Winter Driving Review

As I watched my neighbor scrape ice from her windshield I realized it’s probably time to review the topic of winter driving. Mount Baker ski area has opened, the freezing level is dropping, and we’ve already had some flooded roads. Here comes winter.

If you’ve ever had a conversation with someone from Minnesota about winter driving, you’ve probably heard the ridicule about how Washington doesn’t have a “real” winter. And that’s exactly the problem. In wintery parts of the country people prepare for the inevitable ice and snow. Here we often get caught off-guard by a storm system that blows in, makes a mess of things, and then melts away two days later. And unlike places that stay frozen for weeks at a time, we have weather that fluctuates between just below and just above freezing, creating the slippery hazard of a thin layer of water on top of a layer of ice. I’ve seen a parked car slide off the road in those conditions. Continue reading “Winter Driving Review”

Embrace Life

I chose to start the PSA Smash Up with this one, because it gets me every time. This PSA conveys a powerful message without the need for a graphic crash scene. I think it works because we can relate to the relationships. And really, the main reason to drive safe is to get home to the people you care about.

It’s Easier Than Ever to Not Get a DUI

I know every month is national something-or-other month, but this one is legit; the president even signed a proclamation. December is National Impaired Driving Prevention Month. All year long, and especially in December, DUI prevention organizations work hard to educate people about the consequences of impaired driving. Around here, the Washington Traffic Safety Commission goes a big step further and hires extra officers all over the state, and their entire job is to arrest impaired drivers. Continue reading “It’s Easier Than Ever to Not Get a DUI”

Kids in Cars – Where to Put Them

Q: Could you please review the rules in regards to children riding in the front seat of vehicles? I know there are recommendations in vehicles, but are there actual age requirements by law? Also, along those same lines, are there legal age/height requirements for booster seats? Thank you!

A: Child passenger restraint laws in Washington used to be fairly complex, with breakdowns for ages and weights and types of car seats. In 2007 the state simplified the law, making three basic requirements for child restraints. 1) All children under the age of 8, or less than 4’9” tall must be restrained in an appropriate child restraint system. That’s a fancy catch-all term for car seat or booster seat. 2) All kids over 8 years old or taller than 4’9” have to wear a seat belt or use a booster seat. 3) Kids under the age of 13 are required to ride in the back seat whenever practical. Continue reading “Kids in Cars – Where to Put Them”

Do Red Cars Get More Speeding Tickets?

Drivers around the world have endorsed the “red cars get more tickets” theory for years. The common item missing from each version is a substantiated fact. Some of the reasons for the supposed disproportionate numbers of tickets issued to red cars seem plausible. Some are outright ridiculous.

Of the more believable explanations, one offers the idea that red cars are more noticeable due to their bright color, and catch the attention of police officers more frequently. This sounds well-founded, and I suspect most people would accept this rationale.  However, according to color experts, the most perceptible colors reside toward the middle of the color spectrum, such as yellow and bright green. Red sits on the low end of the color spectrum, making it one of the first colors to disappear from our vision in non-ideal lighting situations.

My favorite quasi-scientific myth proposes that red actually looks faster than other colors when it moves. Relying on convoluted, out-of-context “scientific” principles, proponents of this theory believe that just as an approaching siren changes its audible pitch, a red car changes its color intensity, making it appear to travel faster than its actual speed. This theory has at least two flaws. Our ears hear an audible difference in approaching and departing sounds because sound travels relatively slow. Light travels so fast that the speed of even the fastest car wouldn’t affect how we perceive the color of the car. And this maybe the most obvious problem – What about the other colors? Even if we could perceive a variation in color because of the movement of a vehicle, that alteration would affect every color, making the theory irrelevant.

The most comedic reason I’ve heard that red cars get more tickets comes from the belief that police officers have converted the pool hall game of snookers into a traffic enforcement contest. Since the game of snookers has more red balls than any other color, officers must cite a disproportionate number of red cars in order to get a high score.

A more practical approach to explaining why red cars might get more tickets involves looking at what kinds of cars get painted red. How many red sedans and mini-vans can you spot driving down the highway? Now how about red sports cars? I suspect that if lots of light-weight, high horse-power cars are red, we might see a higher percentage of red cars getting tickets.

But even that theory is suspect. Maybe red cars don’t actually receive more tickets. According to one study, red cars account for 14 percent of all cars on the road, and receive 16 percent of issued tickets. While that study does show a slight disadvantage toward red cars, the numbers of cars sampled was small enough to make a two percent difference insignificant.

Probably the best way to determine if law enforcement officers prefer to issue tickets to red cars would be to ask them. As opposed to the variety of reasons why red cars might get more tickets, officers responded unanimously, essentially stating, “We issue citations for violations, not colors.” Rather than spend time and energy trying to decide which car color will most frequently go unnoticed by traffic cops, drivers might have more success avoiding tickets if they chose to obey traffic laws.