Primary (Color) Safety

(Economist photo)

A traffic study confirms what most would suspect: cars painted yellow are safer than cars painted blue. A Singaporean taxi company

owns 4,175 yellow taxis and 12,525 blue ones. All are the same model (a Hyundai Sonata) and all undergo the same maintenance schedules.,,,

[Researchers] found that its blue taxis were involved in an average of 71.7 accidents per thousand vehicles per month while its yellow ones were involved in an average of 65.6. The yellow ones, in other words, were 9% less likely to have an accident.

The difference in accident records was even more pronounced at night.

What goes for cars probably applies to pedestrians as well. Having just bought a nice, but blue rain slicker, I'm now in the market for a yellow one...