i think we need smarter break lights that get brighter the harder you brake, or have levels (sortof like a sound meter) that easily indicate if it is brake tapping or hard braking.

 

you really want people to think how hard the guy in front of them brake? not like drivers in the state are that smart

 

This really isnt new though. There was an article about this years ago on NBC's Nightline.

 

More information with which to make a decision. Basically tells people how fast traffic in front of them is slowing down.

 

But doesn't the general rule of thumb still apply regardless? If the car in front of you hits their brakes, be prepared to stop. If you are always prepared to come to a complete stop it doesn't really matter how intense the brake lights are as once they light up you are fully prepared to stop. If you don't have to stop, then great. Its always worked for me and I've never rear ended anyone before aside from once when I was 18 and fell asleep at a stop sign.

 

............................................lol.

..............twice.

 

exactly my point, last thing we need is more confusions for people to "analyze" the braking ahead. people's reaction time to brake light isn't all that fast already. you see the light, brake. simple

 

I've always said - caused by one idiot....

Of course we have a major highway here in Chicago that slopes upward at one point near the end (i290) and see, we don't have hills here. Sure enough, that section of the highway is always bogged down - because people slow down without realizing it....

Its called Adaptive Brake Lights - basically the size of the tail light increases based on the intensity of braking. Standard in many BMWs. I think MB is has a flashing brake light in Europe depending on the intensity of braking.

 

I knew my idea had merit. I, for one, would value the knowledge that a car several cars down the road suddenly had to slam the breaks.

 

In the old days we could tell how fast a car was braking by how high the tail end went up after the brake lights went on. With today's suspensions that's getting a lot harder to do and thus we need some other way to tell what the driver is really doing.

 

And when this already is an accident... frickin' rubberneckers!

 

Hahaha I remember that nose diving effect, lol

 

This. The idea is to keep enough distance so that you won't have to brake when the person in front of you does. This allows you (and everyone behind you) to maintain constant speed.

http://www.amasci.com/amateur/traffic/traffic1.html

 

Yup, tail-gaters are probably on my top 5 pet peeves.

 

Thank you capitan obvious