Tag Archives: recognition

Conflicting emergency vehicle pattern markings merge to create camouflage effects


Many earlier posts have described the problems associated with affixing a range of different patterned markings (especially rear chevrons) onto emergency vehicles.                 The problem is made even worse when a number of local agencies independently decide to display different pattern styles to brand their vehicles in an … Continue reading

Posted in Ambulance, Chevrons, Emergency vehicles, EMS, Fire, Fluorescent colours, High Visibility, Markings, Police, Reflective, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Ohio DOT add green warning lamps to snowploughs (snowplows) – HiVizTV


Changes to state legislation now permits snowploughs in Ohio to be fitted with any colour warning lights except red and blue. The state’s 1500 snowploughs will be progressively retrofitted with green flashing lamps alongside the current flashing amber and white lamps. While green lamps … Continue reading Continue reading

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NSW Police highway patrol cars sacrifice officer safety with billboard graphics


The October three-day weekend holiday in Australia has just passed and earlier in the week the New South Wales Police launched their “Operation Slowdown” safe driving campaign with a display of new vehicles and sobering interviews for the gathered media. This year the … Continue reading

Posted in AV Reference Library, Emergency vehicles, Fluorescent colours, High Visibility, Markings, Police, Reflective | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Law & Order – 2012 Police Vehicle Design Competition


The results of this year’s police vehicle marking design competition have been published by Law & Order magazine. I think this competition is a great idea and it brings together a wide cross-section of police vehicles from all over the United … Continue reading

Posted in Battenburg, Chevrons, Emergency vehicles, Motorcycles, Police, Reflective | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Three new features coming to the AV Blog


Over the next few days you will see three new icons and categories appearing between the usual blog posts. There are a great number research papers, video clips and successful emergency vehicle marking layouts that deserve to be recognised even though they do not make it into … Continue reading

Posted in Ambulance, AV Reference Library, Chevrons, Emergency Vehicle Markings Award of Excellence, Emergency vehicles, EMS, Fire, Fluorescent colours, High Visibility, HiViz-TV, Markings, Police, Reflective, Rescue, Research, SES, Significant & Important Blogs, Uncategorized, Warning Lights, Weekly Research Spot | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

University of Ohio Driver Safety and First Responder Research – HiViz TV


The Russ College of Engineering and Technology at the University of Ohio is using a new driving simulator featuring the front half of a Ford Focus to study the most effective combination of colors, reflective stripes, lights and logos for emergency vehicles. … Continue reading

Posted in Ambulance, Emergency vehicles, EMS, Fire, Fluorescent colours, High Visibility, HiViz-TV, Markings, Police, Reflective, Research | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Evaluating new trends in emergency vehicle markings


This is the second part of three articles written for the Colorado EMSAC Star. The first article in the series discussed the Ambulance Visibility ten-point toolkit for applying markings to emergency vehicles. This second article looks at advertising agency visibility, Battenburg … Continue reading

Posted in Ambulance, AV Reference Library, Battenburg, Chevrons, Emergency vehicles, EMS, Fire, Fluorescent colours, High Visibility, Markings, Police, Reflective, Research, SES, Significant & Important Blogs | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Why Bronto Skylift fire trucks and Battenburg markings don’t mix!


How do you make sure that large or oversize emergency vehicles are easily seen and quickly recognised? The answer is simple and straight forward – you paint the vehicle in a single colour and avoid using any complex marking patterns thus ensuring … Continue reading

Posted in Emergency vehicles, Fire, Fluorescent colours, High Visibility, Markings, Reflective, Rescue | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Emergency Vehicles – Do not rely on sirens for an effective warning


When the Ambulance Visibility website was in its infancy over ten years ago one of the first webpages to be written was concerned with the inadequacies of sirens as an effective  warning for fire, police and ambulance vehicles. Stephen Solomon, David Green and De … Continue reading

Posted in Ambulance, AV Reference Library, Emergency vehicles, EMS, Fire, Police, Research, Warning Lights | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Ambulance Visibility Marking Toolkit for Emergency Vehicles


After presenting at the Colorado 3rd Annual EMS Summit in 2010 I was asked to write several articles for the Colorado EMSAC Star. The first article in the series discussed the Ambulance Visibility ten-point toolkit for applying markings to emergency vehicles. The article should be read … Continue reading

Posted in Ambulance, Battenburg, Chevrons, Emergency vehicles, EMS, Fire, Fluorescent colours, High Visibility, Markings, Police, PPE, Reflective, Research, SES, Significant & Important Blogs, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Why your paediatric [pediatric] ambulance transports deserve high-conspicuity safety!


I have a suggestion – go to Google images and type in pediatric ambulance (not paediatric ambulance for those of us outside the US that are using ‘proper English’).     Look at the images; you can count on one hand the number … Continue reading

Posted in Ambulance, Emergency vehicles, EMS, Fluorescent colours, High Visibility, Markings, Reflective | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The difference between Battenburg high-visibility markings and Sillitoe chequers on Police, Fire & Ambulance vehicles


Almost every passing week sees another police, fire or EMS agency boasting  at a vehicle launch that their response vehicles are now displaying a new world’s best practise Battenburg high-visibility markings. The agency chief always adds that the latest change to the HiVis markings has only taken place after a lengthy consultation period with … Continue reading

Posted in Ambulance, Battenburg, Emergency vehicles, EMS, Fire, Fluorescent colours, High Visibility, Police, Reflective, Research, SES, Significant & Important Blogs | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

ACT Ambulance reflective conspicuity markings in new medical EMS textbook


A quick post with just a bit of exciting news!  Several years after designing the ACT Ambulance reflective markings I was approached by Cengage Delmar Learning publishing in the United States about supplying images for a new textbook. The authors, Richard Beebe and … Continue reading

Posted in Ambulance, Emergency vehicles, EMS, Fluorescent colours, High Visibility, Markings, Reflective, Research | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The pink steamroller vs emergency vehicle colour and markings


A few days ago the morning started out normally. I was up early so while I ate breakfast I quickly browsed through the electronic version of the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper (SMH). One story with the headline The Pink Wash – Pink Ribbon Inc grabbed my attention. The … Continue reading

Posted in Ambulance, Chevrons, Emergency vehicles, EMS, Fire, Fluorescent colours, High Visibility, Markings, Police, Reflective | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Conspicuity for emergency motorcycles – Battenburg vs Fluorescent markings


One of the first posts written in the early days of the AV blog was about the effectiveness of motorcycle conspicuity and markings during emergency response. A major part of that discussion was concerned with a growing trend in the UK to affix a modified pattern of Battenburg markings onto Police motorcycles … Continue reading

Posted in Ambulance, AV Reference Library, Battenburg, Emergency vehicles, EMS, Fluorescent colours, High Visibility, Markings, Police, Reflective, Research | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

A conference, two papers and retroreflective conspicuity at night.


Conferences are a great opportunity to attend presentations discussing the latest research, to see the newest products and meet with colleagues. At the trade exhibits we are bombarded with sales pitches and a gambit of differing viewpoints. As a matter of course we tend to filter out all the sales talk and seek out the more reliable information … Continue reading

Posted in Ambulance, AV Reference Library, Emergency vehicles, EMS, Fire, High Visibility, Markings, Police, PPE, Reflective, Research, SES, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Emergency workers and HiVis clothing – our perception of safety may be dangerously flawed!


Just how how safe are we as emergency workers at an incident scene when stepping out onto the road ? Our on-road activities are an integral part of life in an ambulance/EMS, police, fire or rescue response. We pull-on a ‘safety’ vest or fluorescent jacket over our uniforms and then start work, trusting … Continue reading

Posted in Ambulance, AV Reference Library, Battenburg, Emergency vehicles, EMS, Fire, Fluorescent colours, High Visibility, Police, PPE, Reflective, Rescue, Research, SES, Significant & Important Blogs | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Announcing the new Ambulance Visibility Reference Library


  It has always been exceptionally difficult to find accurate research without spending hours searching the internet.   The new Ambulance Visibility Reference Library brings visibility and conspicuity research documents and information together in the one place for the first time. The AV Reference … Continue reading

Posted in Ambulance, AV Reference Library, Battenburg, Chevrons, Emergency vehicles, EMS, Fire, Fluorescent colours, High Visibility, Markings, Police, Reflective, Rescue, Research, SES, Significant & Important Blogs, Uncategorized, Warning Lights | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Fire Rescue News – 70s throwback: Lime-yellow fire trucks fade out


Pinellas Park Fire Department has decided to change vehicle colour from yellow-green to deep red according to an article written by Anne Lindberg in The St Petersburg Times and reflects the personal view of at least 60% of the department’s firefighter’s. Subsequently, a … Continue reading

Posted in Ambulance, Chevrons, Emergency vehicles, EMS, Fire, Fluorescent colours, High Visibility, Markings, Reflective, Research | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Emergency vehicle chevrons – the AV Blog series Part 2


Welcome back to Part 2 of the Chevron Blog.  This part will discuss the following topics: Chevrons on current and future vehicle fleets Current fleet markings with chevrons on different vehicle styles Differing expectations of Police, Fire & Ambulance Battenburg and … Continue reading

Posted in Ambulance, Battenburg, Chevrons, Emergency vehicles, EMS, Fire, Fluorescent colours, High Visibility, Markings, Police, Rescue, Research, Significant & Important Blogs, Uncategorized, Warning Lights | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Enhancing motorcycle conspicuity – emergency response & at the roadside.


Last week, I was at an intersection in Sydney waiting for a red light to change. Off to the left and without warning, a white blur appeared in the corner of my eye.  It took several seconds to recognize what was … Continue reading

Posted in Ambulance, Battenburg, Emergency vehicles, EMS, Fluorescent colours, High Visibility, Markings, Police, Significant & Important Blogs, Warning Lights | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments