How to improve open rear door visibility?

That picture about perfectly presents the black car dilemma, and a good solution to it. The solution: that tape -- it should do a fine job. The well-depicted dilemma: you can hardly even discern the presence of the black car -- even as its paint reflects the reflectors!!!

 

I think it is a great idea.

 

Nothing a bit of 3m scotchlite wont fix.

SM-N960U1 ?

 

I have been putting some of this sort of reflective tape on the rear exterior too, starting in the 1980s when noticing that my newly acquired dark grey car had far less built in retroreflector area than its predecessor.

For my Gen3 Prius, the least obtrusive place was on the ends of the narrow vertical window of the hatch. The ends were opaque anyway, so it doesn't intrude on my view from the driver seat. Being a silver car also makes the common silver tape less obtrusive than on your black car. But 3M Scotchlite reflective tape also comes in black, when might go well on black cars.

On other cars, I have also put this on the rear paint aligned with manufacturer logos, on interior trim visible through the rear hatch, and even on mudflaps.

 

Maybe I've missed it: when doing something like putting kids in car seat, always go in from the sidewalk side?

 

That sometimes doesn't work. I have a child seat on that side (left for us) - meaning that if I have any of the other children, unfortunately they have to get in the Driver's side (or climb over from the front passenger seat - which Granddad won't let them!!!!)

But 90% of the time I have grandchildren in, it's only the one into the child seat.

 

Here is my Gen3, seen entirely by reflected smartphone flash:


Central reds are the factory reflectors built in to the taillights.

Top whites are the added reflective patches on the rear vertical window ends, well out of driver view. These vastly outshine the factory patches.

Lower reds are small patches added to the black trim underneath the bumper. I could use more here.

From the flare, it looks like I need to clean the camera lens.

 

Interesting, another global difference.

Here we're prohibited from putting white reflectors on the rear of a vehicle - they must have (at least) 2 rear-facing RED reflectors. Front reflectors aren't compulsory but must be white or yellow. I do recall some old Chevs and Holdens with white reflectors at the rear, but I suspect they were faded red over 60+ years.

 

Alternating red-white reflective strips have been common on the backs of trucks and trailers here since before my time, especially before red LED lights became good silhouette markers.

 

I would think if you only have one car seat it would go on the opposite side in the rear seat so the driver could monitor the child.

 

Looking at the back of many commercial trucks and trailers since, I see that the alternating red-white reflective tape is nearly universal. White reflectors marking upper corners seem to be on the majority of these tall vehicles, so much so that I suspect they are usually placed at the factory, but are not universal.