levaseur@nmtvax.UUCP (04/17/84)
Accordingly, yellow is more of a visible color at night than red is, so when they are traveling at night, they are easier to see on the road. It is sad to see fire trucks that are traditionaly red, painted yellow. Most of us probably grew up with red fire trucks, and it's traditional with us (c'mon, didn't you have a little red fire truck when you were a kid, and read stories about red fire trucks) What will you tell your kid when you get him a little red fire truck and he tells you it isn't yellow? roger ...ucbvax!unmvax!nmtvax!levaseur
bill@utastro.UUCP (William H. Jefferys) (04/18/84)
When I was young our class went to see the *green* firetrucks
at the Bryn Mawr (PA) firestation. I've never been the same.
Warped me permanently :-) A nearby town, Abington, had its
firetrucks painted white.
--
Bill Jefferys 8-%
Astronomy Dept, University of Texas, Austin TX 78712 (USnail)
{ihnp4,kpno,ctvax}!ut-sally!utastro!bill (uucp)
utastro!bill@ut-ngp (ARPANET)brian@sdccsu3.UUCP (04/18/84)
San Diego experimented with the yellow (actually, the sort of lime-green colour) and found that indeed, they were much more visible, but that people didn't recognize them as fire trucks and wouldn't pull out of the way. When quizzed by the police who (for a short while) accompanied the trucks on a code-3 run to ticket those who didn't yield right-of-way to the fire truck, the people frequently responded that "they had heard the siren, but didn't see what vehicle it was coming from so they continued". Evidently there are some deeply engrained perceptions of what a fire truck should look like. -- -Brian Kantor, UC San Diego Kantor@Nosc ihnp4 \ decvax \ dcdwest ----- sdcsvax ----- brian ittvax / ucbvax/
hrs@houxb.UUCP (H.SILBIGER) (04/19/84)
In several Europan countries the fire engines are painted international orange, which is the fluorescet orange used for warning signs, road workers jackets etc. It's not pretty, but unmistakeable and highly visilble.
alle@ihuxb.UUCP (Allen England) (04/19/84)
+ Fire trucks (and police cars) in the town that I live in (Bartlett, IL) are yellow. I guess I don't have any problem recognizing an emergency vehicle when that siren goes off right behind you! --> Allen <-- ihnp4!ihuxb!alle
hrs@houxb.UUCP (H.SILBIGER) (04/26/84)
This is really about the use of strobe flashers instead of mechanically revolving or electrcally interrupted incandescent lights. Altough the strobe tends to be brighter, it is not as visible as the older types, because the on-time is so much shorter. Detectability of the older types is actually better.
ron@brl-vgr.ARPA (Ron Natalie <ron>) (04/27/84)
The strobe that we are using replaces the Mars Light not the rotating beacons. The Mars light is just a sort of vibrating headlight. -Ron