Are Some Vehicle Colors Safer Than Others?

• Activity Number: 538
• Type: Contributed
• Date/Time: Wednesday, August 4, 2010 : 10:30 AM to 12:20 PM
• Sponsor: Section on Physical and Engineering Sciences
• Author(s): Peter William Hovey*+ and Deogratias Eustace and Stephen Owusu-Ansah
• Companies: University of Dayton/Air Force Academy and University of Dayton and University of Dayton
• Keywords: traccifc safety ; vehicle color ; Pooisson Regression ; Negative Binomial Regression

Abstract

There has been considerable interest over the years about whether the color of a vehicle is associated with the likelihood of the vehicle being involved in an accident. Recent literature has utilized the notion of induced exposure to help make comparisons between rates of accidents that may have been impacted by the color of the vehicle and those that probably were not impacted by the color of any of the vehicles involved. Another factor that can influence the results of the analysis is the choice of the underlying probabilistic model of accident rates. Results of several studies will be reviewed and compared based on the analysis methods used.