How effective is a colored directional stick?

[JohnFireFan]

How effective is a colored directional stick versus an amber? Does a red/blue arrow stick work just as well as a full amber arrow stick would? Thoughts please...


*Please keep all duo / dual colored lightstick comments or suggestions OUT OF THIS THREAD

 

[zombieresponseteam]

My current assignment has me in a CVPI with a red/blue split Liberty. Unless I turn off all my other warning lights EXCEPT the directional function, no one seems to notice what is going on. Even then, I find myself having to wave people around me sometimes. I vote amber directionals if at all possible.

 

[tacomabanga19861986]

i also have this same question


i have some of the 2 head arrow stick halogen lights with red lenses and i was thinking about swapping out a couple of my amber ones with red, but being i have red leds beside the amber ta i dont know how well that might look


heres a video of it for reference

imo i think a ta should stay amber, but thats just me, now maby a full color ta might work, i think the split colors might "wash" with another and the red/blue might make some sort of purple light and just disorient drivers


is the duo lights the one that go from emergency colors to amber for a ta? sorry to ask, just trying to learn

 

[911graphicsandlighting]

Your pattern is to fast need to slow it down and give enough time for the amber to show and the red to show r/a doesnt need to flash together

 

[911graphicsandlighting]

This shows about how slow it needs to be to show good colors

 

[pdk9]

How effective is a colored directional stick versus an amber? Does a red/blue arrow stick work just as well as a full amber arrow stick would? Thoughts please...

*Please keep all duo / dual colored lightstick comments or suggestions OUT OF THIS THREAD

Personally, I don't think red/blue is as efficient for a TA. I think that amber is a more attention-grabbing color, and it stands out from the other lights if you're running a red/blue EV color scheme.


Also, as was mentioned earlier, unless you turn everything else off, in my experience, the red/blue TA isn't effective. If you have one, use it but don't expect the same response that you would get with an amber TA; on the other hand, if you had a choice, I think it's best to have a R/B lightbar for warning, with a separate amber TA in the lower rear window of a vehicle

 

[cybercop]

I think the majority of the public do not know what a traffic advisor/arrow stick is for. They don't move over and continue like nothing. The only effective ones I have seen are those huge ones that are on the back of construction trucks that have a arrow point which way to go.

 

[WS224]

Regardless of color, I think expecting the general population to pay attention to, interpret, and follow the command of any directional bar is giving them entirely too much credit.


If it isn't a large, flip up directional arrow that flashes on and off, I wouldn't rely on it and therefore doubt the colors really matter.

 

[CTKB]

Studies have shown that TA are ineffective no matter the color unless at both the left and right ends there is an actual arrow. This was told to me by multiple cops as well as my state traffic director certification course.

 

[Tlauden]

We rarely use our traffic director just because on the back of the rigs it just blends in with the other lights. Our new engine we just got we didn't bother to even put one on it, we decided it was a waste of money. No one knows what they mean... To the general public its just another blinky light....

 

[PJD642]

OSHP's new all-blue bars have a built in TA function. It helps that there are no other lights in the immediate area near the bar (just two red TIR3s or something on the rear deck and LAWs in the reverse lamps on the CVPI). I've seen it in use once and in my opinion it was less effective since it was blue and blended in with their other emergency lights. Had it been amber I think it would have stood out better and been more "obvious" what the intention was (signalling folks to move over rather than a warning blinky).


So yeah, it matters - use amber and IMHO disable the rear lights (except corner strobes, etc) when using a TA.

 

[Eric1249]

I ask people all the time if they know what it means when we see one and most people don't even know. Like someone mentioned, it is just another light to them.

 

[Storm4200]

i found Florida Highway Patrol's DUAL AMBER set-up to be pretty effective.


in order for a TA to be effective, it HAS to be SEPARATE from your other warning lights. ie: if you have a full lightbar, it has to be on the rear deck, NOT the rear headliner.


i find amber TAs to convey the message much more clear than then R/B. if it is R/B, that better be the only light on

 

[tacomabanga19861986]

the lights on my toolbox beside the ta is on main power switch so they come on anyways, and my ta is as slow as it will go on the code 3 flasher, but im going to be getting a whelen flasher to put with it so i might can change it up a bit


but when on scene i turn off all front lights and just keep the rear on


now i got a code 3 arrow stik delux flasher to it now, might give better patterns, but i dunno


just have it so if come up on a wreck some people might know what to do


i had it so i guess use it lol

 

[SSgt Elmer]

Traffic Advisors are useless. I have used both all amber ones and red/blue ones and they weren't worth the trouble. More often than not I'd leave them on the warning pattern and call it a day.

 

[Eric1249]

Traffic Advisors are useless. I have used both all amber ones and red/blue ones and they weren't worth the trouble. More often than not I'd leave them on the warning pattern and call it a day.

I agree for the most part. I purchased my Whelen T/A mostly for the warn pattern. It doesn't help when people don't know how to use them. I have seen numerous engines going down the street and the T/A is going one direction or the other.

 

[minig0d]

Let's just clarify that the average person we encounter has the IQ of a regurgitated Twinkie. No traffic advisor will make them go anywhere they didn't want to go. I was directing traffic on side of my patrol car in a safety vest with a traffic wand waving traffic through a stop sign and i stop waving a direction through and signal him to stop and the guy came inches from hitting me and the car. And then yelled at me about it and screamed its no big deal. Well uh ya it is but you're just one of those twinkies and here's your constellation prize a summons.


Point is blinky stuff, bright lights, safety vests, traffic advisors, none of them matter the driver is going to go where they want to go. Put on lights and throw up some traffic cones is likely way more effective then a bar signaling a direction.

 

[PJD642]

Let's just clarify that the average person we encounter has the IQ of a regurgitated Twinkie. No traffic advisor will make them go anywhere they didn't want to go. I was directing traffic on side of my patrol car in a safety vest with a traffic wand waving traffic through a stop sign and i stop waving a direction through and signal him to stop and the guy came inches from hitting me and the car. And then yelled at me about it and screamed its no big deal. Well uh ya it is but you're just one of those twinkies and here's your constellation prize a summons.

Point is blinky stuff, bright lights, safety vests, traffic advisors, none of them matter the driver is going to go where they want to go. Put on lights and throw up some traffic cones is likely way more effective then a bar signaling a direction.

Yes! Physical obstructions like cones (or big red trucks) are far more effective than arrow sticks of any sort.

 

[11b101abn]

Most folks i have seen using them are doing it wrong.


To be even marginally effective, other lighting needs to be off.

 

[Zapp Brannigan]

Most folks i have seen using them are doing it wrong.

To be even marginally effective, other lighting needs to be off.

:iagree: :iagree:

 

[Solvarex]

I'll admit I'm surprised by the responses here. I was fully expecting all manner of lighting in split colours and whatnot to be suggested, when quite the contrary I was pleasantly surprised to see multiple opinions that mirror my own.


I drive a utility vehicle daily and aside from a beacon and perimeter lighting it also mounts a Dominator TA. I rarely use the thing for exactly the reasons mentioned by several posters - no one knows what the hell it means. People really are just that stupid.


I do occasionally find use for it and sometimes it works very well. I think a lot depends on the pattern it's set to. The single lamp sequencing across the bar is probably the worst and manufacturers should be ashamed for even offering it as an option. Mine is controlled by a TACTLD and is set to sequence double sweep. I've seen better patterns but this will do. I've actually considered adding TIR3s to the tips wired in with the end module to produce an actual arrow head. Don't think I have the space for it unfortunately.


At the end of the day we have to remember that in reality, any directional bar is more of a courtesy to traffic than anything else. You could put the bar on a warning pattern, never use the direction mode, and drivers would eventually figure it out on their own, albeit maybe a few seconds later. I will never bother with a non-arrow TA again because it's an awful lot of money just to provide a long-distance courtesy to other drivers, when most of them don't know how to interpret the signal in the first place.

 

[Phoenix_Rising]

I'll admit I'm surprised by the responses here. I was fully expecting all manner of lighting in split colours and whatnot to be suggested, when quite the contrary I was pleasantly surprised to see multiple opinions that mirror my own.

.

we ARE more than just bacons and boobs you know??? :crazy:


+1 on the proper use of the T/A ( be it color or amber ) in regards to your other lighting.....trying to find the TA pattern amid a seizure inducing twinkle fest is all but pointless, useless, and a waste of the technology

 

[tvsjr]

+1 on the proper use of the T/A ( be it color or amber ) in regards to your other lighting.....trying to find the TA pattern amid a seizure inducing twinkle fest is all but pointless, useless, and a waste of the technology

And there's the key... not having a "seizure inducing twinkle fest". I've always found my TA to be effective for what it is (it's not a full arrowboard, of course). The TA is mounted at the very top of a commercial topper. 4 600-series linears, red over blue, about 1/3 down the door, and amber TIR3s in the lower corners.


A TA built into the bar or on the same level as other warning is totally useless. It always gets lost.

 

[minig0d]

A TA built into the bar or on the same level as other warning is totally useless. It always gets lost.

Especially those bars with like the 6 inner modules doing arrow and the outer one or two on each side on a warning pattern.


Only scenario i see remotely effective is if you are the second car the driver sees. The back one has all the warning lights on. You are positioned slightly further up onto the scene and have no lights on except the amber TA on the perfect pattern. That way your car is shielded behind the lit up one. And nothing else on your car to confuse a driver. But then if the car behind you leaves and your car is left with only the TA on...


I have never came up on a scene and ever thought that an amber TA was effective, ever. Throw in multiple vehicles on the scene and any color TA gets lost in a sea of blinky lights. As the FHP study found, put some amber to the rear and call it a day. Don't waste your money on a dual color TA bar or all that gimmick. It's better spent on a separate lighthead that has amber in addition to your warning stick.

 

[mm2k5]

Very interesting thread just when I'm deciding to get a new bar for my truck. I would like to hear more opinions, as well. I planned on an all blue bar with amber TA, but it seems other folks are 50/50 on this.

 

[JohnMarcson]

Since amber traffic arrows don't necessarily work, their colored counter parts aren't any more easily identified as an arrow. Whether an arrow bar of any color actually directs traffic is questionable. People use "the cars merged so it worked" as an argument for arrow bars. Most ones I see are stuck on the wrong direction, center out or warning and traffic is merging anyway. So from that I gather that people respond to warning lights blinking, not the arrow direction. I have trouble telling what arrow bars are showing and I am looking for it. For my money I prefer the same number of lights in a slow flashing warning pattern.


Tldr; arrows are debatable as being effective in communicating their message in any color.

 

[Station 3]

All I use at night on a traffic stop ON EXPRESSWAY is just an Amber CHSML avenger in rear window and two rear flashers R/B on my Federal Signal Raydian light bar In slow wig wag flash .....


Gets the job done I don't blind anyone or signal astronaughts in space..

 

[TJW]

From having an integrated Red/Blue FS Signalmaster in their Arjent lightbars to removing the Signalmaster function from the Lightbar and adding a seperate Whelen D8 Traffic Advisor on the rear deck of their cruisers. Here are two video for depiction:


Former: http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fXCNx9yKCfM


Current: http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7MTqbZpVb6U


http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_0Boy2MsVXc


These are not my videos but should aid you in making a decision.