Helmets - pros, cons and controversy

[classic33]

Motorcyclists don't have bobbing amber reflectors, so I'm not massively troubled by that anecdote.

How would you see the rear reflector from the front, with a stronger light source behind it?

Whilst the human eye is more than capable of seeing objects that are there, they don't cope well when there's a strong light source "blinding it".

 

[I like Skol]

How would you see the rear reflector from the front, with a stronger light source behind i

This is an excellent point. Reflectors work by bouncing your own lights back at you, so in the scenario described by @Katherine would have been totally ineffective as the cyclist(motorcyclist in her case) was approaching from her side with backlighting. The reflectors have nothing to reflect!