I believe there is not sufficient and supportive data that would conclude the fact that red is a cop magnet. On the same token, one would think that WHITE would be the most visible color since WHITE is bright even at night, unlike red, which is only noticeable during the day.

 

You are absolutely right here. My wife's grey Honda used to get hit all the time until she started driving with her headlights on. I attributed it to the color. I've never seen a car get hit so much. In our last 18 months in California that car got hit 3 times in 18 months.

 

If a male drove that honda, it would be accident-free!

 

Sadly not. I cannot blame her.

I drove it initially and it was getting hit (regardless of the driver) by people rear ending it, or people pulling out on it, i.e. not seeing it.

My commute used to take me from South San Jose to San Carlos and I remember the madness of I-85... two left lanes at a standstill, right lane moving at 60mph and idiots abuptly pulling left to right from stationary traffic into 60mph traffic and wondering why they got hit.

I was not sad to see the back of driving in the bay area.

 

hehe I was j/k about the woman/man thing.

 

I know... I gave her a hard time over it also. She was not amused and reminded me of all the times that people hit me while I was driving the car.... that's why I now have a white Porsche.... nice and visible.

 

I was concerned about my color so I put a wing on it to tone it down...

 

I'm not trying to Pollyanna-ish about it. I've owned black, slate-grey/blue, and guards red Porsches. If I take a 3 year snapshot of ownership of each car and their associated violations it would look something like this:

Black: 3 violations (2 within 6 months - prompting a warning letter from the state)

Slate Grey/Blue: 2 violations

Guards Red: 0 (and still at zero, knock on wood)

The difference isn't the color. The difference is that I grew up a bit and I'm smarter about the way I drive. Sure, I may speed a bit on the freeway but it's not overly excessive. I don't weave in and out of traffic. I don't ride people's bumpers. Essentially, I don't drive like a tool. I go to DE's and work out my "need for speed" at the track. That's not to say that on occasion, in the early morning, I don't find a remote backroad and have a spirited drive.

 

My yellow cab is camouflaged in the city with all the cabbies around but once i hit NJ...stick out like a sore thumb w/ troopers ready to pounce, which is y i try to keep my speed in check.

 

There are a number of cops on this forum....some have ID'd themselves, others haven't...but I'm sure that if you were to poll them, the main reason folks get "pulled out" is because of erratic driving. Lane changes, zipping in and out, or hauling a$$ in the fast lane are simply tactics that get you noticed. Granted, a bright color could very well "get you noticed"...and perhaps on any given day it might somehow serve to focus attention on you. But try to think of it IF YOU WERE THE COP driving on the freeway looking for a likely candidate to exercise your pen on. There has to be something that grabs your attention, and for me....just being a joe-citizen driving in freeway traffic...the biggest attractor is the erratic driver...or the loud mufflers with speed. A real attractor is when you see the guys doing fly-bys and grabbing an additional non-sensical 10 yards of freeway real estate for no good reason other than they want to move thru traffic faster than the next guy. Those are the folks vying for the rush hour pole positions....and a lot of brake lights would seem to indicate speed/slow/speed/slow. The color of that car being driven erratically wouldn't seem to enter into the equation...it's the movement. If you're in traffic and looking way up ahead, it's really easy to pick up on the guy who's doing the fast lane changes and erratic moves...and that's when the lock-on happens. In sparse traffic, what do you think would serve to cause a cop to lock-on? Again, a car changing lanes erratically or getting smaller in the distance.... I don't think color would matter under those circumstances.

 

Chuck,

I agree as do many on this thread that erratic driving trumps color in attracting cop's attention.

but what about the times when you are part of the pack, moving with everyone else, but the cop enters the freeway, finds the entire pack above speed limit, and needs to nab someone in the group for speeding?

In that instance, where driving in the speeding pack and without erratic maneuvers, will driving a red car get you noticed more frequently than driving a silver or white car?

 

I followed a State Police car across West Texas for 200miles, going 90mph.

I was going along at 95-100mph, and saw him up ahead and he was going maybe 85mph. I slowly crept up to him and held speed with him a little distance behind him. He then sped up to 90, and so did I. I don't know why I did it, but I felt that since he was already speeding and we were out in the middle of nowhere, just tying to make some good time, that he would be cool with letting me tag-along.

I set my cruise at 90mph and just followed him down the interstate. People we passed saw this State Policeman and a red Porsche flying by them and not one person tried to tag along. He was my police escort. I eventually got off at an exit, and sped back up - making great time.

 

Jimhsu: I think that about the best explanation I can come up with is that if an entire group of cars are exceeding the speed limit....there is going to be ONE sacrificial lamb. Although I have seen instances where there will be two or three cars all pulled over and all getting tickets....for the most part, in a given group of "everyone's doing it".....there's going to be one who eats the weenie. Let's put it to the group....OK guys...you're the cop. There's a group of five Porsches playing tag in light traffic...nothing really dangerous or outlandish....but they are doing let's say 73 in a 65 zone. You need to nail someone to send a message. Who do you nail? What makes that one car become the focus of your attention? They're all doing 73....and you don't want to have to try to pull over multiple vehicles. You tell me...is it color? Body style? Do you drive up and look at the drivers and see if someone makes eye contact and becomes the sacrificial lamb? Or....like in so many instances....is it the poor fellow who's the last one in the line who gets nailed just because he's the first one you come up on. Now you could compound this further by throwing in a group of cars...a Pantera, Porsche, Lambo, Lotus, and a Ferrari. Now what? Or take it another step....Honda, Acura, Hummer, Lexus, and Porsche. Is it color....or make/model? Or the unusual one in a series of bland cars? All this boils down to the original question....if YOU WERE THE COP....what would you focus on? after all...aside from the fact they're wearing a gun/badge and uniform....they're still motivated by the same stimulus/response that anyone else is.

 

I have seen this happen many, many times on the freeway. Mind you, I am talking about a group of cars all driving normally (no erratic lane changes or speed delta) maybe 10-15 miles over the limit. In my experience, it is usually the guy in the most expensive car, the sportscar, or the teenager in the rice rocket with the backwards baseball cap on that takes the grenade for the platoon. I have dodged this grenade several times in my green SUV. I have to believe that if I were driving a speed yellow Porsche, I would have been killed every time.

 

Actually, I'm pretty sure there have been tests done that show that certain colors do attract attention more than others. But the fact that we all drive Porsches is yet another reason why we would be pulled over faster than if someone were driving a Buick. Buick says "slow;" Porsche says "fast."