EMERGENCY VEHICLE SIRENS, lights, useage, etc.

[Robert Gift]

Well said, Mouth.

My respect to truckers.
99% arexcellent drivers. The best and most skilled.

I could never do it.
If I want a good sleep, just put me behind a wheel!

I don't see how they can do it.
Plus put up withose of us who pull in front of big rigs.

I purposely clear out of the way in front of big rigs so that I do not slow them down. I don'turn right on red in front of any rigs causing them to slow.

Likewise, I do not change lanes into the empty lane at a red signal and cause a rig planning to stop in that space to stop sooner. Nor do I block his continuing in that vacant lane should the signal turn green before he gets to it.

I don't mind tailgating in my own vehicle to ride in their vacuums.
If anything happens, it's MY fault.
But I should be able to slow much faster than they can if they suddenly slow or stop.

I know I shouldn't do this, buthe quiet and better gas mileage is tempting.

[Undertaker]

Could it be that todays emergency vehicles have evolved into more "flash and bang" than is needed? Some 36 years ago the local funeal homes provided ambulance service. We used our combination hearse/ambulance and station wagons as modern ambulances of that era. Most ambulances had one (1) red beacon ray on top and a mechanical siren, usually a model 28, under the hood just behind the grill. Some were more fancy with two (2) beacon rays on top and a Q under the hood. Problem with the Q was when you charged it up at night your headlights would almost go completely out. Before we quit the ambulance work we had a van type ambulance with all kinds of flashing lights and light bars on it. I never could move traffic with it like I could with one of the combinations or station wagon with just one beacon ray and a model 28 siren. Sometimes less is more. My choice of beacon rays was the model that rotated 90 degrees and then back 180. It caught your attention quickly kind of like a Marrs light and to this day there is no better noise maker than the mechanical windup siren, be it a Q2B, B&M or model 28. They will out perform an electronic siren in any and all situations. I've had both.

[Robert Gift]

I must agree.

Back then traffic cleared better because less traffic, the vehicles were lessound proofed, and people tried to help the emergency vehicle.

Now we have much more conjestion, drivers less knowlegeable on what to do, and foreigners, especially Mexicans, unwilling to yield right of way.
Also, we have better stereo systems in much quieter vehicles.
Even though I do not blast my stereo, I have missed sirens (and I listen for them)

I liked the swiveling beacon. Gave quick blink to grab eye attention and longer flash to reinforce the signal.

I also remember 100 amp-drawing Q dropping voltage. We installedual
batteries to help withat kind of draw.

In light bars, too much light isent forward and not enough right and left for entering intersections.

You'llaugh...
Having no places to place side-facing lights, (without cutting into vehicle)I just placed a 4" round LED Stop/Tail/Turn signalamp in each front wheelwell of the Expedition.

Facing straight out left and right and easily seen above the wheel in the dark well, it works great! (Will learn this winter how much snow and dirt coats the lights. Looking at the wheelwell interior I think it won't be bad.)

[Jim_Ferer]

I think a lot of emergency vehicles are overlighted, but I wouldn't go back to the era of Federal Beacon-Rays, either. Those sealed beams were something like 27 watts and you wouldn't even see them on modern highways with a 65 mph pace.

At one time California had (maybe they still do) a rule that there could be only six lights facing forward, including the headlights (quad headlights only counted as two). One of them was the steady-burning lamp on the right side I remember from all the cop shows. Maybe we should head in that direction, using LEDs instead. The exception would be flashing LEDs at eye level on vehicles where the main array is high. Sedans wouldn't need 'em.

I think the rear should have a lot of amber and an arrow stick, used sparingly in a directional mode, more often in wig-wag. I know you don't like them, Robert, but they should be there for when direction is needed. They can always just flash. I would have two fairly big rear-facing red LEDs that burn steady when the vehicle is stopped.

In construction, in the amber world, a new trend for work vehicles like plows and trucks is to install three lights a side in the rear, each a larger diameter. They flash small - medium - BIG. The concept is that approaching vehicles think they're getting closer to the vehicle faster than they really are and slow down sooner.

[Robert Gift]

Hey, I like that idea, Jim!
Does it really work?

I have no problem with arrow sticks operated by police or municipalities.
They can handle the complications and lawsuits.

If I had one, I'd have it simply flash all on/all off for the most effective warning.

When they have many lights flashing randomly, (they boast a collective 450 flashes per minute!) they all blend together "in their own background" and lose their impact.

Buthe light manufacturers are promoting more and morexpensive lights.
It's ridiculous.

I'd like the Beacon Ray with halogen bulbs!

[loudmouth]

The only bad thing about any type of flashing light on a plow truck is it will refiect off the snow and 8 to 36 hours behind the wheel that amber light isnt quite the firend it used to be. and druring a white out conndtion or just a medium snow storm that light eather it be beacon, strobe or LED will blind you. I have some pritty funny plow stories but that Way off topic.
yea alot of trucks are over burden with lights some look like giant strobes or just a streak of light as they go by. and then theres the ones you can barley tell till they get right to you that its a emergency vehical.

[Robert Gift]

Yes. That is a problem.
In a snow storm I drovemergent from Denver to Ft Collins.
One hour of thatrip did a number on my eyes.

Wheno traffic visible ahead, I turned everything off buthe two red steady-burning takedown lights. (Buthen I was not legal.)

The flashing one-second-on/one-second-off are much easier on the eyes than the quick 360 or strobe flashes.

Quick flashes should be reserved ONLY foresponding emergency vehicles.
Slow flashing for all others and parked emergency vehicles.

Then, drivers would knowhen an emergency vehicle iseeking right of way
and when it is parked.

I started this topic - please tell your stories!
(Uh-oh, do I see -20.)

[Jim_Ferer]

Not sure. Every time a new idea comes up it's tested, and then there's a pilot program where they try it out and attempt to measure how well it's doing, but the real answer is never in until there's been a few years' experience with it. I sounds like it *ought* to work, and I've seen a video of it (intended to induce me to drop my company's change on some of these lights), but not a unit in use. One thing we can be sure of is that it wouldn't be worse than anything in use now, and it might be a genuine advance.

Snow is just difficult. The best solution in the world isn't magical, and everything has limitations.

[Robert Gift]

Driving an ambulance in big heavy snow flakes was beautiful.

As the red white and blue 360 beams converged, they created other colors: BLUE + WHITE = GREEN, RED + WHITE = ORANGE
RED + BLUE = strange PURPLE.
Our steady blues were wonderful.
Blue 360's are not very visible in daylight.

Robert's Rules:

Colors steadily lit.
Only whites rotate or strobe to attract gaze to colored lights.
Coordinate flashing lights to make fewer BIG flashes.

[q2bman]

FOP is the Fraternal Order of Police.