Over riding daytime running lights?

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Schurkey

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everyone in the Air Force has to wear reflective belts over their camouflage uniforms during night or inclement weather operations. I joke with my friends that the next step is going to be a cap with integral strobe lights, but I fear it's isn't too far off the mark.
God bless the Kentucky Fried Movie. Gotta scroll to 6:28 (close to the end) of this clip.

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We see it now with the addition of strobing brake lights. Are we admitting that the third brake light mounted at eye level is a failure? It was supposed to solve the problem.
There was a time, early in the Center High-Mounted Stop Light (CHMSL) story, when the NHTSA actually admitted that high-mounted stop lights didn't do a damned thing to improve safety. That study has long-since been scrubbed from the web site.

DRLs were the result of GM's ad men wanting a safety innovation they could advertise because they were getting demolished in safety ratings. The engineers threw some extra wiring on and said, "There, I fixed it. Go away."
Yes. Yes, Yes, Yesyesyes.

Total bullshit, complete propaganda, massive lie...but "good publicity".
 
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Supercharged111

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DRLs are a symptom of a greater problem. Distraction. I have two quick stories that help illustrate why DRLs are the wrong solution.

Several years ago there was an aerial port supervisor (aerial porters load and unload cargo) at a deployed location, working at night. He was run over and killed by a forklift. It was a terrible tragedy, but he wasn't watching out for his own safety, and the forklift driver was hurrying and not being mindful of the fact he was driving around foot traffic. As a result, everyone in the Air Force has to wear reflective belts over their camouflage uniforms during night or inclement weather operations. I joke with my friends that the next step is going to be a cap with integral strobe lights, but I fear it's isn't too far off the mark.

A few years before that my shop had an A/M32-60 air-start cart come in with the fuel tank mounted on back crushed. It was painted OD green, as all Air Force equipment at the time, and had black reflective tape marking it's dimensions (black reflective tape is subdued color, but shines if you flash a light on it). A young ****** driving a JG-30 tow tractor on the flightline at night ran into it. She claimed she couldn't see it because it was camouflaged (Navy equipment was painted white), but through others we heard she'd dropped her phone and leaned over to pick it up while driving. The Navy ended up having to buy that piece of equipment from the Air Force. It was the only -60 in the Navy inventory at the time.

Sure, DRLs might have some ability to attract attention, but the problem isn't attention, it's distraction. People are failing to pay attention to what is really important. We see it now with the addition of strobing brake lights. Are we admitting that the third brake light mounted at eye level is a failure? It was supposed to solve the problem. Where does this end?

DRLs were the result of GM's ad men wanting a safety innovation they could advertise because they were getting demolished in safety ratings. The engineers threw some extra wiring on and said, "There, I fixed it. Go away."

Not everyone in the AF. When I cross trained out of aircraft maintenance into being a space nerd in 2010 (the outside pay is soooooo much better) all the prior maintainers showed up to school wearing reflective belts as the weather was inclement. We got bitched at by the wimpiest Master Sergeant about being out of uniform. It was hard to take him seriously, we all just looked at each other like WTF just happened? If we weren't wearing the belt in our prior career field some senior NCO who actually wears his ovaries on the outside would have given us a decent ass chewing. That guy was a joke.
 

CrustyJunker

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Chiming in the rants for fun. Maybe I'll feel better!

I think those flashing 3rd brake lights are kind of distracting. I'm more used to them now, but for some reason when I first saw them my instinct was more "what?" than "stop!" Couldn't explain it, it's literally just a flashing light...But It wasn't traditional and just messed with me.

Imagine if they took a standard stoplight at a single intersection, but changed the red light to flash rapidly. Just one intersection, but no one told you about it, and it's not standard anywhere. That would give me a feeling of...Okay, I guess that means stop - but, what else? Guess that's the feeling I got.

Only thing I like about 3rd brake lights (especially OEM LED ones) is the boneheads out there who don't maintain their vehicles and have both brake lights burned out and leave them like that. Buys me additional time when they slam on their brakes I guess!
 

east302

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I think those flashing 3rd brake lights are kind of distracting.

Is that a new thing? I’ve never noticed cars with those before. Or maybe I have and just thought it was someone tapping the brake that couldn’t make up their mind.
 

CrustyJunker

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I'm seeing it on many used cars around here, too. I'm not wondering if some dealers just put in an inline module or something? Saw a couple Ram trucks with incandescent bulbs that seemed to dimly flash and misbehave. It's not mandated anywhere that I know of.

We also get lots of out-of-state city traffic. People will drive an hour plus out of their way for cheaper gas and skip their local city taxes.
 

Erik the Awful

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The ammo guys like to pretend they invented that saying, but they know they're second-string. Without ammo, the Air Force is PMC. Without maintenance, the Air Force is NMC. Everybody treats maintenance like we don't exist, until they're stuck somewhere with a broke plane. Then we get treated like royalty.

"A pilot without a maintainer is just a pedestrian with cool sunglasses and a leather jacket."
 

Supercharged111

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The ammo guys like to pretend they invented that saying, but they know they're second-string. Without ammo, the Air Force is PMC. Without maintenance, the Air Force is NMC. Everybody treats maintenance like we don't exist, until they're stuck somewhere with a broke plane. Then we get treated like royalty.

"A pilot without a maintainer is just a pedestrian with cool sunglasses and a leather jacket."

It's no different on the outside, at least in South Dakota. The pay was crap so I jumped ship. I miss fixing planes, but I don't miss freezing my dick off on the flight line or sweating my sack off on it either. Looks like you guys are getting shorts now though?
 
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