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4 Things You Need to Know About Retroreflectivity and Reflective Sheeting

Federal regulations require that signs have a high level of reflectivity and meet a certain size, design, and mounting regulations.

Homeowners associations, schools, and businesses are constantly making sure their signs are meeting the high standards set by cities and the federal government.

Reflective sheeting is one of the ways you can increase your sign's visibility and making everyone's lives safer.

Reflectivity is Technically Called Retroreflectivity

The term you will mostly see used by the Federal Highway Administration and other federal regulators is retroreflectivity. What is retroreflectivity and why is it important to incorporate some level of reflective sheeting into your signs?

Retroreflectivity simply refers to the ability of a sign's reflective sheeting to reflect back light. Reflective sheeting is put on signs to increase the night time visibility of signs. This can be huge benefit to parents picking up their kids late from the school parking lot or cities needing highly reflective street signs so that drivers can safely navigate.

More Reflective Signs Could Reduce Traffic Accidents

A federal report looked at where accidents tend to occur and what causes them. It turns out that signals and signs at intersections played a large role in either keeping everyone safe or predisposing drivers to accidents. The report also found that signs with reflective sheeting greatly improve visibility and reduce accidents.

Make Sure Your Signs are Reaching Their Potential

The Federal Highway Administration's report "Maintaining Traffic Sign Retroreflectivity: Impacts on State and Local Agencies," talks about the benefits of reflective sheeting, potential changes to federal rules regarding reflectivity, and why traffic signs with reflective sheeting should be upgraded over time. The report found that the sign's colors fading over time was one of the primary causes of signs being less reflective as the years wore on.

The American Society for Testing Materials makes sure top sign manufacturers conform to federal standards when it comes to sign reflectivity. This means you can buy with confidence knowing the signs you're purchasing are designed to meet federal regulations when it comes to size, design, and reflectivity requirements.

Any Business can Benefit from Reflective Signs

When signs are bright and more reflective there are far less visibility issues at night. The same benefits apply to parking lot signs in malls, schools and apartment complexes. No matter what kind of business you have there's a reflective custom sign for you.

Using reflective sheeting on one of your business signs that stands along a stretch of road can increase your visibility for customers.

Without reflective sheeting it's entirely possible that your customers will miss the turn in to your parking lot. You'd have a missed connection on your hands. By making your signs more visible with this special kind of sheeting you effectively increase the chances that customers will take notice of your business.

The best part is that reflective sheeting can benefit any business and help you stand out from the competition. Reflective sheeting could be even more important for your business if your parking lot runs alongside a dimly lit stretch of road. By adding reflective sheeting for better visibility to your signs you increase the chances that customers stop by your store.

For more information about how reflective sheeting works or how it can improve your signs' visibility call Zumar at our Arizona, California, or Washington locations. Or, contact us for a quote request to get virtually any sign that you'll need.