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#1
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New Flashing Front Lights seen today
on a motorcycle.
Observation 1: Law enforcement cars oftentimes use high/low beam flashing headlights in addition to red or blue flashing lights. These flashing headlights are often more visible, on unmarked cars, than the flashing lights on the dashboard or behind the grill. Observation 2: Law enforcement has decided to use more unmarked cars (and pickup trucks) than in years past. Previously reserved for detectives, now unmarked cars are being used by uniformed officers and even by officers assigned to traffic work. Other than the flashing headlights and the red lights behind the front grill, no one would know that the car was a police car if it wasn't in pursuit. In light of the above, I was surprised to see a civilian motorcycle with three headlights in a triangle flashing high/low in succession during daylight hours. This guy was stopping traffic and the cars were letting him drive by. I guess what he was doing was legal, but perhaps the flashing lights have gotten a bit out of hand? |
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#2
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New Flashing Front Lights seen today
On Tue, 01 Jan 2008 15:54:29 -0500, vey may have
said: I guess what he was doing was legal, but perhaps the flashing lights have gotten a bit out of hand? Actually, he was probably breaking the law. In most states, it is illegal to drive with the hazard warning lights activated unless there is a hazard present; merely driving along with the hazard lights flashing is a minor infraction, and seldom merits a ticket. The headlights, while they technically could be used for signalling (the US codes defining headlamps provide for them to be used in a flashing mode for signalling) are not formally considered hazard warning lamps, and many states sepficially reserve the use of flashing headlamps as a marker of an emergency vehicle. Using flashing headlamps (either on/off or low/high continuous automated flashing) on a non-emergency vehicle would be an infraction of varying severity in such a state. My guess is that he had the flashing capability added for use in parades or escort duty, and didn't realize that he had it on in normal traffic. Some cops with limited senses of humor would arrest the rider for impersonating a police officer, a charge that would usually stick. -- My email address is antispammed; pull WEEDS if replying via e-mail. Typoes are not a bug, they're a feature. Words processed in a facility that contains nuts. |
#3
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New Flashing Front Lights seen today
Werehatrack wrote:
On Tue, 01 Jan 2008 15:54:29 -0500, vey may have said: I guess what he was doing was legal, but perhaps the flashing lights have gotten a bit out of hand? Actually, he was probably breaking the law. In most states, it is illegal to drive with the hazard warning lights activated unless there is a hazard present; merely driving along with the hazard lights flashing is a minor infraction, and seldom merits a ticket. I would have thought so, too. But it seems Federal law has trumped State law once again. See: http://www.abate-of-maryland.org/NHT...gHeadlight.htm "This means that, under 49 U.S.C. 30103(b)(1), a State may have its own standard which allows a motorcycle headlamp to be wired to modulate in the same manner as prescribed under S7.9.4. However, since the Federal standard specifically allows a modulation of motorcycle headlamps, a State may not establish or continue in effect a standard prohibiting a headlamp that modulates in accordance with S7.9.4 of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard No. 108. As our letter to AMA notes, we distinguish between a flashing lamp (one that goes from either the upper or lower beam to off) and a modulating lamp (one that goes from a higher to a lower intensity within either the upper or lower beam). However, the Maryland prohibition against lamps that oscillate or feature any "other type of emission of light" could be interpreted to include any lamp whose light is not steady-burning when the lamp is activated, whether or not it is intended to apply to a motorcycle's modulating headlamp." |
#4
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New Flashing Front Lights seen today
Headlight modulation has been a controversial subject since I can't
remember. The reality is that even though there are specific laws in place, they are neither uniformly known nor enforced. I have been pulled over and ticketed for a amber headlight in my vintage bmw motorcycle that had been in the bike for over a year - the city police officer insisted that white was the only acceptable color. My research afterwards indicated that the state law allowed for amber and white, the city law was vague, and it wasn't worth fighting the minor ticket. The constant increase of lights and flashing devices will soon have us all covered in rotating flashing beeping strobes just to go to the corner and get the mail. |
#5
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New Flashing Front Lights seen today
raging raven wrote:
The constant increase of lights and flashing devices will soon have us all covered in rotating flashing beeping strobes just to go to the corner and get the mail. Do you think that all those flashes and beeps will affect the "distracted driver"? The ones that are yacking on the phone, looking for a CD, eating or putting on makeup? |
#6
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New Flashing Front Lights seen today
Do you think that all those flashes and beeps will affect the
"distracted driver"? The ones that are yacking on the phone, looking for a CD, eating or putting on makeup? Nope, they always were and always will be too selfish to bothered with paying attention to anything other than themselves and their perceived needs. I've been hit by cars/pickup truck while riding by bicycle twice on the road, and once on a bike path (by a cop in squad car cruising through the park!) All mid-day, pre-cell phones, full sun, few distractions. Each time they were messing with radio, talking to passengers or just plain crazy |
#7
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New Flashing Front Lights seen today
On Wed, 02 Jan 2008 15:25:48 -0500, vey may have
said: raging raven wrote: The constant increase of lights and flashing devices will soon have us all covered in rotating flashing beeping strobes just to go to the corner and get the mail. Do you think that all those flashes and beeps will affect the "distracted driver"? The ones that are yacking on the phone, looking for a CD, eating or putting on makeup? No, and they also won't do anything good for the folks who truly *need* to get the attention of the rest of the people on the road, namely the emergency vehicle drivers. Everything that blurs the line which clearly differentiates "civilian" from "emergency" vehicles serves to impair the passage of the latter, since it delays (even if only by possibly-critical splits of a second) the recognition of their presence and status, and the reaction that needs to occur. Among other things, the Feds need to retract that ill-conceived permission, move the CAFE tightening up by 6 years, and enact a nationwide ban on non-emergency cell phone usage by drivers in motion nationwide (with easing of the procedures to get access to a cell user's call records in the event of a perceived infraction) if they really want to start doing something about cycle safety, both motor and HPV. -- My email address is antispammed; pull WEEDS if replying via e-mail. Typoes are not a bug, they're a feature. Words processed in a facility that contains nuts. |
#8
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New Flashing Front Lights seen today
In article
, Werehatrack wrote: On Tue, 01 Jan 2008 15:54:29 -0500, vey may have said: I guess what he was doing was legal, but perhaps the flashing lights have gotten a bit out of hand? Actually, he was probably breaking the law. In most states, it is illegal to drive with the hazard warning lights activated unless there is a hazard present; merely driving along with the hazard lights flashing is a minor infraction, and seldom merits a ticket. The headlights, while they technically could be used for signalling (the US codes defining headlamps provide for them to be used in a flashing mode for signalling) are not formally considered hazard warning lamps, and many states sepficially reserve the use of flashing headlamps as a marker of an emergency vehicle. Using flashing headlamps (either on/off or low/high continuous automated flashing) on a non-emergency vehicle would be an infraction of varying severity in such a state. My guess is that he had the flashing capability added for use in parades or escort duty, and didn't realize that he had it on in normal traffic. Some cops with limited senses of humor would arrest the rider for impersonating a police officer, a charge that would usually stick. California Vehicle Code Motorcycles: Headlamp Flasher 25251.2. Any motorcycle may be equipped with a means of modulating the upper beam of the headlamp between a high and a lower brightness at a rate of 200 to 280 flashes per minute. Such headlamps shall not be so modulated during darkness. -- Michael Press |
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