Post by thread:[OT] Red = Danger

Russell McMahon wrote: >> Bright yellow (to me) seems a much better solution. I believe >> yellow/blue >> color blindness is the problem there, but it's much less common than >> red/green, and there are far fewer ground-level blue backgrounds than >> green backgrounds. > > > Some administrations use yellow fire engines. Our City (pop 700k) went with the fashion of the day (1980s) and bought all new fire trucks in Lime Green so that they would be 'more visible'. Eventually it was discovered that people expected fire trucks to be red, and were more likely to pull over for a red truck than green, and so the latest batch of new trucks is Red, and they now have to repaint the green ones so as to 'look right'. Duh... I really don't care what color of truck they drive as long as it gets here damned fast if I ever need it. I live in a convoluted crescent and have seen the trucks drive round and round and round looking for the address of the 'emergency' [we dispatch fire trucks to heart attacks since they can get there more quickly than paramedics]. And they have on board GPS and map displays. Go figure... We used to have RED flashing lights on all emergency vehicles, including police. Then they changed the law so that police would be blue and red which makes sense if you're color blind. So what's next? Red, Blue AND Green just to cover every possible color deficiency? Robert

Robert, On Tue, 15 Feb 2005 15:37:43 -0700, Robert Rolf wrote: > We used to have RED flashing lights on all emergency > vehicles, including police. > Then they changed the law so that police would be > blue and red which makes sense if you're color blind. > So what's next? Red, Blue AND Green just to cover > every possible color deficiency? I'm not sure if it's a colour-blind thing - blue is a Good Thing in my opinion because it stands out - in the UK you aren't allowed to show a red light to the front (so KITT wouldn't be allowed :-), or a white light to the rear (unless you're reversing) which is why our rear reflective numberplates are yellow. Emergency vehicles here have always had blue flashing lights - they're said to be on "blues and twos" when in a hurry. The thing is that blue *really* stands out at a distance - if you see just one tiny flash of it it catches your attention, whereas red and white lights are everywhere so are easy to miss - brakelights flash if you just dab the pedal, so you don't see a flash of red as extraordinary. Some police vehicles also have flashing red on the roof facing rearward, which they tend to use when pulled over on the hard shoulder of motorways, to discourage people from rear-ending them (doesn't always work) but they always have all-round blue. Until recently, any blue light was always an emergency vehicle, but nowadays "projector" type headlights can have a blue tinge, and can show blue from certain angles by refraction. This causes my "emergency vehicle" alert reaction a lot more often than I'm happy with... Cheers, Howard Winter St.Albans, England

Alan, On Wed, 16 Feb 2005 09:20:11 -0000, Alan B. Pearce wrote: > >So what's next? Red, Blue AND Green just to cover > >every possible color deficiency? > > Don't know about the USA, but in the UK and NZ green is the correct colour for a medical doctor. Also in the UK - and it extends to nurses who are responding to an emergency too. A friend of mine was doing just this and was stopped by the police: "What colour is that flashing light?" "Green, officer" "And are you a medic on an emergency?" "Yes" "Well off you go then!" Cheers, Howard Winter St.Albans, England

Isn't there something about blue being more efficient at penetrating fog, while red is more successful in smoke? RP I'm not sure if it's a colour-blind thing - blue is a Good Thing in my opinion because it stands out - in the UK you aren't allowed to show a red light to the front (so KITT wouldn't be allowed :-), or a white light to the rear (unless you're reversing) which is why our rear reflective numberplates are yellow. Emergency vehicles here have always had blue flashing lights - they're said to be on "blues and twos" when in a hurry. The thing is that blue *really* stands out at a distance - if you see just one tiny flash of it it catches your attention, whereas red and white lights are everywhere so are easy to miss - brakelights flash if you just dab the pedal, so you don't see a flash of red as extraordinary. Some police vehicles also have flashing red on the roof facing rearward, which they tend to use when pulled over on the hard shoulder of motorways, to discourage people from rear-ending them (doesn't always work) but they always have all-round blue. Until recently, any blue light was always an emergency vehicle, but nowadays "projector" type headlights can have a blue tinge, and can show blue from certain angles by refraction. This causes my "emergency vehicle" alert reaction a lot more often than I'm happy with... Cheers, Howard Winter St.Albans, England

At 07:57 AM 17/02/2005 +1300, you wrote: > ..... >discourage people from rear-ending them (doesn't always work) but they >always have all-round blue. > >Until recently, any blue light was always an emergency vehicle, but >nowadays "projector" type headlights can >have a blue tinge, and can show blue from certain angles by refraction. >This causes my "emergency vehicle" >alert reaction a lot more often than I'm happy with... > then of course, there are blue movies, right? that had me confused as a kid. Regards Roland Jollivet

Roland <spam_OUTpiclistTakeThisOuTmit.edu> wrote: > then of course, there are blue movies ... and the red-light district. -Andy === Andrew Warren -- .....aiwKILLspam@spam@cypress.com === Principal Design Engineer === Cypress Semiconductor Corporation === (but open to offers) === === Opinions expressed above do not === necessarily represent those of === Cypress Semiconductor Corporation