Hazzard lights

Are you possibly suggesting American drivers are rude and inconsiderate? Please, say it ain't so.

Sorry, that is what you get when you drive with a bunch of people that get their license out of a CrackerJacks box.

To be clear.
I'm American.
I think American drivers are rude; especially when compared with other countries (well, not West Africa... ).

twinklejet said:

Probably but in Europe, when you stop your car, put on your hazard lights, and begin to back into a lot, the cars behind give you sufficient distance and (mostly) patiently wait for you to complete your parking even though you're temporarily obstructing them.

No such behaviour "norm" in the US.

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Minimum requirements for driving licenses are vastly different in Europe than in the US. I've never had an actual driving test, just taken pretty simple multiple choice exams a couple times (first license at 16, and when I moved to CA when I was 24 -- since then I've also lived in GA and AZ, both of which allowed my previous license to suffice).

So most Americans have no idea on how to properly use hazard lights. One European use that I really wish would be picked up here is turning them on when slowing into a traffic jam -- to give drivers behind a warning that traffic isn't moving so fast up ahead. I try to use that now...

adric22 said:

So what was the reasoning behind this?

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My thoughts:

1. It saved a lot of cabling. The motor and the chargers are in the back.

2. The Tesla is arguably the easiest car in the world to back up. I always back into parking space because it's so much safer, both when backing in and when pulling out.

I just don't see a problem here.

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ZBB said:

So most Americans have no idea on how to properly use hazard lights. One European use that I really wish would be picked up here is turning them on when slowing into a traffic jam -- to give drivers behind a warning that traffic isn't moving so fast up ahead. I try to use that now...

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That is also illegal in many U.S. states. The hazard lights are supposed to mean you are completely stopped (according to the regulations).

sp4rk said:

...Nor if you need to see THREE brake lights on the car in front! ...

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Curmudgeon alert :biggrin:

Not that I disagree, of course.

ZBB said:

Minimum requirements for driving licenses are vastly different in Europe than in the US.

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You got that right!
I took my test in the UK at 17, a loooooong time ago; in the USA, forgotten when and again in the UK in the last 5 years ... the UK drivers test is MUCH HARDER than the USA!
But, IMO, the drivers (with the exception of white lorry drivers*) are far better too. * See Urban Dictionary: white van man

ZBB said:

So most Americans have no idea on how to properly use hazard lights. One European use that I really wish would be picked up here is turning them on when slowing into a traffic jam -- to give drivers behind a warning that traffic isn't moving so fast up ahead. I try to use that now...

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That should be completely unnecessary if drivers are maintaining a safe following distance. Like jerry says, hazard lights should be saved for when you need to come to a complete stop.

lolachampcar said:

Sorry, that is what you get when you drive with a bunch of people that get their license out of a CrackerJacks box.

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Arg. Now I have a craving for Cracker Jack. Do they still have that at baseball parks these days? Or is it like tofu and raisins?

brian,
I'm going to have to stock up.... My license is up for renewal soon

My absolute favorite use of hazards are the Nigerians. There is the right blinker for right, left for left and hazards are the "go forward" lights when approaching an intersection (usually at excessive speed). My next favorite Nigerian trick stems from batteries being soooooo expensive that they tend not to use their lights at night. Of course, they do not want to be unsafe so they blast on their high beams when they get close to you just to make sure you see them. Results are predictable.

You just gotta love um... They live their life like phonetic spelling.

jerry33 said:

That is also illegal in many U.S. states. The hazard lights are supposed to mean you are completely stopped (according to the regulations).

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http://drivinglaws.aaa.com/laws/hazard-light-use/

stopcrazypp said:

That should be completely unnecessary if drivers are maintaining a safe following distance. Like jerry says, hazard lights should be saved for when you need to come to a complete stop.

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The two aren't incompatible. I definitely use hazard lights when I've been forced to come to an unexpected complete stop on a freeway due to an accident ahead (which happens sadly all too often). When people see brake lights they may initially assume you are just slowing some, not coming to a sudden complete stop. It has nothing to do with a safe following distance, because I'm even more likely to do it when I don't have a car behind me at all and I don't want the next car coming around the curve at 60 mph to not notice in time (I drive a windy mountain highway to work).

Anyway, the discussion is veering off topic. I'm in the camp that Tesla put the charging port where they did because that's where it needed to go, not because they felt like it. Charging stations need to account for the fact that some cars will have ports in the front and some in the back depending on where the chargers are located in the car.

gregincal said:

The two aren't incompatible. I definitely use hazard lights when I've been forced to come to an unexpected complete stop on a freeway due to an accident ahead (which happens sadly all too often). When people see brake lights they may initially assume you are just slowing some, not coming to a sudden complete stop. It has nothing to do with a safe following distance, because I'm even more likely to do it when I don't have a car behind me at all and I don't want the next car coming around the curve at 60 mph to not notice in time (I drive a windy mountain highway to work).

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There are a number of cars that automatically activate the hazards when braking heavily.

lolachampcar said:

My next favorite Nigerian trick stems from batteries being soooooo expensive that they tend not to use their lights at night. Of course, they do not want to be unsafe so they blast on their high beams when they get close to you just to make sure you see them. Results are predictable.

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Haitians are the same except they use their horns instead of high beams.

gregincal said:

The two aren't incompatible. I definitely use hazard lights when I've been forced to come to an unexpected complete stop on a freeway due to an accident ahead (which happens sadly all too often).

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That's exactly the situation that it should be used for (unexpected complete stops or mechanical failure). I'm referring to the case of "heavy traffic" as the ZBB put it. As long as that traffic is still moving, it's unnecessary to use your hazards (may give the wrong signal and cause cars behind to brake too much, which has a rippling effect from a previous thread discussing traffic patterns). I've never seen a traffic jam (outside of the complete stop situation you describe, usually due to accident or mechanical failure in the middle of the road) that requires really hard braking.

As for the on topic point, the engineering reason is spot on. The front motor cars tend to have the port in the front, the rear motor cars have them in the rear. This is esp. true if you have the onboard charger in the same half as the motor (also complicated if the car's DC capable).

stopcrazypp said:

That's exactly the situation that it should be used for (unexpected complete stops or mechanical failure). I'm referring to the case of "heavy traffic" as the ZBB put it. As long as that traffic is still moving, it's unnecessary to use your hazards (may give the wrong signal and cause cars behind to brake too much, which has a rippling effect from a previous thread discussing traffic patterns). I've never seen a traffic jam (outside of the complete stop situation you describe, usually due to accident or mechanical failure in the middle of the road) that requires really hard braking.

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To clarify - by "heavy traffic" I meant traffic ahead that has come to a complete stop or very close to a complete stop. Use of hazards in this case is a defensive move in addition to my brake lights. The AAA/CAA link someone posted states use of hazards is authorized in most states and provinces -- many in emergency situations only. I'd argue that the use I describe would be an emergency use intended to prevent a bigger emergency.

The first time I experienced this was in Germany where traffic ahead was stop and go. But I didn't see it until I created a small hill a couple hundred meters before the traffic. But a car ahead of me saw it and put the hazards on before the driver braked, giving me additional warning that something ahead was not normal...

lolachampcar said:

My absolute favorite use of hazards are the Nigerians. There is the right blinker for right, left for left and hazards are the "go forward" lights when approaching an intersection (usually at excessive speed). My next favorite Nigerian trick stems from batteries being soooooo expensive that they tend not to use their lights at night. Of course, they do not want to be unsafe so they blast on their high beams when they get close to you just to make sure you see them. Results are predictable.

You just gotta love um... They live their life like phonetic spelling.

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There wasn't a lot of signalling of any kind that I remember in Nigeria. Headlights were obviously optional, as were seat belts, air bags, or anything else that resembled safety.

That would include which side of the road to drive on (optional) or whether to use a road at all.

There were lines for gasoline in a country where the price is regulated to 65 Naira per liter (about $1.20 per gallon).

stopcrazypp said:

That should be completely unnecessary if drivers are maintaining a safe following distance. Like jerry says, hazard lights should be saved for when you need to come to a complete stop.

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Yes, it should be completely unnecessary. But I don't know when I last thought that the person behind me was maintaining a safe following distance. On US highways, the distance between cars is sometimes 6-10 feet in the worst cases, probably a half-second of travel on average, and one full second of separation seems to be very uncommon. The extremely high incidence of distracted drivers compounds that problem. Hence, I make it a standard practice to flash my hazard lights two or three times if there's a sudden and dramatic slowdown in traffic.