COLOUR ON THE ROAD.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19168, 6 November 1925, Page 14

COLOUR ON THE ROAD.

INDISTINCTIVE VEHICLES. "Safety on the roads depends, to a large extent, on tho eyesight of drivers. This, however, docs not mean merely their power to see an object; it means also their power to detect if," says a medical correspondent in the Liverpool Post. "A recent experience, extending over some 2500 miles, has convinced me that the distinction is of much greater importance than is generally realised. I found, for example, that I was aware of till approach of dark-coloured cars sooner than cars coloured grey or light blue. In one instance I failed to see a grey car until the time left for getting out of its way was reduced almost to vanishing point. My sight is unusually acute, and' I am not colour blind. That failure was duo .to the fact that the grey car was accompanied on the road by a vehicle painted bright red. It is a well-known fact of optics that a conspicuous colour obscures one which is inconspicuous, just as a bright light outshines a dim one. It is also a well-known fact that light browns and greys arc 'protective' in the sense that they blend indistinguishably with their surroundings. Neither do these protective colours show the dust nearly as much as colours which are conspicuous. The result is that the power of detection possessed by other drivers is strained, and, the time in which action can be taken when passing, or avoiding, these inconspicuous vehicles rendered shorter than the time at disposal when encountering vabides painted in more definite colours."