View Single Post
Old 05-31-2011, 04:11 PM   #61 (permalink)
Christ
Moderate your Moderation.
 
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: Troy, Pa.
Posts: 8,919

Pasta - '96 Volkswagen Passat TDi
90 day: 45.22 mpg (US)
Thanks: 1,369
Thanked 430 Times in 353 Posts
Quote:
Originally Posted by sundogjax View Post
Hazard lights are a hazard. When you have your hazard lights on during normal driving (i.e., following the posted traffic regulations... 55-70MPH), you gum up traffic waaaaay worse then any 55MPH operation ever could.
Untrained drivers here in Florida have started a trend of turning on hazard lights in the rain. Guess it's the new "all about me" attitiude... "I'm the center of the universe - clear out, look out, coming through!"

When untrained drivers operate at normal speed in the rain with flashers on, they remove the traffic flow alert provided by brake lighting. A tap (or stand) of the brake up ahead means "get ready to adjust speed" behind.
Ill-conceived and improper hazard flasher use causes accidents. Period.
If you are driving at speed on the highway with hazard flashers on - YOU'RE the hazard.
You know that almost all vehicles have a standard equipped high mount brake light for exactly this reason, right?

Your apparent distaste for the trend probably helped you forget that it's not as necessarily unsafe as you might initially believe, or profess too others.

If it's raining, heavily or otherwise, you should increase your following distance to increase your available reaction time, thus, your margin of safety.

If a person either briskly applies, or lightly applies the brakes, the difference in speed means that you will begin approaching the vehicle ahead of you - a visual cue that you need to slow or brake.

A good driver relies on MUCH more than the actions of other (probably not so good) drivers to determine a series of actions necessary for the situation. It's the cumulative information gleaned from those inputs that is important, not whether you can see three brake lights, or two blinking lights and a single brake light.


P.s.- It's not just near you, and it was started by motorists observing commercial vehicles. What's good for the goose...

__________________
"¿ʞɐǝɹɟ ɐ ǝɹ,noʎ uǝɥʍ 'ʇı ʇ,usı 'ʎlǝuol s,ʇı"


Last edited by Christ; 05-31-2011 at 04:31 PM..
  Reply With Quote