Re: IML: Side Marker Lamps/Reflectors

[Brad Hogg <luxoliner@xxxxxxx>]

Some good points Chris.

IMO, turn signals should always be amber and stop lights should always be 
red.  It's simple logic.  The rules of the road state that a flashing amber 
light means "CAUTION".  You see those at construction zones etc where there 
may be "something different happening".  A flashing red light means "STOP 
and proceed with caution".  Many intersections have a flashing red light 
coupled with a stop sign.  Many intersection signal lights will flash red 
one direction and amber the other in non-peak hours.  I fail to see why this 
convention has been broken on North American built vehicles.  Have you ever 
followed a vehicle that incorporates the stop and turn signals into the same 
bulb?  If the driver puts on the turn signal then pumps the brake some, you 
can't tell what's going to happen as the red lights on both sides are 
flashing.

Turn signals should always be amber, IMO.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Christopher H" <imperial67@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <mailing-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, September 13, 2006 12:10 PM
Subject: Re: IML: Side Marker Lamps/Reflectors


Those fender-mounted turn signal lights (they are not side markers, even 
though everyone calls them that) were not required in Europe/Japan in 1967-8 
when the law took effect in the US, and the US carmakers and lawmakers were 
not likely thinking about export markets for US products (few US-market 
products even sell there today). I also don't believe Europe requires them 
to be behind the front wheel: Porsche puts them where our market's front 
side markers go, but they wrap into the wheel arch so they're visible from 
the rear-side.

US cars only require one reverse lamp as well, believe it or not. The reason 
it's more common in Europe is that the EU also requires a red rear foglamp, 
which many automakers locate where the left reverse lamp would be. The only 
vehicle I know of that is sold in the US with such a configuration is the 
Mercedes G-Class.

As for the US cars getting the turn signal on the fender (or somewhere 
visible), some carmakers already use it voluntarily. Many have adopted it in 
the side mirror housings, which is more visible to pedestrians in front of 
the car as well as vehicles in the next lane.

But looking at the degradation of lighting functionality despite all this 
new lighting technology (there are several new cars from the US, Europe and 
Asia that use cutting-edge LEDs for taillamps yet combine the brake, tail 
and turn signal into a single red unit, when it doesn't take a scientist to 
figure out that separate, and differently colored, rear lamps communicate 
the driver's intentions faster). I asked a Chrysler designer rep about the 
cheapo single-bulb taillamps on the base 300 and his defense of why there 
were no amber signals was "they're not required by law."

We'll see what our new Imperial has if it gets the go-ahead, but I imagine 
it'll be plain red unless the Fed steps in again. Maybe they'll pay a 
tribute to 1969 and give us some sequentials!

Chris in LA



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