cross-posted from: lemmy.bestiver.se/post/424410
Definitely make it easier for people on crosswalks to start walking. Knowing that they are slowing down.
Front Brake Lights Could Drastically Diminish Road Accident Rates
Submitted 10 months ago by floofloof@lemmy.ca to technology@lemmy.world
Comments
JustAThought@lemm.ee 9 months ago
CompostMaterial@lemmy.world 9 months ago
In order to be most effective it would need to be dynamic rather than a fixed on/off like rear brake lights. Stopping doesn’t mean stopped. So perhaps a progressive light bar that starts lighting up at 20mph and adds a light for each 5mph drop until the whole bar is lit indicating a full stop. That would give pedestrians a sense of rate of deceleration.
LillyPip@lemmy.ca 9 months ago
‘Here’s an idea: let all those around you know your status.’
‘Revolutionary!’
It’s weird we haven’t already done this, but good.
RagingRobot@lemmy.world 9 months ago
My status is in a relationship
Don’t get any ideas buddy
CompostMaterial@lemmy.world 9 months ago
How do I set my car’s status to “It’s complicated”?
AlteredEgo@lemmy.ml 9 months ago
Once we have proper self driving cars none of these recent “innovations” like that or the speed limiting would matter.
Ideally self driving cars would also be without a steering wheel and just be half width with a single seat or two seats facing each other to reduce energy requirements. You could just develop this with a manhattan style project and test it in a single city banning all other private cars except delivery vehicles.
jaschen@lemm.ee 9 months ago
Proper self-driving cars? Do you mean a bus?
Grostleton@lemm.ee 9 months ago
Might as well ignore all attainable goals that would benefit society in the short term in favor of sci-fi pipe dreams that are perpetually delayed as we endlessly run into stumbling blocks.
Forget solar/wind/geothermal/etc. development as well, fusion power could happen any day now so why bother with any of that comparatively inefficient junk?
SocialMediaRefugee@lemmy.world 9 months ago
How about reducing the brightness of headlights so I don’t feel like the sun is driving at me at night?
bridgeenjoyer@sh.itjust.works 9 months ago
Yes… WHY DO CARS STILL HAVE 2 SETTINGS LIKE ITS 1935. it would take basically zero effort to have low, high, stun for headlights so the rest of us who drive normal appropriate cars don’t have to be blinded by selfish assholes driving a massive truck alone by themselves that they never used for work once in their lives. Yes, im a car person and despise truck posers.
jj4211@lemmy.world 9 months ago
There are now headlights that can be “high” but block out portions of the beam directed at light sources like oncoming headlights. Can’t have them in the US though.
remotedev@lemmy.ca 9 months ago
You say this like those same people won’t leave it on stun
Corn@lemmy.ml 9 months ago
Higher up and brighter lights=driver can see more and feels safer. Yes, even if shadows and the area immediately arounds the car are less visible and the vehicle becomes more dangerous for everyone around you.
MangoCats@feddit.it 10 months ago
I was having a very hard time seeing any possible benefit of a front brake light, since nobody accident prone ever looks in their mirrors.
I suppose in today’s world of automatic transmissions that move the car forward whenever the brakes are released, they might serve some purpose at a four-way stop adding information about immediate intent of the other parties, but even there… that’s more of a Darwinian situation where people who get into crashes at four way stops are sorting themselves out from the rest of reasonably competent drivers. If they’re going fast enough for injuries at a four way stop, they deserve what they get. If they get a minor fender bender - that’s a lesson to read the other traffic better next time.
SocialMediaRefugee@lemmy.world 9 months ago
I can’t trust a car even with its turn signal on unless I see it actually slow down because I see them misused too often. The lack of signalling though is the biggest problem. People who suddenly change lanes right in front of you without warning are the worst. Then you have people who force you to wait because they can’t be bothered to indicate if they are turning or going straight at intersections.
Also, don’t start signaling as you are turning. I see you turning so you are just indicating what I’m already seeing. Signal before you turn.
brygphilomena@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 months ago
Is love then to know when someone is slowing down to turn when I’m trying to pull out. So few use turn signals, and even those I don’t really trust until the car is noticably getting slower.
Rivalarrival@lemmy.today 9 months ago
Turn signal or not, you shouldn’t be pulling out in front of them. You should be assuming they are turning into a driveway after the intersection, or that they mistook your intersection for the next one down the road, or that they left their turn signal on from a lane change 5 miles back.
Turn signals are lies until conclusively proven otherwise.
dejected_warp_core@lemmy.world 10 months ago
You’re right about turn signals.
A lot of people have “target fixation” and telegraph their moves somewhat. I look at where the car is tracking in the lane and what their head is doing (if I can see it). Most people drift left or right on the highway before they change lanes, exit, or turn. It’s no excuse for bad manners, but it helps.
MangoCats@feddit.it 10 months ago
That’s actually another good use, a kind of passive turn signal - though if they’re really turning you should be able to notice their reduced speed without a light - and drivers who start depending on the front brake light to read intent to turn might actually have more accidents instead of less.
Just yesterday I watched a car pull out into an intersection less than one car-length in front of a car driving straight through the intersection, slowly. I can’t know what they were thinking, but I would guess they assumed that the slow car going straight was about to turn, then they quit paying attention and pulled out just in time for the collision to be un-avoidable.
arararagi@ani.social 10 months ago
Accidents aren’t isolated though, they will sort themselves out by hitting good drivers and people.
MangoCats@feddit.it 10 months ago
Well, around here “good drivers” can “read” the bad drivers’ intent, and in a setting like a four way stop they can usually avoid getting hit by yielding, regardless of right of way circumstances.
SnortsGarlicPowder@lemmy.zip 10 months ago
Can I have indicators that are in the same place on all cars and not buried in the headlight? That’d be cool.
cotlovan@lemm.ee 10 months ago
Maybe redo the driving test like… At least every 20 years? There are people on the roads who got their licenses when their town didn’t even had traffic lights. People who never saw a roundabout in their first 20 years of driving.
Its nice that we restrict young people by making them take more and more driving lessons and paying more for tiered licences, like we do in Europe for motorcycles and trucks.
But maybe also take a look at the 70+ year old grandpa who had two strokes and one heart attack, has two pairs of of glasses but his license says that he’s perfectly fit.
MrAlternateTape@lemm.ee 9 months ago
I always say there are drivers out there who only survive by the grace of other drivers.
interdimensionalmeme@lemmy.ml 9 months ago
Sure but the second I lose my mobility I will put a deer slug through my head.
MSugarhill@discuss.tchncs.de 9 months ago
Another kind of solution. But not needed.
cotlovan@lemm.ee 9 months ago
So risking everyone else’s life around you is worth it?
Corn@lemmy.ml 9 months ago
Why not move to a place where low mobility doesn’t cut you off from the rest of society?
There’s plenty of retirement communities where you can get around with a golf cart. In the 3 biggest cities here in SK, old folk can ride the subways for free, and sometimes you even see them drive mobility scooters on.
Other places I’ve been have level boarding for buses, but I’ve never seen someone drive a mobility scooter onto one. Certainly it wouldn’t fly in SK.
Valmond@lemmy.world 9 months ago
At least give them some new info like now it’s legal to go the wrong way on a bike if the speed limit is 30 km/h where I live. Guess not a lot of people know about that and a gazillion other things.
SocialMediaRefugee@lemmy.world 9 months ago
I see too many people treat a roundabout like a stop sign when it is clearly empty.
sin_free_for_00_days@sopuli.xyz 9 months ago
The couple of times they tried out roundabouts in my area, they didn’t last long because people were too stupid to figure out how to use them. So instead they just bitched until they were taken out.
dejected_warp_core@lemmy.world 10 months ago
IMO, the big problem is just a matter of standards and practicality. The bar for a DL is “can operate a vehicle” and not “can safely drive a vehicle in public for extended periods of time.” I agree with periodic re-licensing though; everything else called a “license” seems to need that for a host of reasons.
crazyhotpasta@lemmy.world 10 months ago
In Finland we have this thing called “huoli-ilmoitus” Super useful when you meet elders driving 70-80km/h in 100km/h area.
Routhinator@startrek.website 10 months ago
I have to comtend with 70-80 year olds doing 30km in an 80 while swerving across the midline because they saw a bird across the street.
echodot@feddit.uk 10 months ago
Sometimes you see those videos from a dash cam of a truck that hits a bridge, obviously the truck driver was been being attentive but often so was the recording car as driver. All I can ever think is, “why were you so close behind, it was blindingly obvious that was about to happen”, yet to them apparently it wasn’t, and now they’ve got bits of truck roof in their windscreen.
There was an astounding number of people who really cannot drive, and yet they think they’re driving safely. They just haven’t gotten a crash yet.
helvetpuli@sopuli.xyz 9 months ago
If we limited drivers permits to the 8% or so of drivers who are actually competent we’d solve a lot of problems in several domains.
I self-selected as ineligible to drive years ago, and I’ve never regretted it. Of course I had to move away from my home country and learn a new language, but those are the shakes.
catloaf@lemm.ee 10 months ago
Because it wasn’t blindingly obvious? I don’t know how tall the truck in front of me is, and since I don’t drive tall vehicles I know even less about the heights of bridges. Usually commercial drivers are the better ones.
rottingleaf@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Reading all such things I’m starting to think “what if I can drive?” I’ve always thought I can’t, but since everyone around who thinks they can drive like suicide bombers, maybe I should find those driving lessons.
MangoCats@feddit.it 10 months ago
Define safe? If everyone drives safely enough that you are more likely to die of suicide than an automobile accident, is that safe enough?
Zip2@feddit.uk 10 months ago
Wouldn’t better driving education and testing work just as well, if not better?
pyre@lemmy.world 9 months ago
as with a lot of tests, the thing a driving test is the best at measuring is how well you can take a driving test.
Bluewing@discuss.online 10 months ago
You can pass multiple driving tests, and still be an idiot driver. So many people drive HUA, (Head Up Ass), while thinking they are the best driver on the road that it isn’t even funny.
Remember Kiddies, driving should never be viewed as “relaxing” or “enjoyable.” It’s work, hard work and should be mentally taxing every minute you are on the road.
brygphilomena@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 months ago
As someone with ADHD, it is relaxing. And it is super enjoyable. I like thinking about how the weight of my car shifts going around corners. I like trying to be as smooth as possible shifting gears. There is a lot of information and the focus on it all quiets the noise normally in my head.
Leave early enough you aren’t stressed about being late.
Just let the asshole aggressive driver in.
Leave more than enough space that you have time to react.
Don’t treat it as a competition and it’s a pleasurable experience.
Almacca@aussie.zone 10 months ago
100% agree, but it’s amazing how quickly some people forget their education once they get out on the road, especially after a few years accumulating bad habits. How about less reliance on cars in the first place?
MangoCats@feddit.it 10 months ago
Passing a test is very different from internalizing the lessons tested.
echodot@feddit.uk 10 months ago
How about less reliance on cars in the first place?
Americans seem to think of buses as some sort of commie plot.
IhaveCrabs111@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Shut up nerd
Vinstaal0@feddit.nl 10 months ago
Maybe introducing driving lessons on the read and done by professionals all over the world would already change a lot. That and the introduction of better road systems like roundabouts, reducing road traffic by adding public transport and walkable/bikeable area’s etc.
JeremyHuntQW12@lemmy.world 10 months ago
curbsideclassic.com/…/automotive-history-wilcot-f…
The Wilcot solution was adopted by Morris for the 1933 range, except the cheapest car in the range, the Minor. In essence, on either side of the car, was a block of three lights looking very like a traffic light with red, amber and green elements. The idea was that the colour or combination of the colours, showing on one or both sides would guide adjacent traffic of the intentions of the Morris.
Combinations were more complex, inevitably, than just flashing orange lights. Ahead of a need to indicate, the driver would activate the system which would start with both left and right amber lights flashing, like modern hazard warning lights, meaning “Caution”, ahead of an indication being given.
The system was controlled by a knob inside the car, with a spring based plunger acting as a time control for any selection. To indicate turning right, the driver would then request the system to show red on the right and green on the left in a way that almost echoes nautical practice; bearing right was amber on the right and green on the left.
–
Morris threw a tantrum after the MoT approved the use of blinkers on rival Ford cars and vowed never to install them. The MoT ordered the Wicot “traffic robots” removed and so Lucas trafficators were used exclusively in the UK until Morris was sold to Pressed Metal Holdings in the 1950s (in Australia and Canada blinkers were required by law).
RickyRigatoni@retrolemmy.com 10 months ago
Don’t worry, my fellow americans, we’ll still manage to fuck it up.
Almacca@aussie.zone 10 months ago
The combined indicator/brake light thing you guys do is fucking stupid, so there’s a precedent.
kassiopaea@lemmy.blahaj.zone 10 months ago
I’ve always hated that. I feel like I’m seeing it less and less on newer vehicles, though, so maybe manufacturers are also realizing that it’s stupid as hell.
Or maybe it’s just not worth the cost to have two different but mostly identical versions of a very expensive and highly integrated modern taillight housing for different markets.
catloaf@lemm.ee 10 months ago
Agreed. Are they turning, or just braking periodically with a taillight out? Who knows!
I also love the front turn signals that turn off that headlight. Dumb as hell for everyone.
Also, animated signals should be banned. On or off, no flashing, glowing, or sliding.
echodot@feddit.uk 10 months ago
Clearly it’s your fault for both breaking and going around a corner at the same time. Who does that?
madjo@feddit.nl 10 months ago
They’ll likely give those front brake lights an amber color
brygphilomena@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 months ago
It’s possible. Red really is only supposed to be on the back to indicate the rear of the vehicle.
It’s why on stretches of road where passing in oncoming lanes is legal, they tell you to turn on your headlights. Its so that there is a distinguishing feature between the front and rear of the car.
unconfirmedsourcesDOTgov@lemmy.sdf.org 10 months ago
Since we’re all throwing random ideas out here, I want to equip my vehicle with an annoyingly loud external speaker so that when someone near me does something dumb, I can personally shame them.
AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world 10 months ago
This would seem quite risky to use on US roads.
pixeltree@lemmy.blahaj.zone 10 months ago
Ah but I don’t care about my life
madjo@feddit.nl 10 months ago
Yes, and an oil slick button that drops some oil on the road for the hard of hearing tail rider.
aesthelete@lemmy.world 10 months ago
These exist, I used to deliver pizza and one of my coworkers installed one of these on their car.
psivchaz@reddthat.com 10 months ago
I am not trying to brake check people and get in an accident but I would very much like a signal for “Please remove your car from my butthole, it’s getting uncomfortable.”
kattfisk@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 months ago
There are LED bars for mounting in your rear windows to display text to those behind you
Almacca@aussie.zone 10 months ago
Pretend to suddenly avoid a pothole.
HereIAm@lemmy.world 10 months ago
I’ve never done it, but I wonder if turning on the rear fog lights would work. You’re not braking, but they might think you are. I don’t know what the legality of that would be
Initiateofthevoid@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 months ago
Like… a horn?
unconfirmedsourcesDOTgov@lemmy.sdf.org 10 months ago
No. I want to make my voice loud enough for me to stop at a red light and ask the guy behind me if there is a proctology emergency or if they could stop riding my ass, and savor their expression as it dawns on them what is happening.
Rivalarrival@lemmy.today 10 months ago
I want to equip my vehicle with an annoyingly loud external speaker so that when someone near me does something dumb, I can personally shame them.
CB radios often had a “PA” switch that sent your microphone audio to a loudspeaker under the hood.
I’d prefer a “FlameThrower” button next to the horn.
trk@aussie.zone 10 months ago
CB radios often had a “PA” switch that sent your microphone audio to a loudspeaker under the hood
We used to roll those back in the day. A friend gave my very drunk self a lift home one evening and I used it to give commentary to a group of revellers on the side of the road… who threw a beer bottle at us, and then chased the car which luckily didn’t get stopped at the traffic light nearby.
Good times.
cy_narrator@discuss.tchncs.de 10 months ago
You are looking for war
samus12345@sh.itjust.works 10 months ago
Counterpoint: the dumb people could have them as well.
BlindFrog@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Reminded me of this Technology Connections video, in which the dude explained (among other brake-light related things) how some law allows electric vehicles to get away with not using their brake lights: www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0YW7x9U5TQ
JaN0h4ck@feddit.org 10 months ago
Not selling tanks as cars could also help. Especially with fatality rates
atlien51@lemm.ee 10 months ago
This is stupid
paraphrand@lemmy.world 10 months ago
This sure riled people up.
Shdwdrgn@mander.xyz 10 months ago
I still think rear signaling could be improved dramatically by using a wide third-brake light to show the intensity of braking.
For example – I have seen some aftermarket turn signals which are bars the width of the vehicle, and show a “moving” signal starting in the center and then progressing towards the outer edge of the vehicle.
So now take that idea for brake. When you barely have your foot on the brake pedal, it would light a couple lights in the center of your brake signal. Press a little harder and now it’s lighting up 1/4 of the lights from the center towards the outside edge of the vehicle. And when you’re pressing the brake pedal to the floor, all of the lights are lit up from the center to the outside edges of the vehicle. The harder you press on the pedal, the more lights are illuminated.
Now you have an immediate indication of just how hard the person in front of you is braking. With the normal on/off brake signals, you don’t know what’s happening until moments later as you determine how fast you are approaching that car. They could be casually slowing, or they could be locking up their wheels for an accident in front of them.
vapeloki@lemmy.world 10 months ago
First of all, this would be illegal in many countries.
Second of all: we can differentiate cars by: has red lights, back.
If we lose this option we can no longer differentiate easily if there is a car coming towards us or driving away from us.
jordanlund@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Struggled with this for a second, then I figured it out…
The brake light coming ON isn’t the important part, like the rear brake lights… it’s the brake lights turning OFF that’s important in the front.
So maybe, now hear me out, MAYBE we need to invert that. Have front brake lights that are on ALL the time, and pressing the brake turns them off to indicate safety?
DrunkEngineer@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Risk Compension predicts that drivers would simply use this new information to drive more aggressively, negating any possible safety benefits.
x00z@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Would speed up crosswalks a lot too. Whenever I cross a crosswalk with my dog I don’t want to risk me misjudging the braking of cars so I tend to really wait until I’m sure they’re stopping.
Brkdncr@lemmy.world 10 months ago
This will lead to people braking momentarily to slow down, and others turning in front of slowing down traffic.
Little benefit, but the cost of adding front brake lights would be passed on to the car buyers.
chrisbtoo@lemmy.ca 10 months ago
I don’t understand this at all. Why do I, as a person in front of a vehicle, care whether or not it’s braking?
snoons@lemmy.ca 10 months ago
It would also help know whether are not I’m going to get smushed.
FenderStratocaster@lemmy.world 10 months ago
I read the article and the next one comes up: “Mouse Sperm Structure Unveils Asthenozoospermia Mechanisms” and my co-worker was like wtf are you reading.
wildbus8979@sh.itjust.works 10 months ago
I’d rather see mandatory rear running lights. The amount of people who can’t be arsed to turn on their lights in bad visibility conditions is too damn high.
ladfrombrad@lemdro.id 10 months ago
Like someone said in the hnews comments, this might work for auto transmission but with manual gearing you’ve got people using engine braking on hills.
Also like stated in the article the colouring is going to be an issue and trying to see some green lights whilst the headlights are on (full beam fog lights perhaps too?) doesn’t seem practicable to me.
Exulion@lemmy.world 10 months ago
They would probably just use the existing amber lights so noone would know if you were turning or not. I’m not bitter.
sem@lemmy.blahaj.zone 10 months ago
I think they should have it so there’s a type of “slow down” light that supplements the brake light for when your deceleration is from taking your foot off the gas.
Valmond@lemmy.world 10 months ago
I’m salty because nobody took my front-blinker serious 😤 but we should embrace front brakes?! 😔
Zwrt@lemmy.sdf.org 9 months ago
As a pedestrian this would be huge and make me feel so much safer.