Good Day,
"Red is one of the most easily recognized colours in the daylight.
Therefore, traffic lights, stop signs, and fire trucks are painted red
so that people can see them coming from far away. It is believed that
red is the first colour a baby sees." - from:
http://www.crayola.com/colorcensus/americas_favorites/display.cfm?color=92
Another belief, on the wilder side, is that "RED is FASTER" (WARNING:
Quantum Physics): http://www.angelfire.com/sports/astinaclub/asclub/redfast.html
Of course there are those who do not believe red is a good colour to
use for fire trucks:
The AAA foundation at
http://www.aaafoundation.org/resources/index.cfm?button=carcolor
states that:
"It is noted that the colour red, used for fire fighting equipment, is
one of the least visible of vehicle colours. Optometrists note that,
for its high visibility, lime yellow should be used by fire and rescue
teams, as well as favoured by trucks and car buyers. Lime yellow falls
in the middle of the colour spectrum (Schuman 1991)" and
"At night, white is the most visible, but lime yellow stands out
better against cloudy skies and snowy backdrops than does white. The
colour red is perceived as black at night. Also, people have
particularly poor peripheral detection of red shades (Schuman 1991)."
Here in the city of Winnipeg in Canada, a lot of fire trucks are now
indeed lime yellow (same goes for other emergency vehicles).
Some towns, which I have read about while searching, claim that their
trucks are everything from blue, to brown, and white, or a combination
of multiple colours!
On another interesting note, off the record, I believe I heard a few
people mention that red cars get the most speeding tickets. Supposedly
it is because of they are more noticeable than other colour vehicles.
Since not many vehicles are coloured lime yellow, it would be tough to
compare which one is more visible.
Hope this answer helps.
Regards,
Slawek Borkowski |
