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Posted By Pete Chidwick
Does anyone know of any findings with regard to visibility of black cars compared to other colours? Has this been a consideration in any company car decisions?
Thanks
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Posted By ITK
Don't say that, I have just oredered a new black car...!!!
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Posted By LMR
I dont think it is the car . . . I think it is more the drivers!
Back in the old days all cars were black, black or black and even then it was the drivers that made the difference.
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Posted By Pete Longworth
Not wishing to generalise in any way but speaking as someone who has had to drive the length of the M65 every work day for the past few months I have made the following observations.
Audi drivers cut you up more than any other driver on the road. They also habitually overtake on the inside.
Volvo drivers rarely exceed 60 miles an hour and are usually doing so in the middle lane.
4x4 drivers (usually but not always BMWs) drive with their headlights on full beam especially in wet weather.
HGV drivers only try to overtake each other when they are going uphill, resulting in it taking them at least 2 miles to complete the overtaking process.
Divers of small cars such as Nissa Micras etc will indicate and pull out to overtake, just as you are about to overtake them yourself.
Fortunately my days of commuting 25 miles each way to work are now over.
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Posted By Sally
Lardelli-Claret 2002 and Furness et al 2003 are two studies which looked at this topic.
Neither came out with a specific colour but both indicated that a lighter car was safer than a darker car.
Source of info - yes car insurance website - although the second research also gets a mention on the aa guide to buying a car.
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Posted By Shane J
I'd say silver/grey cars are the most dangerous as they offer the least contrast against the background over all the other colours including black.
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Posted By Chris Packham
I don't know whether clean or dirty makes any difference re safety but a dirty car did once save me from prosecution!
Many years ago I was driving through Vienna when an elderly lady stepped out into my car. Fortunately she stepped into the side of the car, not in front. However, she then lay on the ground screaming that I had injured her (no injury as it turned out). The police were about to hold me to blame when I was able to point out the mark on the side of my car where the mud had been rubbed off on to her coat.
No prosecution. She was warned not to make false accusations in order to claim compensation or she would be charged.
Had I had a clean car, how would I have been able to prove it was not my fault?
Chris
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Posted By Robert K Lewis
I think proper use of lights is more important than colour in the end. In snow black is clearly better than white. Highways use the strange yellow colour but with effectively a pale blue area. BT vans use the pale blue all over - so pay your money and take your pick.
Having said that I do think it about time the Police were a little more active and dealt with the Sidelight in darkness and fog idiots, the High vis Rear lights in rain and darkness menaces, and the Full beam in your rear view mirror lunatics. Trouble is that it is the Highway code that talks about this and not the legislation. Strange how somebody has to be injured before action is taken.
Bob
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Posted By Tabs
Shane said "I'd say silver/grey cars are the most dangerous"
Survey says "Silver in particular comes out safest in this study"
I say: It has far more to do with driver training, attitude and practices.
Those who buy silver cars might take more care, or more training. Those in red cars might take more joy in speeding. Those in white cars like to think everyone can see them.
There are SO many variables that I cannot believe it is useful to generalise. I have had green, yellow, silver, white, and silver ... the only accident so far was in the bright yellow one!
Don't worry about the colour, worry about your skill level and get advanced training, it might save your paintwork.
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Posted By Tabs
By the way... Robert quite right. This morning was foggy and the only vehicle I saw without headlamps on was a big red van - hidden in the fog until the last moment.
Lights, road position and hazard perception are big influences on whether a vehicle is seen.
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Posted By Ian Mitchell
A lot of the time it is not full beam, but the recent Xenon technology that makes it appear that it is. My last couple of cars have had Xenons and people often flash me to turn full beam off!
BMW drivers get a bad name on the motorway, but I find that it is usually the vectra/ mondeo brigade that do the tail-gating and under-cutting manouevres. Those and car-derived vans.
Also, it is unusual for genuinely fast cars like the BMW M series or AMG Mercedes to be belting along at a ton in the outside lane - it conversely appears to be usually run of the mill (or even rubbish) cars with a point to prove!!
Colour is a miniscule factor and the driver is 9/10ths of the cause usually.
Cheers
BM driver who (usually) uses his indicators and considers other road users..
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Posted By Robert.
Ian-----how do consider other road users then?
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Posted By Ian Mitchell
Robert, I don't understand the angle of your question.
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Posted By Stephen D. Clarke
From personal experience I'd say silver - I once had a silver cortina mark 2, pride and joy, but was hit 3 times within 1 month of purchase, twice when being driven other vehicles coming into the back of me and once when parked, none my fault.
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Posted By MP Grayson
In my previous life as an Aircraft fitter working for the RAF, all training aircraft were painted black as that was the colour that stood out more.
Not much help I know unless you are driving chitty chitty bang bang through the valleys in Wales or Scotland at 600MPH at 150ft.
Crack on.
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Posted By Brett Day
Bob, funny you should mention fog lights - a pet hate of mine. The local trafpol around my way are actively drivers with fogs on !!
At one time I was told by a friend who worked in car insurance that they used to load premiums of car owners who lived in rural areas that drove green cars on the basis that they were often on the recieving end of 'SMIDSY' type accidents (Sorry Mate I Didn't See You).
Not enough drivers using COAST these days.
Straw poll how many drivers here know COAST, observation links and the observation cycle?
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Posted By Tabs
I avoid COAST - the salt attacks the bodywork.
1.course
2.rear observations, signals and speed;
3.gear
4.rear observations
5.horn
6."lifesaver" (shoulder check)
7.acceleration
This was the Police System of Motorcycle Control as I learnt back in nineteen-hundred-and-frozen-to-death :-)
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Posted By Brett Day
Tabs, were you a 'Hendon' Man?
They are using IPSGA now but it's the same thing but said in a different way:
Information: Giving & Recieving including hearing and observation checks
Position(ing)on the road
Speed: Appropriate for the road, weather and traffic conditions
Gear: Correct gear and planned changes
Accelerator (or 'accelerator sense')
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Posted By Tabs
No, Chief Instructor for "Star Rider" a national scheme basic to advanced. How I loved it too.
We used the Police system for the advanced stuff and a slightly modified system for the basic.
I was taught by Hendon men (including the really fast stuff, lol).
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Posted By peter gotch
Pete
Many years ago I read of a study which indicated that BT road accident stats went up when they changed from the old GPO red to BT colour.
p
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Posted By alex mccreadie
Sorry to bring this old post back up but.
I have just completed 2,000 miles since this post started and my scientific findings are that it does not matter what colour it is, its the driver. Now looking for a part time job carrying out meaningless studies any ideas?
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Posted By John Richards
"Sorry to bring this old post back up but.
I have just completed 2,000 miles since this post started and my scientific findings are that it does not matter what colour it is, its the driver. Now looking for a part time job carrying out meaningless studies any ideas? "
Certainly Pete. The job you are looking for almost certainly exists within the regime of the HSE.
They have been financing worthless studies for over 20 years now, at a cost to the taxpayer in excess of 10 million a year. You could also consider part-time employment in a well-known supermarket chain, where manual handling a plasma screen tv (boxed, 55kg) on your own is expected.
My own findings on car colours confirms my original views, apart from my red/green colour "blindness" (I don't see red very well) (my family hates it when I've fiddled the colour tv to suit me) the only colour that matters is the colour of the drivers eyes. Red is danger !
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Posted By Andrew Lochlyn Ure
From where I am sitting at the moment, which is a country on the Arabian Peninsula, it is undoubtedly Porsche Cayennes which equate to danger, regardless of colour. My rear view mirror seems to have a Porsche badge mounted on a hideously threatening black radiator grill permanently displayed in it.
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Posted By AlisonSM
A few years ago, my parents were involved in a car crash. Both cars were silver and both drivers claimed they didn't see each other.
My Dad said it was due to a low sun and road surface glare.
The other bloke said "he just pulled out and I didn't see him till the last minute."
My Dad won the case as the other driver was doing over the limit (and had already been convicted for speeding).
So agree, it's the driver behaviour behind the wheel rather than the colour of the car that's important.
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Posted By Colin Reeves
My car was written off by a 'SMIDSY' driver coming onto a roundabout I was traversing.
My car - pillar box red!!
Colin
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Posted By water67.
personnaly i have never seen a black car hit another black car..usually it's dumb a.ss driver.
cheers
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Posted By Sharon
Some years ago I was hit from behind by a Police van! my car at the time was green and he said he did not see me!!!!!!
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