Colors of Emergency

Consider the colours that are presently used for emergency vehicles. What do you think are the reasons that those colours are used? What are their advantages and disadvantages?
Malaysia currently use red colour as the colour for emergency vehicles. Red colour is being chosen as the colour for the emergency vehicles strobe lights is because of the night vision capability by using this colour.
It cannot be denied that red colour is more easily to be notice if compared to other colour. Red colour can catch more attention and alert when we saw red because red is signal us about danger.
Below are the advantages and disadvantages using the red colour for the emergency vehicles.
Advantages:
a) Greater contract to objects
Red light provides greater contrast to objects it illuminated when we work on our human eye. We are able to differentiate emergency vehicles among the normal vehicles through the red strobe light. The visible light spectrum for red colour are around 700-635nm of wave length. b) Bright intensity make us easy to notice
Red is an astonishing colour which has bright intensity. The bright intensity in red allows us to notice the emergency car from distance.
Disadvantages:
1. Night time glare from warning lamps.
The red strobe light used by the emergency vehicles sometimes is too strong, it may cause negative safety effects on surrounding drivers through distraction, disorientation or reduced vision because of red glare.

2. Effects on driving performance. Red colour enhances our physical reactions because it is known as a danger cue. Sometimes when the emergency vehicles past by with the red strobe light, we will increase our blood pressure, respiration, heartbeat, and pulse rate. These nervous situations cause some bad effects when we are driving because we need to give the way to the emergency vehicles in a quick motion. The worry and nervous feeling will affect our driving performances.

Recommendations for colour that should be used.
The colour that we recommended is yellow. This is because yellow possesses the international interpretation of caution and warning. Light with a wavelength of 570-590 nanometre is Yellow, as is light with a suitable mixture of red and green. According to a study of University of Chicago, yellow is the colour that most easily seen at a distance. In Australia, the use of yellow is not regulated and the colour is used for many different warning purposes (including turn indicators on vehicles).

Advantages and disadvantages of the recommended colour a. Advantage of recommended colour: The high brightness levels and high colour contrast of yellow make it extremely effective to alert people under varied light and weather conditions, especially at dawn and dusk. Another advantage of yellow colour is individuals who are colour- blind can see yellow clearly. Apart from that, yellow will give a gentle warning effect as compared to re colour. This is because red colour gives the feeling of aggression and danger. Therefore, yellow is more suitable to be used as emergency colour as it catch attention without panicking the public.

b. Disadvantages of the recommended colour:
Yellow must be carefully controlled as it can still cause excessive glare at night when it can be very bright. There is evidence that the intensity of a yellow light can be higher than of a white light being deemed unsatisfactory. The results of some investigations suggest that it can be up to 40% greater (Paine and Fisher, p8). Yellow at long distance and low threshold levels can bleed and change, then being perceived as white.

References : http://www.ehow.com/info_12065677_advantages-red-green-flashlight-bulbs.html http://www.ehow.com/info_8227604_advantages-red-painted-walls.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color http://www.sensationalcolor.com/color-messages-meanings/color-meaning-symbolism-psychology/all-about-the-color-red.html
http://www.sae.org/standardsdev/tsb/cooperative/nblighting.pdf

References: : http://www.ehow.com/info_12065677_advantages-red-green-flashlight-bulbs.html http://www.ehow.com/info_8227604_advantages-red-painted-walls.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color http://www.sensationalcolor.com/color-messages-meanings/color-meaning-symbolism-psychology/all-about-the-color-red.html http://www.sae.org/standardsdev/tsb/cooperative/nblighting.pdf