Red cars and speeding tickets... myth?

[mj71]

My car died and i now find myself looking to buy another. I found a great one, just the one i want, but it happens to be red. My mom insists that red cars get more speeding tickets, but I think it's a myth. I look online, however, and there is lots of evidence to support both sides. What is the truth here? I realize a person can't always identify their own subconscious biases, but statistics must be available. Can you help settle this?

[Switchback]

No.... very true.

Where's your manners?

[greg72982]

I give speeding tickets to whatever car is speeding.

[Chef_Au]

Something that came up in my laser course is that Red paint reflects the laser better then some other colours.

However, I tend to find that people in red cars are often pretentious over compensating types

[kazz]

Google tells me ~ Myth - Red cars get more tickets.

Forum posters on Color Matters, a Web site that focuses on colour theory and everything that colour affects, claim drivers of red cars get more tickets. There are no official studies to confirm that red cars do get more tickets, but some suggest the bold colour tends to attract more attention from everyone, including police officers. There is also a theory that red cars can create an optical illusion that makes them appear to be going faster than they really are. That is also often mentioned @ Laser/Radar courses, but I don't lean to that theory.

Another myth says that insurance companies charge higher premiums for red cars. Allstate and Progressive say that a car's colour has no bearing on the premiums they charge. Here in OZ there's no requirement to state the car's colour when you do an online quote, so that supports that one.

[Ispbear]

It's a myth. A majority of bright red cars tend to be more in the sports car class, especially if you tend to think in the historic perspective of the muscle car era. So in fact at one point the red painted cars may have received more tickets but it wasn't due to the color of the car but due to the type of car and how they were driven.

[hondauto]

I have owned 25+ cars in my life and 1/3 of them were red in some form..
I did not get in any MORE trouble with the red cars than the others..I heard the same b.s. rumor about red cars,but did not experience them..
However I did get in more accidents in the red cars than non-red cars..Which baffles me.. red cars are easier to see..hmm

[mcsap]

Go through a mall parking lot. Count all of the red cars. Not maroon but RED.

Tell us how many are Buicks or SUV's vs. how many are Mustangs , Camaro's etc.

[basher52]

No.... very true.

Where's your manners?

Gotta totally disagree with ya here pardner. Back in my Hwy Patrol days we did an informal survey and found that, certain colors stand out more and make it easier to see...its usually first, fastest that gets our attention. Going a step further, we (again informally) looked at the type (make/model) of vehicle that got stopped more often that others. To our surprise, Volkswagens, especially GTI's were at the top of the list. This among the informal group of about 12 Highway cops assigned tp patrol and radar. This wa in the mid 80's early 90's. Funny, cause later on AOL had a story on the same subject with similar results.

[1depd]

While I don't have and haven't read any studies, my initial thoughts are in line with basher. A brightly colored car stands out more against the background. This would make the car more noticeable and seemingly make speed enforcement a bit easier. However the actions of the driver are the primary reason a car is pulled over, not the color of it. If you're a good driver in a white car you are going to be a good driver in a red car.

[MountainMan]

Its a total myth. I contact/ticket the fastest car. I probably write more tickets to grey vehicle but that is simply because there are a lot of that particular color vehicles in this area.

[kels]

While I have no doubt that a brightly colored car (red, orange, yellow, neon green etc)
will catch an officers eye sooner. I would think that the drivers habits are the contributing
cause of tickets being issued. (TO MAKE IT EASY FOR EVERYONE TO UNDERSTAND,
STUPIDITY IS ALWAY REWARDED)

(my best evidence of this would be immature riders and ninja motorcycles.
I cited a lot of motorcycles when I worked at the college, but I only remember one
being a standard bike.)

So if your driving history is good, get the red car. If you get stopped regularly, dont.