OT Should I tell the police?

[micky]

Everyone keeps using the word retroreflective.

Isn't that redundant? Don't retro- and re- mean the same thing?

[Ashton Crusher]

Colors vary from state to state. AFAIK the only emergency equipment that seems to have any standardization in light colors is fire equipment. In AZ it's illegal to have a blue light visible from any direction, yet I've seen a couple states where they allow volunteer firemen to drive around with blue lights on the roof. I haven't seen anything with a green light on it for over 30 years and the one time I did it was the Indian Police.

[Ashton Crusher]

I think you are right overall .. the reason I suggested he see if it's locked and perhaps look in teh glove box if it isn't is because he's been hanging around it several times now pumping up the tires. If you are going to spend time pumping up a tire you've already involved yourself in the whole thing.

[J Burns]

I wondered, too! "Reflect" translates to "bend back." If light doesn't pass through an object and isn't absorbed, it's reflected. "Back" means the light comes back on the same side of the surface as the source.

A piece of stationary may reflect 90% of the light that hits it. That's diffuse reflection. "Mirror reflection" means the angle of incidence is the same as the angle of reflection. That's why every spot on the surface will show you light from a certain spot in front of the mirror, although a mirror may reflect less light than white paper.

"Retroreflective means "bending back backward." Wherever the source is, the light is bent twice to go backward toward the source.

The original method was to use glass beads, but they must be perfectly round. The Potter Company started producing them in the 1930s. They were used in movie screens, bicycle reflectors, and safety tape.

A second method was to use prisms. I haven't found out when such reflectors appeared on bicycles, but 3M began producing tape with microprisms in the 1960s.

A 3-horsepower motorcycle may not meet the legal definition of a motorcycle. I suppose retroreflective tape is like that. Here are a couple of sites I found interesting.

[J Burns]

A red truck? And you haven't been arrested? I've read somewhere that only gas cans can legally be red! :)

[J Burns]

Uh oh... I meant "stationery." Faulty keyboard.

[Stormin Mormon]

I thought retroreflective is a shined up piece of pewter, polished with a cows hide.

Kind of like a retro guitar is acoustic.

Would headlights be flective devices?

[Stormin Mormon]

I'm pleased they some what standardized traffic lights. Would be rough to have to remember in AZ to stop on blue, and go on orange.

Last I knew, in NYS, blue is volunteer FF, Green is ambulance guys responding from home, cops and fire trucks and ambulance are red (Some state PD include red and blue from the back, but not from the front). Tow trucks, construction, and travel escort vehicles use yellow.

Ah, well. And it's different else where.

[Ed Pawlowski]

The owner is probably dead and rotting in his condo because you did not report it to the police and maybe have a wellness check done for the owner.

[Ed Pawlowski]

A piece of paper that does not move?

[Ed Pawlowski]

You need a red and blue light in AZ

In most states the volunteer firemen have a permit for the blue light. Drivers are not mandated to give them right of way, but they do. Could be your house burning.

Back about 1960, we had a blue Chevy Impala hardtop. We did the usual nose/deck thing, put in a bar grill, very popular at the time. To dress it up, my brother put blue lights behind the grille. The second time he drove it a policeman explained the lighting laws to him.

[Ed Pawlowski]

Honey, show me the lavender and I'll stop and the pink will get me going!

[clare]

Here in Ontario, and most of canada, showing a red light or reflector to the front is illegal except for emergency vehicles. Volunteer fire fighters use a green light, service vehicles use amber, and snow removal use blue. Red and blue together is POLICE ONLY. Red and white is fire or ambulance, Blue and yellow is highway salter. sander, or plough..

When we were night rallying, we had a red maplight to protect our night vision - got pulled over by the cops because they could see red light from the front. We got off with a warning and a full citation of the applicable laws - that was 34 years ago so I do not have the "chapter and verse" We went to a dark amber lens from then on.

[Stormin Mormon]

You know, this thread could be a lot of fun.

"red light district" in San Fransicko could be what, purple for diversity?

New meaning to "he blue the light".

[Stormin Mormon]

Now, that's a spooky thought. Right in time for haloween. Hey, that's a neat outfit for treater, walk around with a tire pump?

[Stormin Mormon]

AM or FM radio station-airy?

[Stormin Mormon]

I always pull over for blue. Same as you say, but it also makes the FF feel good.

[micky]

Which is the mauve light? And what does it mean?

[Stormin Mormon]

Means to vote Democrat in the next election.

[thekmanrocks]

" It's that my inaction would have a negaitve impact on me. "

Let's explore those feelings a little, shall we?