Brake Lights.......at standstill

[Transformer]

This thread is an interesting peek into regional driving cultures.

To turn off brake lights in a traffic queue, just press the Park button then release the brake pedal, yes?

 

[jaz4uk1]

Opinions are like bumholes - everybody has one

The fact of the matter is, using the hand brake was drilled into people learning to drive in my era. It was as much used as an indicator to the examiner that you acknowledged the red light OR the rare case of a Stop Sign (most such signs in the UK are ‘give way’) as anything else

Brake lights are very bright - if you’re stuck in a line of queueing traffic, it’s very uncomfortable to the eyes - and I’m courteous enough to want to do something about this for the poor person following

Again ‘in the old days’ having worked on quite a few of my own and cars belonging to friends, you often saw the 21W brake light bulbs melting or distorting their holder - demonstrating they were not designed for semi continuous use

As for stop/start systems on manual transmission vehicles - the only ones I’ve ever used have relied on depression of the clutch pedal to restart the engine. Thankfully those days are long gone

Enjoy your Sunday, everyone

Yep good the days are gone on any clutch, stop start, hill starts, stalling or messing with gears or staring a fossil car.

 

[a64pilot]

Every car with an automatic transmission, yes. It’d be nice to be able to emulate the behaviour of a vehicle with manual transmission, where you use the handbrake to hold the car

An easy software tweak one would imagine

Our other two cars are a CTS-V, a high performance car with a manual 6 speed, and a Mazdaspeed Miata with of course a manual transmission.
Over the years I’ve been rear ended in the Caddy once and then again the other day while stopped at a light a large pickup truck locked up the brakes and almost hit us.
I got to thinking about it and I believe I know why, probably in the US 95% of the cars are automatic and you have to keep your foot on the brake while at a standstill, and drivers get conditioned to seeing the brake lights on, on a stationary car. No brake lights means the car is moving.
So in the US at least I’m convinced that sitting stationary without brakes lights on is unsafe, it’s a matter of time before you will be hit.
Very likely in countries where manual transmissions are more common then your likely fine as other drives aren’t conditioned to all non moving cars have brake lights on.

 

[MP3Mike]

Very likely in countries where manual transmissions are more common then your likely fine as other drives aren’t conditioned to all non moving cars have brake lights on.

Even there the regulations say that you are supposed to keep your foot on the brake until someone is stopped behind you at which point you switch to the hand brake.

 

[Vines]

What an interesting thread. I learned the following:

1. It always rains in the UK so glare from brake lights on a wet road is a thing they needed rules for
2. British cars don't always restart once turned off hot, so while waiting in a 20 minute queue you would have to leave your car on.
3. British people are quite polite, to the point of turning off the bright brake lights behind them in case it offends someone in that same queue.
4. When stopped at a light, American drivers just look at their phones instead - problem solved!

 

[gearchruncher]

Hand brake stops you jolting forward after a rear shunt and shut the car in front. If your sitting on the brake peddle and get shunted your foot releases the brake and so you are no longer braking.

Yeah, but having your foot on the brake is even better in a rear shunt if they do stay on the brakes. The front brakes are much more effective. So a handbrake might be a good backup, but the argument here is that it's *better* to not have your foot on the brake also.

And in this case, the ask is to turn off the lights while the Tesla is in hold mode- which is actually holding the pedal for you, much more effective than a handbrake in a rear shunt.

Plus, if this logic really followed, why do they even allow automatics and EV's without easily accessible handbrakes?