Actually, airline pilots (and pilots generally) are not the only people you need...

qubex on July 11, 2017 | parent | context | favorite | on: SFO near miss might have triggered aviation disast...

Actually, airline pilots (and pilots generally) are not the only people you need to take into account here. Many other potential users of the runways and taxiways would need to be taken into account, including ground staff and maintenance staff. Since I doubt that all of these are ruled out on the basis of colourblindness, it makes sense to construct a system that is impervious to ambiguity due to colourblindness.

schwap on July 11, 2017 [–]

But ground and maintenance staff don't need to identify them by colour from far away. For them, you could rely on simple signage.