Front Facing Brake Lights
Discussion
https://www.tugraz.at/en/news/article/tu-graz-stud...
Don't worry it's in English. A suggestion that cars have green brake lights on the front.
"Reconstructions of accidents at road junctions revealed in a study that an additional brake light at the front of the vehicle would have prevented up to 17 per cent of collisions."
Don't worry it's in English. A suggestion that cars have green brake lights on the front.
"Reconstructions of accidents at road junctions revealed in a study that an additional brake light at the front of the vehicle would have prevented up to 17 per cent of collisions."
Interesting idea. Although of limited effectiveness with a manual car where, for example, you can quite happily be sat at a junction stopped waiting to turn without your foot on the brake, unlike in an automatic car.
I also read that there’s a proposal out there (from Mercedes I believe) for cars operating in full self driving mode to have green lights come on to indicate that to other road users. Not quite sure what that achieves, but they seemed to think it a useful safety feature.
I also read that there’s a proposal out there (from Mercedes I believe) for cars operating in full self driving mode to have green lights come on to indicate that to other road users. Not quite sure what that achieves, but they seemed to think it a useful safety feature.
Edited by Cristio Nasser on Monday 11th August 06:57
simonrockman said:
Looking at this more closely, it seems that the figures are based on ALL cars having front brake lights, with side repeaters. In the real world, introducing without compulsory retrofitting would not have much of an effect,
It would in the end, it would just take time. Pica-Pica said:
I know on my F30 ‘66 plate BMW, the hazards come on at a certain rate of deceleration. That surprised me the first time. They stay on until you either, move away after the stop, or switch them off.
When I got my 16 plate M240i one of the first things I did was test how quickly it stopped (from 30-ish). It did stop pretty rapidly but first thing I noticed was the hazard coming on. Its something I've noticed ever since when a car stops with the hazards on although not all cars have it.
That being said I doubt a front brake light would help much. In countries where the driving standards are high it wouldn't matter as people already aren't taking risks. In countries where the driving standard is poor it won't matter as people either don't know or don't care about rules.
If you struggle with judging speed & distance enough that you can't detect when an approaching car is braking, then being given a literal green light won't help, and will probably cause chaos.
These studies are usually confined to continental urban areas, picture this common rural British scene, fast A road, garden centre, driver on A road is approaching the turning for the garden centre and sees someone waiting, being a nervous driver they feather the brakes on approach, a 'confidence brake' which doesn't shed much speed, the driver waiting to pull out sees the green brake light and pulls out assuming that the oncoming car is letting them out.
As regards automatic hazards for hard braking the Astra G had a weighted hazard switch, which achieved what BMW achieved with electronics completely passively, I always thought that was quite clever.
These studies are usually confined to continental urban areas, picture this common rural British scene, fast A road, garden centre, driver on A road is approaching the turning for the garden centre and sees someone waiting, being a nervous driver they feather the brakes on approach, a 'confidence brake' which doesn't shed much speed, the driver waiting to pull out sees the green brake light and pulls out assuming that the oncoming car is letting them out.
As regards automatic hazards for hard braking the Astra G had a weighted hazard switch, which achieved what BMW achieved with electronics completely passively, I always thought that was quite clever.
motco said:
A far more urgent matter is the lack of separation of brake and indicators at the rear, and indicators and headlights at the front. Once a brake light is illuminated on many cars, the indicator is barely visible. At the front even DRLs can mask indicators in the worst designs.
An even bigger problem than that, is that most drivers don't seem to bother to use their indicators anyway!motco said:
A far more urgent matter is the lack of separation of brake and indicators at the rear, and indicators and headlights at the front. Once a brake light is illuminated on many cars, the indicator is barely visible. At the front even DRLs can mask indicators in the worst designs.
Front DRLs dim or go out completely when the indicator is switched on on most cars where they are close together. Those stupid Chingford foglights (I think "cornering lights" is their proper name) do switch on and sometimes mask the indicator, but as they only light on the side the indicator is flashing act like a secondary indicator anyway.Instead of having a new green brake light, a better implementation would be for the DRLs to only light up when the brake is released and a car is moving.
SkodaIan said:
Instead of having a new green brake light, a better implementation would be for the DRLs to only light up when the brake is released and a car is moving.
Yes I agree. A DRL is different from a sidelight in its function and it cries wolf if it's on when the car is stationary. motco said:
A far more urgent matter is the lack of separation of brake and indicators at the rear, and indicators and headlights at the front. Once a brake light is illuminated on many cars, the indicator is barely visible. At the front even DRLs can mask indicators in the worst designs.
It’s best to be aware of this and indicate before braking (not always possible, of course). The (often-derided) scrolling rear indicators help here, as do the front indicators that temporarily extinguish the DRLs.
motco said:
SkodaIan said:
Instead of having a new green brake light, a better implementation would be for the DRLs to only light up when the brake is released and a car is moving.
Yes I agree. A DRL is different from a sidelight in its function and it cries wolf if it's on when the car is stationary. Evercross said:
king arthur said:
How do you manage at traffic lights?
Position!!Traffic lights are the same the world over for exactly this reason. Unfortunately the same cannot be said of light clusters on vehicles.
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