Not necessarily. But I see the point. But it's difficult to fix a point in space of a strobing light...you would sill nead a "steady" state aspect to it (like perhaps a alternating bright-dim cycle...but never completely dark)
| | The stopped cop car attracts the curiosity of passing motorists | who gawk and naturally drive toward what they are looking at.
As do those individuals with certain medical condition, on certain medications OR drunk that tend to be transfixed by and drawn to lights, especially blinking/strobing ones (moving or not).
| | The moving vehicle, the one in front of you with the blinking CHMSL, is | doing what it can to get you off it's ass. Do any of you live in a city with | more than 80 people in it? I mean a city where rush hour is 2 million cars | jamming the highway and 8 lanes fo parking lot?
Yes, Washington, DC/Baltimore...7 million people.
Never yet had problems seeing the brake lights on the car in front of me as they exist now... Never had problems before the CHMSL, to be honest. I've never even have come close to rear ending anyone in probably close to a million miles of driving. (But as with you, my individual perceptions/experiences are too small a sample of data to establish policy or standard)
| | I think some of you need to understand what real traffic chaos is all about.
Been friving for 30+ years. I think I've seen my share of traffic chaos. Personally, having 30 cars in front of me in heavy commutuing traffic with blinking CHMSL would certainly be added chaios in the field of vision to what exists today. I don't think it would be helpful, in the least. Only add to frustration and road rage for those drivers already on the edge (in my opinion).
| Any of you seen rear ended by some blue hair who "didn't see your silver | truck with all the lights on including the brake light"? Find yourself in a | situation like that with 2 cracked vertabrae and some geezer saying "I | didn't know you were stopped" and you'll be a believer in roadside | euthanasia. That was a very congested highway and a doddering old frt going | 60MPH while traffic was stopped.
Traffic can't be that heavy where you are if it's moving at 60MPH. Around here every interstate is mostly stopped dead and may move 5-10 MPH for 50-60 yards at a time every 1-2 minutes. With blinking CHMSL constantly (and I mean constantly) on in your face for that hour or two every night? I don't think so! Lord just thinking about it is painful!!!
| Quite frankly I don't care if my brake | lights melt the retinas of drivers behind me as long as they stop. |
Hard to see to stop with melted retinas! :-)
I'm actually not saying that a strobe brake light may not be worth study. I'm saying that none of us really know if it would do what we think (or don't think) it would and there is a lot more to it then personal perceptions. The general population can consist of:
o People that are color blind o People on medications that can contribute to becoming easily confused o People under the influence of alcohol/illegal drugs o People with medical conditions that: - Can easily be sent into seizures by strobes - Easily confused/disoriented (Dementia) - Vision impairment/cataracts (vision similar to haze on a windshield driving into the sun...a small point of light that will wash out their entire field of view)
...and this is just the general issues. All these things exist in the real world and need to be factored in to understand all implications of such a proposal. Our personal perceptions and observations in a uncontrolled environment (yours or mine) are too small of a sample of data to make policy or standard from (plus are subject to personal biases that skew our perceptions). I can bet though that if you had cataracts or light vision sensitivity, you would likely cringe at such proposals.
Remember, we all will be "blue hairs" some day and most all of us will find ourselves with health ailments as we age, some of those ailments that _we_ will get may be complicated by what we propose which could impact quality of _our_ life (or ability to drive) for _us_ decades from now.