An Evaluation of a Brakelight Display Which Indicates the Severity of Braking

摘要

Behaviour on the test track of drivers following another car fitted with various types of stop light has been studied. Drivers responded to uniform deceleration of the vehicle ahead more quickly when it displayed a sequence of 3, 5 or 7 lights as deceleration was increased than when it displayed conventional brakelights or no brakelights. It is considered that this happened because the first lights of the system came on at a lower deceleration than did normal brakelights, and not because it was a multilight display. This theory was tested by comparing the multi-brakelight with a throttle-operated brakelight. (Author)