Yes, the silver 3M tape seems to reflect more brightly...no tape seems to reflect as well as a plastic/glass reflector with beveled surfaces though. If you ride at night in neighborhoods with a lot of traffic coming at you from the side streets, the curved plastic wheels reflectors that are about three to five inches long and half an inch wide work very well. When vehicle headlights hits them, the driver thinks he is headed directly at a carnival.

But there are always idiot drivers. I got pinned against a curb a few weeks ago while riding at night by a guy who ran a stop sign, made a right turn and then began driving on the wrong side of the street. He claimed "You were invisible". The strobe lights on the front of my bike look like an firetruck on its way to a fire...