Do Red Cars Get More Tickets?
There’s a common rumor that red cars attract more speeding tickets than cars of other colors, and it has circulated through society for decades. The rumor is that the color red attracts the eye of police, so they notice red vehicles speeding more than they do other colors. This supposedly results in red car owners receiving a disproportionate share of speeding tickets.
Color-Initiated Optical Illusion
An alternative theory states it may be caused by a color-initiated optical illusion that makes red cars appear to be going faster than they actually are. It has also been suggested that perhaps the colour influences driver behavior. Because red is often associated with aggression, it is believed to cause an increase in drivers’ breathing and heart rates, inciting operators to drive faster without even being consciously aware of it.
Favorite Sports Car Color Is Red
Yet another line of thought, ties sports cars to the color red, as it was one of their most popular colors. This line of reason suggests that if sports cars are ticketed more often, and the favorite sports car color is red, then red cars would earn far more speeding tickets than vehicles of other colors. They are all great theories, but none of them hold water, because red cars simply do not get ticketed more often than they statistically should.
White Cars Ticketed Less
Actually, in a 1990 study, it was found that white cars were ticketed less often than they should have been, suggesting that perhaps police tend not to notice white vehicles breaking the law. Gray cars were the biggest heat scores, getting a far greater share of speeding tickets than they statistically should have. On the flip side, silver cars seemed to get noticed the least, and as a result, got the smallest number of tickets out of all the colors.
So, the answer to whether it’s true that red cars get more speeding tickets is that it’s FALSE.
