> Then again, it also boggles my mind how car makers in the US continue to use flashing red lights as the turn signal instead of yellow lights.
Technology Connections channel had a video about that a while back:
Technology Connections channel had a video about that a while back:
Flashing yellow = car is pointed towards you
It's the same reason why headlights are white and taillights are not (unless reversing, in which case the tail becomes the head temporarily, and thus white reversing lights.)
Why is it a problem? How is a red blinker actually measurably worse than an amber one?
I have never had any sort of issue interpreting a blinking red taillight as turning? With red, you can more easily tell the direction of travel and the aesthetics of a single color are far nicer. I frankly don’t see the problem.
Commenter a couple levels up says you can’t see red blinkers in the sunlight? I don’t think that’s true on any measurable level, amber is a far closer match in hue to sunlight than red.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automotive_lighting#Turn_signa...
The cited document for that “up to 28%” actually states that a first analysis found amber lights leading to a reduction in being struck “between 3 and 28%” Quite a range of uncertainty.
The very same document also states that in their second analysis they found no correlation between signal color and odds of being struck.
https://web.archive.org/web/20120712231313/http://www.nhtsa....
Another one of the cited documents goes so far as to say
> Richard Van Iderstine: We have studied the crash involvement of vehicles having yellow rear turn signal lights versus red ones. With our data, we have found it challenging to prove that yellow is better than red.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A37484-2004No...
And yet another of the cited sources states
> Analyses revealed that there were no statistically significant differences in rear-end accident rates between the red and amber turn-signal systems.
https://www.sae.org/publications/technical-papers/content/81...
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Based on the actual text of the citations I’m inclined to believe there’s very little difference.
And I don’t see how there could be. The only practical difference I see between a red signal and amber signal is that the signal might ever so briefly interpreted as a brake light activating before the first cycle completes. The course of action of the driver behind in either case is to slow down, so it’s a distinction without a difference in action.