Results 1 to 3 of 3

Thread: Colour blindness and tape

  1. #1
    Senior Member Sam Harrison's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2009
    Location
    Lancaster
    Posts
    712

    Colour blindness and tape

    I am red-green colour blind, and apparently colour-blindness affects nearly 10% of all males. It's usually not an issue, except for when trying to follow flags during races. Unfortunately, it seems the most common colour for race flag is red or orange, which to me blends rather well into the green grass its usually placed upon. Does anyone else suffer the same problem as me?

    It came to light most recently at the Kendal Winter League race at Firbank, where all the flags were a dark orange/red colour. I was in 3rd for a lot of the race and 1st and 2nd were well off in front, out of sight, and it was only through luck that I managed to guess the right route most of the time. Last weekend I did the Whitestone KWL race and they had used a combination of yellow and orange/red flags, which was a massive improvement! Even though I struggled with the orange/red flags, I could mostly spot the yellow flags in the distance (often noticing a closer orange/red flag as I nearly stood on it...).

    I guess what I'm getting at is that, for me, flagging a route with entirely yellow/white flags would be a big improvement. But I'm also aware that this might be a step down in how much the flags stand out for those that aren't colour blind (I don't know if that's so, I'm just guessing that orange/red is used for the reason that to most people it stands out more than anything else).

  2. #2
    Senior Member sore legs's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2010
    Location
    Hereford
    Posts
    875
    Sam, I feel your pain. I am also red/green colour blind. I have always been told that in males the ratio is 1 in 5 and in females is 1 in 20 to 25 with red/green being the most prevalent colour deficit.

    I have experienced several races where the course has been marked by red/orange tape hanging off tree branches to show the entry point to forests and the route to be taken, or secured by a rock on the ground. For me I cannot pick these markers out at distance and it is the movement of the tape that I have to try to watch out for. This being near impossible until you are right on top of the marker, assuming that you have not actually missed them and wondered off track! Even the red/white marker tape I find hard to pick out as the red does not exist for me against the back drop and the white stripes are only about 5cm wide and normally only a couple are on show after the tape is tied to a tree, so this does not really grab your attention.

    I have never approached a RO about the issue as I dont want to be a pain, causing disruption to their race planning for which I am appreciative and I accept any arguements about 'self navigation' etc that some from the forum may drag up. Its a problem, personally I would rather see plain white tape used and I dont believe it detracts from a race in comparison to red or orange tape. I would assume that the course is marked for a reason, safety, access rights etc, in which case people need to kept on the approved track.
    Last edited by sore legs; 27-01-2016 at 08:35 AM.

  3. #3
    Master wheezing donkey's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2007
    Location
    A Bowland Bog
    Posts
    2,721
    Sam, colour blindness is not something that I suffer from ( would never have made it as a telephone engineer ) but an interesting anecdote from maybe 6 or 7 years ago, when I was marshalling at Parlick Pike summit on the Bleasedale Circle race:-

    There were some scattered patches of snow but plenty of grass and heather still showing.
    The course had been flagged with red & white hazard tape which was visible on the patches of snow but quite difficult to discern amongst the dead heather and grasses.
    In my ruc sac I had a roll of solid orange tape ( as used to mark the line of buried telecoms cables ).
    To assist the competitors in attaining the correct line from the summit, I added some solid orange flags across the first couple of patches of heather and grass.
    In this instance the orange was far more visible than the red & white.
    So even amongst "normally sighted" people, I guess there are horses for courses.

    Ian Roberts.

    PS If you and your other half want to come to the Bowland "Do", drop an e-mail to Pam she needs to be firming-up the numbers.
    I was a bit of an oddball until I was abducted by aliens; but I'm perfectly OK now!

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •