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Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!sbcs!zorat
From: zorat@sbcs.UUCP (Alessandro Zorat)
Newsgroups: net.auto
Subject: turn signals
Message-ID: <593@sbcs.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 16-Feb-84 09:21:20 EST
Article-I.D.: sbcs.593
Posted: Thu Feb 16 09:21:20 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 17-Feb-84 07:22:49 EST
Organization: SUNY at Stony Brook
Lines: 22

Why is it that many (all?) american cars use the same light for the
brakes and the (rear) turn signal? When a driver has the turn signal on
and breakes, possibly repeatedly tapping the breakes, it takes me
longer to decide whether he/she is blinking left or right. 
Not so with the amber colored turn signals and (separate) red brake
lights.
It seems to me that any simple experiment will show that the amber turn 
signal are faster to recognize and hence probably safer.
I write this after having followed a car, that at an intersection moved
toward the center of the road, and had one blink on the (red) LEFT turn
signal. This led me to conclude that it was turning left, so I started
passing it on the right. Of course, the blink I saw was the brake
light; the right brake light did not come on because it was inhibited
by the RIGHT turn signal being on - or maybe it was burned out, for all I
know. It would had (probably) come on if I had waited one more second.
But by then I was already passing on the right; when I saw it coming in
full swing to the right, I had to do a rather interesting maneuver to
avoid getting hit midship.
Don't tell me I should not have passed it to the right. My point here
is that if that car had had an amber turn signal, this would not have
happened.