1(c) Lights: Your brake lights
![Communication while driving | "Talk" to other road users | Why? And how to do it?-brake-light.jpg](https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/attachments/road-safety/2632937d1722057580t-communication-while-driving-talk-other-road-users-why-how-do-brake-light.jpg)
The most frequently used, most visible, most important, unknowingly used, forgotten, often not regularly checked for failure, and improperly used communication tool in your car are the brake lights. Every time the brake pedal is pressed, even lightly enough not to activate the brakes, those lamps light up.
Well, what's so special about them, you might say. If I brake, they glow, so everyone behind knows I'm braking.
Making the brake lights glow without actually decelerating your car sharply every time, warns the following vehicle to stop accelerating and prepare to slow down and stop if required.
The trick in using the brake pedal to "talk" to the car behind, is called the
TFS technique.
T = Touch: When your foot comes off the accelerator pedal, it should always automatically move to the brake pedal and touch it every time, without pushing it in at all. Developing this habit, especially in automatic transmission cars, prevents panic acceleration and a runaway car crash. Read
this - this was an automatic transmission car, where the driver confused the A- and B-pedals.
F = Freeze: Develop the habit of pushing in the brake pedal slightly and freeze your foot in that position, so that the brake lights are glowing, but the hydraulic system is not activated (and the car is not slowing down significantly).
This is your communication to the vehicle behind to get off his A-pedal and prepare to slow down.
S = Squeeze: This is the time when the hydraulic system is actuated, the brakes are applied, and your car is slowing rapidly. Practise squeezing the B-pedal gradually with incremental force, rather than jamming your foot hard on the pedal at the onset.
Why follow TFS and not just apply the brakes? An early warning of a few seconds to the vehicle behind to slow down saves you from being rear-ended.
When stopped at a traffic light without any vehicle behind you, hold the brake pedal to keep the brake lights lit up - this tells the car coming up behind that there is a car stopped ahead, and not to try to rush through even if the light has just turned green. At night, with another car stopped behind you, take your foot off the brake pedal and hold the car on handbrake, because the glare from the brake lamps is bright enough to hurt their eyes - a little politeness & courtesy never hurt anyone.