Unique Utah Tail Light Idea Could Revolutionize Traffic Flow

A Utah technician claims an extra light on the back of a car would prevent traffic jams.

You are driving on a congested stretch of the freeway, and suddenly a line of brake lights appears ahead of you, it is fast enough that you have to go from pressing your accelerator to stepping on your brakes.

This causes a ripple effect as the person behind you has to quickly decelerate, then the person behind them and so on.

The issue causes a delay that compounds with each ripple of braking and if you have enough traffic, it will cause the forward motion to stop. That is in part because it is much quicker to stop than to accelerate back to the speed limit.

Have you ever been in a traffic jam and when you got going again there was no obstruction to have caused the traffic to stop? This is a classic case of braking causing traffic to stop while the leaders are trying to get back up to speed.

With this problem in mind a Utah man has proposed another light to be added to the back lights of a car. This lamp would light when the driver removed pressure on the gas.

The theory is that if a driver could see when the vehicle in front of them was not maintaining or increasing speed then they could react quicker and less dramatically. Seeing the "Not Gassing" light would let you know to quit accelerating, but you wouldn't have to brake, thus maintaining speed.

An extra light might help us move smoother as our roads get more crowded. What do you think? Would this extra light give drivers the time they need to maintain their speed without needing to unnecessarily brake?