Have you ever noticed the overwhelming number of nondescript colors on the highway? And I don’t mean in the scenery. There is a proliferation of soft hues that all fade into nature’s palette. Of course there is white to match the clouds and various blues to blend in with the sky, to say nothing of sea foam green. Then there’s classic black for the road, tan for the colors of autumn, and gray that just seems to fade into almost any background. Are these the real preferences of car owners or are there very few bright-color options available?
Seatbelts are now accepted and widely used. They keep us harnessed down in case of fast stops or accidents. Seatbelts are now required by law in most states, in the interest of saving lives.
Speaker phones help us converse without holding cell phones to our ears. There is talk now of banishing the use of cell phones and texting altogether in the interest of public safety.
Speed limits are enforced on our highways to protect the driving public.
What about changing the colors of our cars?
When I used to travel with my work, European highways and byways always reminded me of the brightest summer flower gardens with their “hot” brilliant car colors. I wondered why there were so many vivid vehicles on the roads there compared to the long lines of faded versions here. Could it be that drivers can see bright red or orange or yellow quicker? Did they know something we don’t about accident prevention and public safety on the roads?
Family tragedy forced me look at traffic and driving practices in a different way because in 1997, my two sisters-in-law were instantly killed by a drunk driver. They were visiting us, going shopping together on a Sunday afternoon, and the color of their car was silver gray. The oncoming drunk driver of a pick-up truck crossed the center line and another lane to wind up going the wrong way. He was traveling at high speed on a Virginia byway and hit them head-on. I have always wondered if their lives might have been spared if their car had been bright red. Even drunk, wouldn’t the driver have seen a brighter color and reacted in time?
I know it is futile to dwell on the ”what-if” issues of life and death, but ever since the accident, I have insisted on driving a red car. Red seems to be one of only a few bright colors available to new-car buyers here. We still have our old gray car, so we used to choose the classic colors too, but that was then, and this is now, and I am just thinkin’. My favorite color is now red.
Virginia Views 