The opposite of an undercover police car.

When I was watching the goings-on in England last week, I wondered why their emergency vehicles were painted in vivid colors and had weird markings.


I did a little research and it turns out that they made a decision a few years back that the public would feel more secure if the emergency vehicles were highly conspicuous versus minimal markings.

I certainly noticed.

The discontinuous reflective pattern (yup, it's reflective) is designed to make your brain notice - somehow, IIRC.

Don't forget the matching outfit.

The Volvo looks like Safety1st's ride!

In Ohio, Police aren't allowed to use unmarked cars for traffic enforcement, but for about ten years the Highway Patrol switched to silver-gray cars (close to the same color as the road surface) and low-profile light bars for more "stealth". After a number of highway patrol officers were killed or severely injured over the years because they were struck by passing vehicles at traffic stops, all new Ohio Highway Patrol cars are now white with much taller full-size lilght bars on top for maximum visibility.

-Keith

I never agreed with unmarked cars for traffic enforcement. In think in California yo utechnically could be a cop in an unmarked car giving out tickets, heck one time my folks saw a green Ford Windstar with lightsi n the windshield giving out a ticket but it's extremely rare.

the Volvo is just not racy enough for me, could use a little pink to spice the color scheme a bit and may a "hello kitty" on the door to make it more kids-friendly.

California Highway Patrol long ago studied it, (like before 1983 when I moved there) and found that marked cars significantly improved traffic flow because they would be seen and no one would act stupid.

They found that unmarked cars wrote more tickets, but did not improve the death rate, accident rate, etc.

Brightly marked cars would seem to improve on that ChiPs study even more.

Bill

While I think that 270winchesters ideas to improve on the british police cars are pretty good. We should not lose track of the purpose of these colors. They are a big help in LEOs safety. Especially when working on the roadside of the highways. Speedlimits here are a bit higher here in european countries (70 mph for britain iirc). The bright colors on the cars are very hard not to notice, preventing such accidents as Neonlights describes.

Here's my suggestion for a new, highly visible CHP cruiser:

MayCooper said:

While I think that 270winchesters ideas to improve on the british police cars are pretty good...

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good to know not all sense of humor is lost in the world:lolsign:

I have to say that visible colors is a plus for those who work on the road. A lot of the PD in the US use black for their cars, such as the CHP. While it makes the car look stealthy at night, it also makes the cars stealthy to oncoming traffic. Every once in a while a CHP officer is killed when they stop their car on the shoulder to give tickets or help stranded pedestrians, and I bet the black rear end didn't help

Woods said:

The Volvo looks like Safety1st's ride!

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He posted these pics in this thread:

Wonder if I could request a paint job like that from my local body shop?

270winchester said:

good to know not all sense of humor is lost in the world:lolsign:

I have to say that visible colors is a plus for those who work on the road. A lot of the PD in the US use black for their cars, such as the CHP. While it makes the car look stealthy at night, it also makes the cars stealthy to oncoming traffic. Every once in a while a CHP officer is killed when they stop their car on the shoulder to give tickets or help stranded pedestrians, and I bet the black rear end didn't help

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I suspect they get killed becauase they stop a lot. Light bars are getting huge again with lots of yellow to the rear - again. 20 years ago they all but eliminated this because they figured the accidents were caused by people steering towards the lights for one reason or another.

A month or so ago with an engine, two ambulances, sheriff, CPH and me in funny yellow clothes with a STOP sigh in hand I still had to act like I was going to walk in front of a car to stop it.

I have solved the problem of what STOP means however. Steer Towards Our Position.

Not racy enough for you? How about this?

JOshooter said:

Not racy enough for you? How about this?

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NICE uniform! Oh, and the car's pretty cool too! :nana:

JOshooter said:

Not racy enough for you? How about this?

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One of that car's wheels fell off when they were driving it at high speed and the car got damaged badly IIRC.