feder1 wrote:I,m sure that lots of drivers have had someone pile into the back of them when sitting at traffic lights because their brake light wasn,t on.
I have seen an unladen lorry skidding hard into the back of the car on my right at lights.
It seems to be a basic safe way of getting the car behind you to take their eyes off what they are playing with and look ahead in front them in order to brake in a controlled way.
You have the option of applying the brakes if you see something approaching from behind, in fact that is probably safer as your lights will come on, alerting the driver that has not spotted the line of stationary traffic nor the large red lights stuck on poles 9 feet in the air. Of course if the first thing you do when you stop is check your texts instead of your mirror then that is another issue covered under "natural selection"
The point is you should have a choice of whether or not to illuminate your brake lights, it is something you should be able to control. They serve a purpose - if you want the stopped car to be more visible you can press the brake pedal repeatedly to flash the brake lights, turn on or flash sidelights, turn on rear fog lights, turn on hazard lights.
Brake lights were implemented to inform following drivers that a vehicle was slowing down. Parking lights are for when they are stopped.
Paul