Quoting my own post and after reading the fog post and a comment on another unrelated post.
This is what an insurance company says about black cars:
Black: Tends to blend with the night and can be hard to see during evening hours or in poor light conditions . Research has indicated that black cars have a higher accident rate than cars of any other colour. Dark Blue: Like black, it’s harder to see in the dark or against dark.
At dawn or dusk, a black car is 47% more likely to be involved in an accident.
The only way to compound this would be to have no (reflective) chrome on the car and have a matt black paintwork finish which seems to be in vogue for German cars.
If one pulls out of a side road without looking, it gives the cyclist/driver on the primary road even less time to react.
Crashed and repainted cars get matte black paint. If you see a repainted car, that means that person already crashed in such way that full paint was needed. I’ve been to many car shows and I’ve only seen 2 non-accident cars with matte paint. Just for the love of it and not with the curious story behind.
Back to the streets, the most recent person killed by a vehicle in my village happened at 9h30. Good light, no rain, a pedestrian.
This is the supidest remark I found regarding matt black cars:
The pros. First and foremost, a matte black paint job looks dope . There’s something about minimized highlights that really makes your ride stand out from the crowd.
Grey comes second in accident statistics followed by silver. White is the safest - unless the driver is actually the problem like this person yesterday in canton Luzern who lost the back end of his car accelerating away from a roundabout:
Stupid thread title: Are black cars more dangerous than other colours?
That’s already known and wasn’t the point of my thread detour. I thought this was a forum - which is about discussions?
If hi-vis is so good for increasing visibility of cyclists and pedestrians, then why don’t all cars have it fitted as standard?
More to the point, by restricting the other thread to cyclists and pedestrians, the most important group (by accident seriousness and frequency) is neglected - namely motorcyclists - who really ought to wear both fluorescent and reflective clothing or attire this time of year.
The speed of a motorcyclist when impacting a car pulling out of a side road (because the driver did not see the motorcyclist) is far greater than that of a cyclist.
I guess we can include them in this thread as it would be off-topic in the other thread.
Back to hi-vis and cars - Police and other emergency vehicles have hi-viz so someone thinks it’s useful.
Hi-vis on cars is called head and tail lights. They are very powerful today and automatically switch on when it is dark. Only blind people cannot see them. It is really amazing.
Oh, by the way. Reflective film is not allowed on regular cars in Switzerland.
You don’t need to join in every debate with stupid remarks because when I ask you a question, you go quiet.
But, just in case you’ve grown up - if what you say is true - and all car lamps are equal (in that they all have to meet a certain standard), how come black cars (followed by grey cars) have significantly more accidents than other cars, and white have the least?
For daytime, hi-vis makes no difference according to a study - unless the hi-vis vest has a notice on the back stating “video recording”.
Motorists see the hi-vis, but don’t alter their behaviour.
The conclusion was that it’s the motorists behaviour which needs changing.
As for cycling without lights, On Sunday, at dusk, I encountered probably a hundred or so cyclists.
Only three didn’t have lights - a father with his young son, and a lone cyclist.
I ought to add that this out in the countryside. I don’t cycle much in the big cities but I am sure many more cyclists don’t have lamps on.
It doesn’t help if a black matt SUV pulls out of a side road at dusk without looking and a motorcycle ploughs into the side of it.
A more brightly coloured car may give the motorcyclist a second or so more to take evasive action.
Unless black coloured cars are routinely driving into stationary objects, this is the type of accident which may mean they are involved in many more accidents, especially at night (according to statistics).
Having said that, perhaps stone walls in the middle of roundabouts ought to have hi-vis:
Two days ago. No one was hurt. No one else was involved. Young driver so probably a medical incident.
