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Rapid flash brake lights.

You all get your ducks in a row.
Any FLASHING brake light is illegal.
A STROBING high center mounted light is not illegal at least in the state of Maryland.

edit: anyone just focusing/relying and only seeing the third brake light is not fit to drive on our public roads...
And I stand behind that statement.
 
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kapinallinen2 said:
You all get your ducks in a row.
Any FLASHING brake light is illegal.
A STROBING high center mounted light is not illegal at least in the state of Maryland.
Click to expand...
According to the NHTSA it is illegal
 
How can anyone say that a flashing 3rd brake light allowed them to brake safer and quicker? You should be watching the road and be ready to react to ANY braking from the cars ahead of you. Watching just that 3rd brake light is stupid as most people never fix it when the bulb burns out, so if that's all you focus on, then you'll never know the person was braking!!! I not only watch the car in front of me, but I usually watch the cars ahead of the car in front of me so I can start braking, even if the guy in front of me doesn't. With people driving distracted these days, I want to see ALL of the vehicles around me so I can make the best maneuver needed.
 
scottmoyer said:
How can anyone say that a flashing 3rd brake light allowed them to brake safer and quicker? You should be watching the road and be ready to react to ANY braking from the cars ahead of you. Watching just that 3rd brake light is stupid as most people never fix it when the bulb burns out, so if that's all you focus on, then you'll never know the person was braking!!! I not only watch the car in front of me, but I usually watch the cars ahead of the car in front of me so I can start braking, even if the guy in front of me doesn't. With people driving distracted these days, I want to see ALL of the vehicles around me so I can make the best maneuver needed.
Click to expand...
Someone is missing the point.
 
scottmoyer said:
How can anyone say that a flashing 3rd brake light allowed them to brake safer and quicker? You should be watching the road and be ready to react to ANY braking from the cars ahead of you. Watching just that 3rd brake light is stupid as most people never fix it when the bulb burns out, so if that's all you focus on, then you'll never know the person was braking!!! I not only watch the car in front of me, but I usually watch the cars ahead of the car in front of me so I can start braking, even if the guy in front of me doesn't. With people driving distracted these days, I want to see ALL of the vehicles around me so I can make the best maneuver needed.
Click to expand...
Nobody is seeing the car in front of me if zim in the truck. Especially if it's a smaller car. You would have to be in the lane next to me.

I do the same thing as you, but you can't watch ALL the vehicles in the road at the same time and definitely don't want to fixate in just one car. A flashing/strobing light will draw your attention more than a steady light. That's why emergency vehicles use flashing lights
 
As the Maryland inspection form listed above states, there's a difference in flashing and pulsating. I think there's semantics at play there. The light flashes a few times, then goes solid. They are saying that isn't illegal because the flashing stops, so they call it pulsating. N, it flashes!!! Then it goes solid.

What happened prior to 1986 when there was no 3rd brake light? The purpose of the light is for the 2nd car back to react to braking earlier by seeing the brake light thru the window of the car in front of you. It's supposed to improve reaction time for other drivers. The problem we have today is too many distractions and drivers do fixate on the car in front of them. The "pulsating" light becomes a snap-out-of-it to the person that shouldn't be driving in the 1st place.

And, that pulsating light becomes a "flashing" light when you're driving in traffic and constant on/off braking occurs. It's very distracting and should be illegal everywhere.
 
scottmoyer said:
As the Maryland inspection form listed above states, there's a difference in flashing and pulsating. I think there's semantics at play there. The light flashes a few times, then goes solid. They are saying that isn't illegal because the flashing stops, so they call it pulsating. N, it flashes!!! Then it goes solid.

What happened prior to 1986 when there was no 3rd brake light? The purpose of the light is for the 2nd car back to react to braking earlier by seeing the brake light thru the window of the car in front of you. It's supposed to improve reaction time for other drivers. The problem we have today is too many distractions and drivers do fixate on the car in front of them. The "pulsating" light becomes a snap-out-of-it to the person that shouldn't be driving in the 1st place.

And, that pulsating light becomes a "flashing" light when you're driving in traffic and constant on/off braking occurs. It's very distracting and should be illegal everywhere.
Click to expand...
It is limited to only happening after x amount of time has passed between brake activation's.
Read that on the net somewhere so must be true.
 
scottmoyer said:
As the Maryland inspection form listed above states, there's a difference in flashing and pulsating. I think there's semantics at play there. The light flashes a few times, then goes solid. They are saying that isn't illegal because the flashing stops, so they call it pulsating. N, it flashes!!! Then it goes solid.

What happened prior to 1986 when there was no 3rd brake light? The purpose of the light is for the 2nd car back to react to braking earlier by seeing the brake light thru the window of the car in front of you. It's supposed to improve reaction time for other drivers. The problem we have today is too many distractions and drivers do fixate on the car in front of them. The "pulsating" light becomes a snap-out-of-it to the person that shouldn't be driving in the 1st place.

And, that pulsating light becomes a "flashing" light when you're driving in traffic and constant on/off braking occurs. It's very distracting and should be illegal everywhere.
Click to expand...
So you just argued both for and against the flashing third brake light
 
No I'm not. I clearly said that the light isn't flashing because Maryland Inspection is playing semantics with "what does flashing mean?" Similar to Bill Clinton saying he didn't have sexual relations with that girl.

A light that blinks, then goes solid, is a light flashing that changes to solid. Maryland is saying that means pulsating, not flashing. Hogwash! The definition of flashing is brief, sudden, and intermittent bursts of bright light. The definition of pulsate has nothing to do with lighting. It has more to do with feel and/or rhythm, like pulsating brakes, or pulsating heart rate.
 
Dredging it back up...

I came off the freeway and got stuck at a red light behind a Honda with flashing brake lights. Yes, flashing. Continuously. The center stop lamp stayed on solid, the other two flashed the entire time we sat there. Worse, they didn't flash at the same rate. It was very annoying.
 
Richard320 said:
Dredging it back up...

I came off the freeway and got stuck at a red light behind a Honda with flashing brake lights. Yes, flashing. Continuously. The center stop lamp stayed on solid, the other two flashed the entire time we sat there. Worse, they didn't flash at the same rate. It was very annoying.
Click to expand...
Yeah that would be annoying
 
These may or may not increase safety, depending on which idiots are on the road. There was a patrol car on the freeway here on town recently who was stopped on the highway behind a broken down vehicle, with his lights flashing or course. Some d-bag apparently never saw him and ran right into the patrol car at speed, propelling it into the officer! Never even hit the brakes. Those are the fools I am looking out for in my rearview
 
HemiDude said:
These may or may not increase safety, depending on which idiots are on the road. There was a patrol car on the freeway here on town recently who was stopped on the highway behind a broken down vehicle, with his lights flashing or course. Some d-bag apparently never saw him and ran right into the patrol car at speed, propelling it into the officer! Never even hit the brakes. Those are the fools I am looking out for in my rearview
Click to expand...
Probably ky face down on their phone. No amount of flashing lights help with that
 
HSKR R/T said:
According to the NHTSA it is illegal
Click to expand...
Don't tell our state's fire departments, most of the emergency vehicles have the "get your attention" brake lights. So do many motorcyclists. The brake lights don't strobe per se, they come on for a couple of hundred milliseconds, turn off for the same duration, and then back on steady.
 
Richard320 said:
Dredging it back up...

I came off the freeway and got stuck at a red light behind a Honda with flashing brake lights. Yes, flashing. Continuously. The center stop lamp stayed on solid, the other two flashed the entire time we sat there. Worse, they didn't flash at the same rate. It was very annoying.
Click to expand...
Not sure about your state, but in mine it would be impersonating a police officer. Besides the fact in my state it is illegal to put ANY AFTER MARKET LIGHTS OF ANY KIND on your vehicle.
n8zcc said:
Don't tell our state's fire departments, most of the emergency vehicles have the "get your attention" brake lights. So do many motorcyclists. The brake lights don't strobe per se, they come on for a couple of hundred milliseconds, turn off for the same duration, and then back on steady.
Click to expand...
Government vehicles don't follow the same set of rules\laws as privately owned\operated vehicles. Surprised you don't know that, never seen a police car with red and blue flashing lights?
 
Darksteel165 said:
Besides the fact in my state it is illegal to put ANY AFTER MARKET LIGHTS OF ANY KIND on your vehicle.
Click to expand...
Good ole taxachussetts...
You all can have it. Used to hate having to drive up there to see family for the Christmas.
Connecticut had the most "welcoming troops" just past the state line. :cautious:
 
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