Before the police reform in the mid-1970s, Germany had many city police forces and each had its own police car livery. Dark blue, dark green and white were popular colours. However, the dark colours were perceived as a disadvantage as many accidents occurred at night during high-speed chases. Therefore, the conference of interior ministers decided on standardising police car liveries so that the cars appeared non-threatening and could be easily visible at night. Bright green and white became the colours associated with police vehicles in Germany beginning in the 1970s. More recently, police forces changed to silver cars and vans instead of white ones as they were easier to sell than the white ones when their police service was over. Now, most states have light blue instead of green stripes, but cars painted in the old livery can still be seen (as of November 2012). Only the states of Bavaria and Saarland have opted to retain the green-on-white/silver livery; all other states are transitioning to blue-on-white/silver.