What gear do you start/stop in?

Not question what you thought you saw, but those sensors only accept coded strobes that flash a whole lot faster than you can flash your high beams. You can see those strobes mounted on the front of the Fire Apparatus or the EMS vehicle.

IF and I stress IF you actually managed to change one or two lights I am glad you did not get caught doing so. It carries a rather hefty fine. Plus, you do realize that if you did manage to change those lights you were potentially putting peoples lives at risk. Please don't even remotely advocate doing so.

 

I have also changed lights with my high beams flashing dim and bright in the past. Not so sure it would work now days. And you are right it's probably not that great of an idea

 

Still works today most times. There are lights on my way to work that if I hit red, I can wait up to 5+ min waiting for it to go back green. Or flash my brights, and I'm off. Mind you this is ~4 am, no one really around.

 

It was a few years ago and it worked just fine on a few streets. It may have changed since the late 90's. But at 3 am in the morning with no one around that Metro Sedan could care less. Come on people lives at risk. Who's? There's nobody out there. You're taking this way too far. You make it sound like we have priority over emergency vehicles. And what ticket will they write? Flashing high beams when no one is around. Come on.

 

That ticket is called interfering with an emergency. In most cities messing with those lights carries a $500 to $1000 fine. If you think the local PDs are going to look the other way just because it's 3am I suggest you re-think that option. Many cities equipped with the system are tripling their enforcement, because people are abusing the system.

The lives that are risk is the potential emergency vehicles that may be rolling through that intersection expecting they have the green light. By law they HAVE to stop and clear an intersection if a the light they face is red. One of lives used to be MINE, not to mention the people that may be in harms way at the place they are responding too. Yes, even a few second delay can be a matter of life or death.

Let's put this another way: If they were responding to your house because you or a loved was dying, would you want them delayed because someone messed with the lights in their path.

 

Mike, sounds like you attended a certain school in Perrysburg, "control" gear??, don't be fooled by this term, this is mainly to ensure your in any gear just to keep the truck moving, almost always in traffic, (city), so has you don't have to come to a complete stop, to find your so called "control" gear, this term is confusing and mis leading IMHO , and yes I did the PBURG thing to attain my cdl, if you gotta coast around a corner.. or turn at a intersection.so be it, you don't need to be in any gear, just be thinking of which one your going to get in without having to stop to start all over. its all situational of speed, grade, weight, traffic, etc ect ect, it will come to you in time, there is no magic gear for "control" gear.

 

Just finished my refresher 160 hrs. They taught us to start out in third and when we came to a stop we had to be in sixth. So basically we only used 3rd, 4Th, 5Th flip 6Th 7Th, 8Th going up. Coming down was 8Th, 7Th, 6Th, or you could double down to 6Th if you needed to. We never down shifted to the low side, if we came up to a turn on a green light we took it in 6Th. This was with an empty truck. I asked why they didn't teach down shifting to the low side, and the response was to many people get hung up going from 6Th to 5Th. I have to say I didn't care for going around a tight corner with a 53 footer in 6Th gear. I'm headed out with a trainer in a couple days and he's supposed to teach whatever the school didn't go over.

 

I was just checking my high beams since NO ONE was around. Must be tough to stay on such a tight line. Common sense does play a major factor in what we do.