Latest trend: reverse lights stay on after locking

[rslifkin]

Originally Posted By: stower17
As for the comment for rear amber turn signals...

In vehicles that implement the turn signal with the brake light bulbs, if your brake light goes out chances are the bulb thats used for the turn signal also went out with it and you will know by the blinking speed of the turn signal. Its sort of like an integrated diagnostic system.

Cars with amber turn signals are more likely to be driving around with burnt out brake lights because the turn signal system still works properly...

You could argue which is safer, i have several GM cars from the early 2000's when they experimented with amber on nearly all their cars and only with those cars do people tell me my brake light is out because I had no idea.


And any responsible driver will check their lights periodically and replace any non-functioning bulbs, making this a moot point.

IMO, turn signals should never be allowed to share with brake lights. Even if the signals are red and separate, that's ok. But the shared lights just aren't visible enough in many situations.

 

[Hokiefyd]

Originally Posted By: stower17
How are reverse lights a disfavor to everyone else?


We have a lot of "angled" parking aisle designs around here. That is, the aisles are one-way traffic and you angle into a parking space, like this (disregard the Amazon woman for now...):

Look at the bottom aisle. There's a dark G6 in the second-to-the-end spot on the left side of the aisle, next to the red Dodge Ram. Pretend you're in your vehicle slowing moving down the aisle, and you've made it to where the pink Honda Civic is.

You can't really see it, but the G6 driver has just locked their doors and walked away. Their reverse lights are on. Maybe it's dark, and their auto-off exterior lamps are on, too, so they have tail lamps. As a courteous driver, you stop and wait for them to back out. Or, as a cautious drive, you stop and wait, so they don't back out into you. You wait. And you wait some more. You eventually realize that there's nobody even in the car.

Flip the positions of the Ram and the G6, and put the G6 behind the Ram. Now, you REALLY can't see what's going on in the Pontiac, and all you can see are reverse lights. What's the situation? Are they backing up? Or have they left the vehicle. You have no idea.

The function of reverse lights are to both: indicate that the vehicle is moving backwards (or is about to), and to illuminate the area behind the vehicle so you can see as you reverse after dark. I understand what GM's going for, here, but it's ambiguously adding a non-standard function to those lights. Ambiguity leads to confusion.

On shared rear bulbs, I always prefer separate stop bulbs and turn signal bulbs. And I always prefer amber turn signals. This was made very apparent to me last November. We were driving in the rain at night in Thanksgiving eve traffic on I-95. Traffic was moving pretty swiftly, but volumes were heavy. It was common to be able to see only one lamp at the rear of the vehicle -- the lamp closest to my lane. Especially if I'm a few car-lengths behind someone in the other lane, there's probably someone next to me closer to him, obscuring most of the back of that vehicle. A red lamp comes on, then goes out. Then comes on again. Are they signaling a turn? Are they tapping their brake? It's remarkably hard to be able to anticipate what others are doing already...add in dark conditions, rainy conditions, and heavy traffic, and there's just really no room for ambiguity. If the light that came on was amber, then I would know immediately that they're looking to change lanes. And if all turn signals are amber, and the light that came on was red, then I would know immediately that they're braking, and not signalling a lane change.

(I feel so strongly about amber turn signals that they are on my list of must-haves for a vehicle, now. Both of our vehicles have amber rear turn signals, and I will not own a vehicle that doesn't have them. The 2009 Ridgeline came with red turn signals, and within a month, I swapped them for the amber signals from a 2006-2008 model.)

 

[Hokiefyd]

Originally Posted By: rslifkin
IMO, turn signals should never be allowed to share with brake lights.


I generally agree. I feel, however, that there are some modern exceptions. Some recent models, and I'm thinking of the 2011-era Camry and recent Kia Optimas, here, the brake lamps are a pretty bright red...LEDs in some cases. And there's a small-but-separate red turn signal. In many situations, you can barely make out that small red turn signal flashing, because it's over-powered by the LED brake lamp.

Two things would fix this. Preferably, make the silly signal amber. No ambiguity, there. Or, if the signal and brake lamp were shared, it'd at least be more apparent whether that lamp was on solid or flashing.

Again, amber signals fix most of these situations. But in some cases, I think shared lamps can communicate the driver's intentions more effectively than segmented ones.

 

[Garak]

Originally Posted By: Hokiefyd
You can't really see it, but the G6 driver has just locked their doors and walked away.

You can't really see it because the big lady stepped on the driver.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: Hokiefyd
We have a lot of "angled" parking aisle designs around here. That is, the aisles are one-way traffic and you angle into a parking space, like this

And even if it's just a regular (non-angled) parking lot, the same issue still exists.

 

[DoubleWasp]

I've honestly never had any trouble with this feature when approaching a car that has it. If the brake lights are not lit, it's a pretty dead giveaway that a car is not backing up.

Then again, I never assume a car is going to back up even if it is clearly on, in reverse, with a driver in the seat. Sometimes people just get ready to reverse and don't for whatever reason.