We know why school buses are colored yellow. There is anecdotal evidence that the bright color yellow makes vehicles more visible and helps reduce accidents.
Well, researchers at the National University of Singapore has found an explicit link between the color of a taxi and its accident rate.
The findings of the study were published in scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
The researchers performed data analysis from 36 months of information from the largest taxi company in Singapore. They looked at data concerning taxi, driver and accident rates.
The data involved 4,175 yellow taxis and 12,535 blue taxis.
Fewer Accidents in Yellow Cabs
They found that yellow taxis had 6.1 fewer accidents per 1,000 taxis per month.
In terms of physical risk to taxi passengers, the researchers estimated that a passenger will experience 1.1 accidents in a blue taxi, compared to 1 accident in a yellow taxi over a 40-year period. That is about 9 percent less risk of accidents for the passengers riding in yellow taxis.
If you think that rate is kind of small, the researchers estimated that if all taxis were switched over to the yellow color, there would be 76.6 fewer accidents per month, or 917 fewer accidents per year.
In addition, if each accident cost S00 (US9) to repair and 6 days of down time, then the average annual savings would be million (US.4 million).
What This Info Means For You?
How can you use this info? Well, obviously, if you need to catch a cab, catch a yellow one if possible, to reduce you chance of having an accident while riding in it.
Also, yellow might not be the choice of color for many when choosing a car, but it may be the safest color to drive around in.
Journal Reference:
Teck-Hua Ho, Juin Kuan Chong, Xiaoyu Xia. Yellow taxis have fewer accidents than blue taxis because yellow is more visible than blue. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2017; http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1612551114
