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[-] catloaf@lemm.ee 208 points 1 month ago

By signaling to oncoming traffic and vehicles approaching from the side, a front brake light provides an essential visual cue that a car is slowing down or preparing to stop. When the light is extinguished, it indicates that a stationary vehicle might initiate movement. According to Tomasch, this visual feedback can significantly truncate the reaction time for other road users, leading to shorter stopping distances and consequently diminishing the likelihood of accidents.

Sounds reasonable. Personally I just want front turn signals to be visible from the opposite side again.

[-] entropicdrift@lemmy.sdf.org 129 points 1 month ago

And also like, used at all.

[-] rollerbang@lemmy.world 46 points 1 month ago

Here's an idea. How about we zap the drivers after they make a turn if they didn't use a turn signal beforehand? 😀

[-] njordomir@lemmy.world 17 points 1 month ago

Can we do this in the same bill as the popup spikes that take out your tires if you stop across the crosswalk? The guided RPGs replacing red light cams can wait a little longer.

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[-] Hubi@feddit.org 16 points 1 month ago

Personally I just want front turn signals to be visible from the opposite side again

Not sure if I read that correctly, but I don't think this has ever been the case?

[-] catloaf@lemm.ee 22 points 1 month ago

I mean when a car is coming at me from a cross street, I want to be able to tell if they're turning or just an asshole not using their signal. On some cars, the turn signal is mounted so far to the side that if they're approaching from my right and turning right onto the same street as me, I can't see that turn signal. Sometimes combined with the roundness of the nose exacerbating the problem.

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[-] JaN0h4ck@feddit.org 122 points 1 month ago

Not selling tanks as cars could also help. Especially with fatality rates

[-] GoodOleAmerika@lemmy.world 22 points 1 month ago

People don't even need car tbh. Motorbikes everywhere please. Zip zip, less traffic, everyone pays attention to road or falls and dies.

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[-] wildbus8979@sh.itjust.works 62 points 1 month 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.

[-] acosmichippo@lemmy.world 29 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

and on the opposite side don’t turn on your emergency lights while driving in bad weather. you’re only causing confusion by making it seem like you have turn signals on if i can’t see both blinkers.

[-] unmagical@lemmy.ml 21 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

The hazards also override your turn signals so I now have no idea when you are going to attempt lane change.

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[-] Shdwdrgn@mander.xyz 50 points 1 month 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.

[-] ConstableJelly@midwest.social 10 points 1 month ago

I think that's a neat idea, but we could instead, collectively, just do better at following other cars at a safe distance. I know it's impractical to expect all drivers on the road everywhere to change their behavior, but it's also persistently frustrating as someone who has for years frequently been stuck in traffic to see 95% of drivers insist on following less than a car-length behind. Following too closely to enable decision-making or accommodate other drivers is the cause of like 98% of both traffic accidents and congestion, according to my completely anecdotal and made up research.

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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.

[-] samus12345@sh.itjust.works 22 points 1 month ago

Counterpoint: the dumb people could have them as well.

[-] psivchaz@reddthat.com 9 points 1 month 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."

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[-] vapeloki@lemmy.world 40 points 1 month 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.

[-] CosmicGiraffe@lemmy.world 30 points 1 month ago

They tested using a green light for the front brake light, not a red one

[-] gjoel@programming.dev 18 points 1 month ago

It is to colorblind people. You could use something else of course, just saying...

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[-] BlindFrog@lemmy.world 28 points 1 month 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: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0YW7x9U5TQ

[-] Obi@sopuli.xyz 12 points 1 month ago

Yeah my electric 208 is kinda like that (if I remember the video well, watched it a while ago) but since it's Europe there actually is a regulation about how much a car can decelerate before break lights come on, so instead of making the system turn the lights on they throttle how much it can decelerate for recharge and still makes you use the break to use full regen (and eventually the actual brakes, of course). So it's not a real "one pedal driving".

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[-] LillyPip@lemmy.ca 22 points 1 month 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.

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[-] Zwrt@lemmy.sdf.org 16 points 1 month ago

As a pedestrian this would be huge and make me feel so much safer.

[-] chrisbtoo@lemmy.ca 16 points 1 month 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?

[-] jordanlund@lemmy.world 9 points 1 month ago

Say you're a pedestrian and a car is coming toward you as you're entering a crosswalk. Being able to see if they are braking or not could save your life.

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[-] RickyRigatoni@retrolemmy.com 16 points 1 month ago

Don't worry, my fellow americans, we'll still manage to fuck it up.

[-] Almacca@aussie.zone 16 points 1 month ago

The combined indicator/brake light thing you guys do is fucking stupid, so there's a precedent.

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[-] JustAThought@lemm.ee 14 points 1 month ago

Definitely make it easier for people on crosswalks to start walking. Knowing that they are slowing down.

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[-] MangoCats@feddit.it 13 points 1 month 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.

[-] brygphilomena@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Id 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.

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[-] SnortsGarlicPowder@lemmy.zip 12 points 1 month ago

Can I have indicators that are in the same place on all cars and not buried in the headlight? That'd be cool.

[-] sem 9 points 1 month 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.

[-] nulluser@lemmy.world 20 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Please allow me this opportunity to jump in and complain about the minority, but not insignificant number, of people that don't seem to be aware that that is even an option (just taking your foot off of the gas/accelerator to slowly decelerate).

Every couple weeks or so I seem to find myself behind someone that's always either accelerating, or braking, with the brake lights repeatedly flashing on momentarily for no apparent reason. It's like they realize that they're going just a little faster than they want, and definitely don't want to accelerate any more, so the only thing they know to do is hit the brake, instead of just taking their foot off of the accelerator. So they've hit the brake and now they're going too slow, so foot moves off the brake and back to the accelerator. Rinse, lather, repeat.

End rant. Thank you for this opportunity to vent.

[-] CmdrShepard42@lemm.ee 12 points 1 month ago

These people might be two-footed drivers. My mother used to do this and you'd see the brakes flash on and off while following behind her because she'd be hovering her foot on the brake pedal while also hitting the accelerator.

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[-] partial_accumen@lemmy.world 10 points 1 month ago

Every couple weeks or so I seem to find myself behind someone that’s always either accelerating, or braking, with the brake lights repeatedly flashing on momentarily for no apparent reason.

In many EVs and Hybrids the "letting off the accelerator" engages the regeneration drag which slows the car. A number of vehicle makers with particularly aggressive drag (which gets higher regen rates) automatically illuminate the brake lights. So if you're behind one of these it will look like they are braking when they may have no foot on any pedal (brake or accelerator).

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this post was submitted on 05 Jun 2025
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