A reflective nation: lessons in visibility from Finland
27.11.2025
Translation: Eva Francis
In autumn and winter, it’s more important than ever to make yourself visible on the roads. If you’re dressed in dark clothes, other road users will struggle to see you – on your bike as well as when you’re walking. People in Finland are much better at this.
In Helsinki, the sun sets shortly before 4 p.m. in mid-November. After that, it’s dark – except for the sparkling that covers villages and towns. How come? Finland’s the country of reflectors. Be it adults or kids, everyone wears reflectors when they’re outdoors. Reflective pendants in the shape of cats or hearts are a fashion statement for some. Others wear reflective bracelets with traditional Finnish patterns embroidered on them.
Source: finnart.ch
Why do Finns do this, but the Swiss or Germans don’t? While we’re literally groping in the dark, there’s a sort of safety code in Finland. The Finnish Road Safety Council orders pedestrians to make themselves visible. And not just cyclists, as is the case in Switzerland.
There’s no penalty for violations – at least the offence doesn’t appear in any official list of fines. So, in theory, people could leave the house without thinking about visibility. But they don’t. Finns are exemplary when it comes to taking responsibility – and wearing reflectors is a no-brainer for people.
Okko-Pekka Salmimies, Finland’s ambassador to Switzerland and Liechtenstein, confirms this.
Mr Salmimies, is wearing a reflector part of Finnish culture?
Indeed, wearing a reflector’s part of everyday life in Finland – especially during the dark months. As it’s dark for a long time in winter, being visible on the road is very important. Many people wear small reflectors on their jackets, bags or even shoes. It’s not only practical, but engrained in culture. You can get reflectors in supermarkets, pharmacies and even as promotional gifts. Some see being visible as a sign of respect towards motorists. So, it’s not so much a fashion decision, but a safety standard that most people accept and even get creative with. But I must add that children are often better examples than adults when it comes to wearing reflectors.
How do kids learn about the importance of reflectors?
They’re taught very early on – usually in kindergarten or no later than primary school. There are special road safety programmes where police officers or traffic experts visit schools and explain why reflectors are important. Children are often given a «cool» reflector that they can attach to their jacket or rucksack. Of course, parents also play an important role by making sure their kids are always visible in winter. In many families, checking that reflectors are in place before leaving the house is simply part of the routine – just like putting on a hat.
Source: Finland Abroad
Is there a kind of social control that kicks in when someone forgets their reflector?
Yes, but in a friendly way. Friends or family members would often ask each other: «Have you got your reflector on you?» It’s said out of care, not out of criticism. Many communities have campaigns to remind people, too.
As a Finn in Switzerland, what do you think when you see people on the streets here?
I always notice that hardly anyone wears reflectors. In Finland, visibility in winter is a given – wearing reflectors is almost as natural as wearing gloves. Winter sports clothing’s always equipped with reflectors. When I’m out and about in Switzerland and see how many people and cyclists don’t have lights or reflectors, it honestly strikes me as very dangerous. The roads outside cities are often not well lit, making it very difficult for drivers to see other road users early enough. One tiny reflector could make such a difference. It costs almost nothing and turns a dangerous situation into a safe one. I’m surprised that this isn’t already part of Swiss culture, even though the winters are very dark here, too.
Invented in Finland
Perhaps small reflectors would be more popular in Switzerland if they’d been invented here? Instead, the founding father of the reflector movement is a Finn. Arvi Lehti, a farmer from a small village in the south-west of the country. In 1955, he bought an injection moulding machine for plastic. Arvi Lehti was also interested in how prisms reflect light. And that’s how the first safety reflector for pedestrians was born in 1963 out of technical possibilities and curiosity. Lehti glued two plastic plates together, threaded a string through them and attached the device to a coat with a safety pin. Like many other inventions, Lehti’s idea was initially unsuccessful. As the company history reads, people found the design strange and the reflector too heavy.
Arvi Lehti’s son Taisto pursued the idea after his father’s death. In 1973, the product that became a symbol for the company and for Finland as a whole was launched: a reflective pendant in the shape of a snowflake, designed by Kalervo Suomela.
Source: Peter Marten
The unusual shape was considered innovative and was much better received than the previous rectangular versions. Suomela once explained in an interview why he ended up with a snowflake:
We were trying to make something that kids would want to use, to get them into good habits early. After all, this thing saves lives.
Today we can say: mission accomplished! The number of pedestrians killed or injured in Finland has been decreasing for years and was recently well below 20 per year. To put this into perspective, in Switzerland, 42 pedestrians died in road traffic accidents in 2024. Even though Finland has a population of just under six million, which is less than Switzerland, the risk of a fatal accident is significantly higher in Switzerland than in Finland. Even when compared to other EU countries, people in Finland are noticeably safer on the roads than in other countries, as this report shows.
In other words, learning from the Finns can save lives. And there’s surely no lack of choice when it comes to reflectors. A quick search in our shop gave me an automatically generated list of bestsellers. Here are some of them:
Key ring
Quantity discount
CHF8.90 per piece for 2 units
Softreflector 2 Pendant reflector oval, with horse, butterfly
Looking for a more fun one?
Travel accessories
Quantity discount
CHF12.90 per piece for 2 units
Hoptimist Bag tag Taschenanhänger
Locks & Trailers
What’s important to know is that the second three reflectors are so-called soft reflectors. They’re soft, flexible and filled with tiny glass beads or fibres made of reflective material that scatter the light and reflect it back to the source. Their range and luminosity are lower than those of prism reflectors, which were common in the 1970s.
Prism reflectors, also known as retroreflectors, consist of many tiny prisms or reflective cubes made of plastic or glass. The small concave mirrors deflect incoming light three times and send it back in the direction from which it came, regardless of the angle of incidence. Spoke reflectors on bikes are the best-known example of retroreflectors.
Prism reflectors are hardly available any more. Every now and then, they’re given out as promotional gifts, or the police equip kindergarten and school kids with them. I searched the Galaxus shop and found only a few in the depths of our range.
Key ring
Quantity discount
CHF11.30 per piece for 2 units
Starpak Reflective snap-on wristband and key fob
Source: Liikenneturvan
Better reflective range
Retroreflectors have a much better range than soft reflectors. A motorist can see a cyclist or pedestrian wearing a retroreflector from a distance of 300 to 400 metres. With a soft reflector, this distance drops to 100 to 200 metres. This is roughly the same range as with reflective strips or high-visibility vests, which hardly anyone wears when going out for an evening walk.
However, if you’re not wearing a reflector at all and are dressed in dark clothing, you’ll only be seen at a distance of 20 or 30 metres. That’s not much, considering the stopping distance of a car going at 50 km/h is a whopping 40 metres. And that’s on a dry road. Things look even worse on wet or snow-covered roads.
Better than Labubus
Long story short: let’s all ditch those silly soft toys and attach cute reflectors to our rucksacks and handbags. Where are all the influencers when you really need them?
Source: Safety Reflector
Martin Jungfer
Head of Content
Martin.Jungfer@digitecgalaxus.chJournalist since 1997. Stopovers in Franconia (or the Franken region), Lake Constance, Obwalden, Nidwalden and Zurich. Father since 2014. Expert in editorial organisation and motivation. Focus on sustainability, home office tools, beautiful things for the home, creative toys and sports equipment.
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