.

Putting reflective strips on black gear in my mind completely misses the point - the clothes themselves need to be more inherently visible - ie white.

A thought experiment.
If you're dressed in black, putting on a cyclists reflective Sam Browne does not add to your visibility until someone comes along with a bright light to shine at you.

You can very simply and cheaply make a very significant improvement to your visibility by putting the cheapest possible white t-shirt over the top of your other rowing gear.

Neil Smith