Saturday, October 04, 2003

Front Brake Lights

Why don't cars have brake lights in front? Think of how many situations in which this would be useful or even life-saving:

1. You're making a left turn at a stoplight, and have pulled out into the middle of the intersection. The light turns yellow. A car is coming towards you -- and you don't know if the driver is going to race through the yellow light or come to a stop. But if the car had a brake light in the front, you'd know.

2. You're driving down the road. Up ahead, a car faces you in the left turn lane. Suddenly the car's front brake light goes off. Thus, you know that the driver plans to turn left in front of you.

3. You approach a light that has just turned green. As you start to accelerate into the intersection, another car approaches from the right (or the left). It's hard to tell if that car is stopping, or if the driver mistakenly thought he could make the yellow light and plans to keep on going.

4. You are waiting to turn right out of a parking lot. A car is coming down the road towards you in the right lane. It has its turn signal on, but you can't tell if the car is going to turn into the same parking lot where you are, or before, or after. If the car had a front brake light, you'd have a better idea whether you could pull out to the right.

5. You're at a four-way stop. Three other cars are there at roughly the same time. Lots of hand signals are exchanged, but you don't know for sure who plans on pulling out first. If all the other cars had front brake lights, you'd know.

There are probably lots more situations in which front brake lights would be useful, but those are the ones that spring to mind.

So why don't cars have front brake lights? There oughta be a law.

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