The white exterior on the these subway cars was supposedly graffiti resistant paint. You could write graffiti on these cars just that it's easier to clean the graffiti off them. Then they started to paint the subway cars red. Calling them "Redbirds. "
Those railcars were painted white to be "elephants" as decoy trains to deter defacement. Scribbled cars were photographed and transit police and detectives would be abreast of the scribble-scrabble to be ready to search for graffiti scribblers for arrest. The rapid transit system was owned by the New York City Transit Authority until April 1996, when it went under the ownership of Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
