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Battenburg markings or Battenberg markings are a pattern of high-visibility markings used primarily on the sides of emergency service vehicles in several European countries, New Zealand, and Hong Kong. The name comes from the similarity in appearance to the cross-section of a Battenberg cake.
Contents
History
Battenburg markings were originally developed in the mid-1990s in the UK by the Police Scientific Development Branch (PSDB) (now the Home Office Centre for Applied Science and Technology (CAST)) at the request of the national motorway policing sub-committee of the Association of Chief Police Officers. They were first developed for the United Kingdom police forces to use on traffic patrol cars, although other private organisations and civil emergency services have since started to use the pattern on their vehicles.
The brief was to create a livery for motorway and trunk road police vehicles which would maximise the visibility of the vehicles when stopped on scene, both in daylight, and under headlights from a minimum distance of 500 metres (1,600 ft), and which would distinctively mark them as police vehicles.
The key research objectives included:
Conspicuity
The Battenburg design uses a regular pattern and the contrast between a light and a dark colour to increase conspicuity for the human eye. The lighter colour is daylight-fluorescent (such as fluorescent-yellow) for better visibility in daytime and particularly also in dusk and dawn. For night-time visibility, the complete pattern is retroreflective.
The Battenburg design typically has two rows of alternating rectangles, usually starting with yellow at the top corner, then the alternating colour, along the sides of a vehicle. Most cars use two block rows in the design (so-called full-Battenburg scheme). Some designs for cars only use a single row (so-called half-Battenburg scheme) or one and a half rows.
Pattern markings can have a camouflage effect as well concealing the outline of the vehicle, particularly in front of a cluttered background. For Battenburg markings, this can be avoided by the following means:
The Battenburg livery is not used on the rear of vehicles, instead with the majority of users using upward facing chevrons in yellow and red to the rear, in line with the markings used by other road users.
Sillitoe Tartan
During the development of Battenburg markings, one of the key functions was to clearly identify a vehicle as being linked to the police. In addition to the advantages in effectiveness tests, the pattern was also reminiscent of the Sillitoe Tartan pattern of black-and-white or blue-and-white chequered markings, first introduced by the City of Glasgow Police in the 1930s, and subsequently adopted as a symbol of police services as far away as Chicago, Australia. and New Zealand.
Subsequent to the launch of the markings of the vehicles, the police introduced retro-reflective Sillitoe tartan markings to their uniforms, usually in blue and white.
Sillitoe tartan patterns identify vehicles as associated with the police, but do not provide high visibility.
Safety
One purpose for conspicuity is to reduce accidents due to an emergency vehicle not being noticed in a situation not usual to traffic conditions, e.g., stopped in fast-moving traffic, or moving at a different speed or in a different direction. The Battenburg side markings, together often with chevron front and rear markings, are intended to reduce accidents due to "looked but failed to see". Several criticisms of the Battenburg scheme were raised at the October 2010 3rd Annual US Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Safety Summit in the context of use on ambulances, including the difficulty of applying it to small, curved, or odd-shaped surfaces, high costs, the confusing pattern caused when several parked Battenburg vehicles visually overlap, breaking up the vehicle shape against complex backgrounds or with open doors and hatches, and other combinations than police yellow/blue being less effective and even progressing to camouflage with some body colours. In particular transferring the pattern from UK police to other services and countries was criticised, making the public struggle to decipher unfamiliar markings. The high-visibility chevrons often used on the rear and front of Battenburg-marked vehicles "through popular opinion rather than by a scientific process of testing and research" were found not be effective at reducing rear-end collisions; the presence of a stationary vehicle on a high-speed road may be noticed, but not that it is stopped. Parking at an angle in such situations was a far more effective way of drawing attention to the motionlessness of a vehicle.
United Kingdom
In the United Kingdom, the majority of the emergency services have adopted the Battenburg style of markings, with nearly half of all police forces adopting the markings within three years of its introduction, and over three quarters using it by 2003. The vehicles used by the UK Border or Immigration officers also use these markings.
In 2004, following the widespread adoption and recognition of the Battenburg markings on police vehicles, the Home Office recommended that all police vehicles, not just those on traffic duty, use "half-Battenburg" livery, formalising the practice of a number of forces.
In the United Kingdom each emergency service has been allocated a specified darker colour in addition to yellow, with the police continuing to use blue, ambulances using green, and the fire service their traditional red.
The use of these colours in retro-reflective material is controlled by the Road Vehicle Lighting Regulations 1989, with vehicles only legally allowed the use of amber reflective material (and red near the rear of the vehicle), A number of civilian organisations have also adopted the pattern, which is not legally protected, and a number of these also use other reflective colours.
An alternative to the use of reflective materials is the use of fluorescent or other non-reflective markings, which may be used by any vehicle.
Hong Kong
Hong Kong was a British Dependent Territory until 1997. Some emergency vehicles and special vehicles in the Hong Kong Police Force, Hong Kong Fire Services Department, Auxiliary Medical Service, and Hong Kong St. John Ambulance use Battenburg markings.
Ireland
In Ireland, a similar system to the UK is used with some variations.
New Zealand
The New Zealand Police use yellow/blue Battenburg markings on some vehicles. Until October 2008 general duties vehicles were marked in orange and blue, with yellow and blue for highway patrol units; orange and blue was phased out in 2014.
Sweden
Originally Swedish Police vehicles were painted with black roofs and doors or black roofs, bonnet, and boot. This was a necessity due to the heavy snows Sweden experiences. During the 1980s the cars became white with the word "Polis" written on the side in a semi-futuristic typeface. Later the livery became simply blue and white, then in 2005 was changed to a light blue and fluorescent yellow Battenburg livery. Most Swedish police cars are either Volvos or Saabs, with the same livery all over Sweden. A recent Swedish trend is to also use Battenburg markings on road maintenance vehicles. These are then marked with orange/blue, as in the UK rail response type shown above. A study by the Swedish Road Administration showed a significant traffic calming effect when using orange/blue Battenburg marking to improve the visibility of road maintenance vehicles.
Switzerland
The first Swiss ambulance service with Battenburg markings is the emergency medical services in Zofingen. Since 2008 they have Battenburg markings on a Volkswagen Crafter and a Mercedes Sprinter. They use white/red coloured markings on their ALS units. Another service with similar Battenburg markings is the Swiss Border Patrol. They use lemon on blue markings.