I believe the flank lights are mandatory now, but a design that poor on something as critical as a directional still bugs me.
I have amber LEDs on the front part of the mirror housing. Though I do like the red LEDs in the actual mirror part on some trucks, myself.
I got spoiled. mine does the dlr drl all the time but has a light sensor to turn all lights on when needed and turn all lights off when I turn off the car. No dead batteries from lights left on, no need to worry about turning lights on at dusk. Chevy did that one right. At least on the ford the lights time out and turn off to save the battery when my teenage daughter does not turn them off.
The side signal lights is an old European idea. I remember a Peugot (sp) back in the 50’s that had them. Some even had little arms thar flung out from the side to signal a turn like my 60 Morris Minor. I like the mirror signal lights. They tell you when someone next to you is planning a lane change so you can get out of their way.
As far as the rear amber signal lights-I am not a fan at all. At night on the highway you can’t tell if a car with the 4 ways on is facing you or away from you. The worst though is being in traffic at night with someone ahead of you with those bright blinkers blinding you. Its just a bad idea. Amber or white in front and red in the rear. Can’t help those who are color blind.
I understand the desire for DRL’s but I do not like them. They make people dependent upon technology. That being said, I also see people driving in fog, snow rain, and other low light conditions (i.e. early morning or late evening) without turning on their lights and no DRL’s. I agree with the same mountain bike that the best solution is to just have the lights come on when the engine is on.
I rather disagree with the convention that there is a necessity to every car having DRL. When I purchased my current car, it was with the specific requirement that it not have DRL (or at least be able to easily turn them off), due to my job (at night) requiring that when approaching the premises, only parking lights were allowed, so as to not interfere with operations. This may not sound like much, but the approach is several miles in advance (“if you can see them, they can see you”). Is it so difficult to drive with amber parking lights, or are they merely used for turn signals these days?
I like having amber turn signals in the back. I often see many cars with burned out brake lights. With amber turn signals, you know right off the bat the person is planning a turn or a lane change, and not pressing the brake lights.
They are turn signals only. Even in the seventies I remember the California DMV handbook emphasizing that it was illegal to drive with them. You must work at an interesting place. Long private road, maybe?
@ Whitey I am in agreement with you. Have yellow (amber) turnsigals in the back it would be easier to see if somebody actually plan to turn or have a burnt out bulb…
But this requires the operator of the vehicle to know when and how to use the blinkers…
On the other had I would really like to see turn and brake lights minted high on trailers and 18 wheelers host for safety sake. Usually in traffic at least you can see the third brakelights not just the car ahead of you by thru their windshields even several ahead of them. It helps while driving I can decide to just coast behind the cars or if I need to apply the brakes…
So the high turn and brakelight on the semi would be useful from the distance where you can see if the semi will pull in front of you passing somebody else while you are in the faster lane and the only thing you see is a semi and a car following it maslinv all directionals…