What colour of car do you drive?

We are about to set off on our annual pilgrimage to Simon's Town. We often fly and hire a car but I also enjoy driving down via longer lesser known routes. This year it is for a fair number of days via the Eastern Free State, Hogsback and Sedgefield returning via Lamberts Bay, Calvinia, Upington and Kuruman.

The old car (20 his year) has been serviced and thoroughly inspected (100% and still going strong) and seeing her gleaming from a trip to the wash bay and a polish my thoughts turned to something that has always intrigued me, what influence does the colour of motor vehicle have on visibility and the potential to be involved in an accident?

Stuck behind a truck on a single lane road one has to have a regular peek at the road ahead to spot rises and oncoming traffic before ensuring it is safe to overtake. Leaving out cars with headlights, I always find that white vehicles clearly stand out against any background while one has to vigilant not to miss black, dark grey or red.

Same goes for when I pull out into an tree lined urban street as I find a red vehicle far more difficult to spot against a green background that any other colour and I am not colour blind.

Google is my friend and I found that some interesting research has been done into this issue which indicates that white vehicles are statistically less likely to involved in an accident than any other colour while black and blue are the most likely. The following are well worth a read if you are thinking about buying a car.

An investigation into the relationship between vehicle colour and crash risk – Monash University

Car crash by colour

My car is, of course, white and I try to remember to drive with the lights on.