Why are 2/3 of my brake lights required to work by law?

[ItsOpposite]

In my State, the statute says 2 of 3 brake lights required. How is one brake light any brighter than 3 or 4?

Is my perception of reality flawed? & though I say it is just as bright, when asked to give a reason why, I can not produce any answer. Is it because it is simply “there” or is it because of Inverse Square Law?

I thought that Inverse Sq Law requires some sort of delta, d change to whereas here, it’s simply a question as to whether it’s there or not.
How do I approach this?

 

[russ_watters]

In my State, the statute says 2 of 3 brake lights required. How is one brake light any brighter than 3 or 4?

Is my perception of reality flawed? & though I say it is just as bright, when asked to give a reason why, I can not produce any answer. Is it because it is simply “there” or is it because of Inverse Square Law?

I thought that Inverse Sq Law requires some sort of delta, d change to whereas here, it’s simply a question as to whether it’s there or not.
How do I approach this?

Are you referring to the lights on the back of a car? I think the third was added because it could be difficult to distinguish the others from the normal tail lights.

 

[ItsOpposite]

Are you referring to the lights on the back of a car? I think the third was added because it could be difficult to distinguish the others from the normal tail lights.

I am referring to the brake lights.

I was charged for this statute & had found guilty. I am asking because, empirically, 1 out of 3 brake light is just as “bright” as 2 out 3.

But that isn’t what the Law says So I need to know if I need to change my perception of reality.

 

[davenn]

But that isn’t what the Law says So I need to know if I need to change my perception of reality.

In this case, your perception of reality is irrelevent. It is a state law ( regardless of the reason),
you need to follow the law or risk getting fined. Simple as that

It would be the same as you saying that murder is ok, because that is your perception of reality

 

[Klystron]

In my State, the statute says 2 of 3 brake lights required. How is one brake light any brighter than 3 or 4?
[...snip...]
How do I approach this?

If you have a valid argument and data, consider contacting your legislator. In my state the local representatives respond to inputs from constituents. For example, although he personally disagreed with using cannabis, our rep helped legalize cannabis for medical use after numerous inputs and public reviews. Now legal statewide.

 

[phinds]

Are you arguing that you should be allowed to drive with just ONE brake light? I can't tell from your post.

 

[ItsOpposite]

Are you arguing that you should be allowed to drive with just ONE brake light? I can't tell from your post.

In simple terms, Yes. Though I don’t see it as ONE brake light. It’s simply stop lamp, maybe a question of antiquity.

& that I had 50,000 would be just the same.

There’s disagreement between Democracy & empirical Truth; one is unchanging & invariant and that one is corrupting the other. I say 1 brake light out of 3 is just fine.

 

[BillTre]

The visibility of different brake lights, on a vehicle in traffic, will vary depending upon their location on your car and the location of other vehicles in the traffic.
I would guess this is why you should have at least two lights, one on each side. One may be obscured by traffic in some conditions while the other would be visible and informative to other drivers. This would make it a safer situation.
Not sure about the third light.
Your post does not mention the location of the lights.

 

[ItsOpposite]

The visibility of different brake lights, on a vehicle in traffic, will vary depending upon their location on your car and the location of other vehicles in the traffic.
I would guess this is why you should have at least two lights, one on each side. One may be obscured by traffic in some conditions while the other would be visible and informative to other drivers. This would make it a safer situation.
Not sure about the third light.
Your post does not mention the location of the lights.

The location of the working lamp is either side. Left

I disagree on your statement about visibility. You would have to be in the ditch. & in that case, the situation seems to have been resolved. I’ll contact my legislator.

Thanks

 

[berkeman]

In my State, the statute says 2 of 3 brake lights required. How is one brake light any brighter than 3 or 4?

Total brightness is mostly irrelevant. It has to do with visibility in traffic.

I was charged for this statute & had found guilty. I am asking because, empirically, 1 out of 3 brake light is just as “bright” as 2 out 3.

But that isn’t what the Law says So I need to know if I need to change my perception of reality.

Yes. Think "visibility in traffic" instead of "total brighness of the brake lights".

Are you arguing that you should be allowed to drive with just ONE brake light? I can't tell from your post.

Hopefully it's just a fixit-ticket where he lives. I'm pretty sure a burned out brake light is a simple fix-it violation here in NorCal, which is a very low-cost infraction as long as you fix it within the allowed time and have it signed off by an officer at the local PD. On the other hand, if you're obnoxious and try to call "BS" like this poster is trying to do, it could end up in court and there could be a higher fine than just a simple fix-it ticket. I wonder what happened in this case...

There’s disagreement between Democracy & empirical Truth; one is unchanging & invariant and that one is corrupting the other. I say 1 brake light out of 3 is just fine.

Then you have never almost been in an accident because the vehicle in front of you or near you has a burned out stop lamp and they braked unexpectedly. There have historically been two stoplamps on cars to be sure people in traffic on either side of them to the rear can see that they are braking, especially if they are towing a trailer and the following vehicles are close enough to see the vehicle stoplights and not the trailer stoplights (assuming the trailer stoplights are working).

And the high 3rd stoplight was added a few years ago because it helps cars following 2 cars behind to see that a lead car has hit its brakes (seen through the rear and front windows of the car ahead of it).

I disagree on your statement about visibility. You would have to be in the ditch. & in that case, the situation seems to have been resolved. I’ll contact my legislator.

I feel bad for your legislator. They are probably busy enough dealing with real problems.

Please just replace the burned out bulb, and make a habit of checking your brake lights and turn signal lights frequently.

Thread is done.

 

[Mark44]

In my State, the statute says 2 of 3 brake lights required. How is one brake light any brighter than 3 or 4?

You wrote "2 of 3 brake lights required." Did you mean "2 or 3 brake lights required"?

Though I don’t see it as ONE brake light. It’s simply stop lamp, maybe a question of antiquity.

& that I had 50,000 would be just the same.

Well, no. If the law says that you have to have two brake lights for older cars, and another in the middle for new cars, then one light is not the same as three.

There’s disagreement between Democracy & empirical Truth; one is unchanging & invariant and that one is corrupting the other. I say 1 brake light out of 3 is just fine.

This is a meaningless argument, unrelated to empirical truth and the inverse square law that you mentioned earlier. Unless you can convince the people of your state to get their legislators to change the law, you won't get far in any court trying to argue that one brake light is enough.

 

[Nugatory]

How do I approach this?

You ask an EMT or a police officer, someone who routinely deals with the aftermath of rear-end collisions, why this requirement exists. Then you say a silent prayer of thanks that instead of featuring in one of their stories you got off with just a citation - and you fix your damned light because you don’t really want to take an ambulance ride on a backboard.