Blinking 3rd brake light
 

Have any of you noticed the latest trend of people modifying there car to where the center 3rd brake light rapidly blinks for a second or two when the brakes are applied? It drives me nuts especially being behind someone in traffic that is a brake tapper. Imagine if every car had this feature. Imagine your in stop and go traffic and hundreds of cars had this blinking light. To me it's very distracting. What are your thoughts? Should this even be legal?

I'm not sure it is legal and yes, it's quite annoying.

Legality unknown but this is something that works well for motorcycle riders and bicyclists. It really helps to draw your eye so they can be noticed by inattentive drivers. This will eliminate the increased visibility for them so that a few drivers can look cool. Shame.

Bikes and motorcycles I'm fine with. I do both myself and between the two being smaller then cars and SUVs and relatively small percentage of those on the road that works.

It is legal in some states, and ticket bait in others. How well it prevents rear end accidents also seems to be questionable. In my home state, any non OEM or non DOT approved lighting is a reason to fail annual inspection and/or get ticketed. We actually have had a customer get a "fix it" ticket for having LED illuminated tire valve stem caps.

Sorry to hear you have to deal with customers like that man :/

That COP, he was possibly just jealous. Valve LED is not distracting or public danger at all, is it?! :D

Seriously... if I'd be a cop I think I would have sent your customer in jail one night for doing something like that.

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I honestly believe that most of these are installed by new car dealers as a way of padding the price of the car under the guise of a so-called safety feature. Every new Ford and Kia in my town has one of these blasted things.

Oddly enough, I bought my SUV used and drove around for a year before I realized it had one of these installed. Imagine my horror! I yanked it out the same day.

I have...
 

....a brake light modulator on all three of my motorcycles.

They all also have a headlight modulator.

I want all the visibility I can get with the texters out there.

:eek:

Absolutely nothing is going to help with that...................

A lot of the police cannot be bothered; but if you run into one that is looking for a reason to pull you over, anything will do, no matter how trivial.......

I think your perspective is off in terms of this valuable safety feature.

You say YOU were distracted (from what?), but from the car that is doing the braking perspective your attention was ATTRACTED to the braking in progress.

That is exactly the point of the device!

Distract you from fiddling with your radio, girl friend or cell phone and bring your attention to the braking vehicle in front of you.

I know there are some rules about that but I take personal safety seriously and will do what ever is required to keep me safe. If challanged I would quickly become a lobbyist to have that law changed and pay what ever the fine was in the mean time.

I'm thinking about short range cell phone jamming as well as a safety device due to risk from that inattention, also illegal but but its MY life I need to protect from all the dummies out there.

I have (WAECO MagicSafe ABL 100) emergency break lights installed.
They ONLY flash, in case of an emergency braking. Street legal. Increased security for you and me.

Those "perma" flashers are definitely annoying, counter their real purpose and are not street legal.

And would jamming be even more dangerous to you as people attempt to pull their phone out of their purse or pocket to see what the heck happened to the signal? Wouldn't anything that focuses their attention to the phone kill their reaction time?

On the family miatas (we now have 2, although one has moved out now) I have a device that pulses the center brake light for about a second and then goes to solid, and does not reactivate until the brake pedal has been released for 15 seconds so it doesn't annoy other drivers. THe miatas are so small that I felt like anything I can do for safety would be helpful. I used the device from WebElectric Products - Sequential Turn Signals, Sequential Taillights, Sequential Tail Lights, Dynamite Stick Sequential, Pulsing Brake Light Pulser Flasher, One Touch Convertible Top, Dynamite Stick, One Touch Turn Signals, Daytime Running Lights, L

Should be like that for every car, safety first.

How about when you're three lanes over from me and your silly blinking lights distract me from what's actually in front of me?
Didn't think about that one, did you? ;)

Safety for you, dangerous for everyone else. :rolleyes:
Flashing lights are for emergency vehicles and there is a reason they're illegal.

I once was lucky that a car in front of me had those. I saw them flashing in the corner of my eye, and WITHOUT thinking I immediately stepped on my brakes like there is no tomorrow...and JUST made it! Yep..."higher speed" on the Autobahn and a twisty section I did not know...curve...TRAFFIC JAM/not moving.

From that day on, I believe in emergency brake lights. They saved (my) life for sure.

I have it installed on my Boxster with the thinking that I will attract the attention of the driver behind me and place the odds in my favor against being rear ended.

Most cop cars in my area have this on all three brake lights.

It makes it pretty easy to discern a civilian car from an undercover out on the road. But I do like them for the safety aspect. The systems they use are probably much better than the aftermarket 'blink everytime' stuff, in that they just flash once before steady-on.

In 2002, Daimler-Chrysler tested the benefits of a flashing brake light.1

From 2006 to 2010, the Department of Transportation (DOT) studied and published a series of reports on the effectiveness of a flashing third brake light showing that a flashing brake light improved the reaction time of the driver in a trailing vehicle by almost 50%.2 The same DOT studies showed that a distracted driver was 69% more likely to notice the car ahead of them slowing or stopping, if that car was equipped with a flashing third brake light.

In short, study after study demonstrates the effectiveness of the Pulse safer braking technology in helping to prevent rear-end collisions.

Pulse is the only pulsing third brake light that meets regulatory requirements for use in all 50 states. Step on the brake pedal and Pulse goes to work pulsing, rather than flashing, the third brake light. What’s the difference? DOT regulations restrict flashing lights to emergency vehicles.

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