What Does A Solid Blue Light Mean On A Police Car?

Police cars are equipped with a variety of lights that they use to communicate with other people on the road, but sometimes it can be difficult to tell what exactly they are communicating. Red and blue flashing lights are standard and we know that this means an emergency, but if The police car has yellow lights flashingfor example, it means something completely different.

Advertising

Solid blue light is another non-emergency method of communication. These solid blue lights, also called cruise lights, indicate to area residents that police are in the area and are keeping them safe. Given that some police cars are not easily identified, this may be necessary to signal to people that police are nearby. But at their core, cruise lights are designed to be calming, so you don’t have to worry about them when you see them on the road.

But why are cruise lights solid blue and not another color? There are several reasons why this is so.

Initially, police lights were simply red, but in the 1960s and 1970s, police stations began using blue lights along with red ones. Why did this happen? Although the implementation was done to differentiate police cars from other ambulances, the choice of blue was not random and mainly came down to color theory.

Advertising

Red conveys warning and danger. In combination with a red traffic light indicating the need to stop (and how traffic lights detect your caranyway?), he encourages people to pay attention and subsequently stop. Blue, on the other hand, conveys comfort and calm, which is why cruise lights are solid blue rather than red or yellow. Blue also complements red and makes it stand out, since this color is not so common in nature.

In some parts of the southern states, red lights are not used at all, and police cars use mostly blue lights. In fact, one of the coolest police cars in Americain Alabama, there was only one blue light on the roof. This is where whether the lights flash or stay on comes into play.

Advertising

In most cases, blue light in itself is not a cause for concern. If you see solid blue lights behind you, there is nothing to worry about and you don’t need to stop – the cruise lights simply mean that police are in the area, not that a traffic stop is required.

Advertising

However, if you see a flashing light, you will likely have to stop. Although most of the United States has red and blue traffic stop lights, you may be in an area that only uses blue lights to alert drivers to stop. Find a safe place to slow down and stop.

If you are not sure that the police are trying to stop you, you should still slow down and stop. If the lights flash for any reason, they are responding to an emergency, and stopping on the side of the road clears the road and allows the police to get where they need to go faster.