Poetry from behind
You likely didn’t even realize it, but if you drove anywhere today, you engaged in meaningful and vitally important conversations with innumerable drivers around you without a single word being said. You communicated via the array of colored lamps on the back of your car, lamps that telegraphed actions you intend to perform in the near-future (making a turn), actions you were currently undertaking (stopping or slowing) or just announcing your presence via a vivid red light.
These unspoken conversations were all altruistic acts: They kept you and the people around you safe, using a tiny amount of our own fuel or electricity, because we all believe, on some level, in the value of working together and keeping everyone safe on the road.
Tail lights aren’t just utilitarian safety mechanisms, though, they’re also crucial design elements on a car. Car designers talk about a vehicle’s “light signature” and that refers to the particular look of the tail lights, glowing redly in the dark night. We’re currently in a golden age of tail light design, with designers having more freedom and ability than ever to design tail lights in all manner of bold, new, and adventurous ways.
Follow us, there’s more.
🎧 Listen up
If you think this Obsession is good, you’re going to want to hear the author, Jason Torchinsky, talk more about tail lights to host Gabriela Riccardi on the Quartz Obsession podcast.
That’s right, we’re back for Season 7, with this surprisingly spicy episode. We’ll talk riots, we’ll dramatize fan fiction, we’ll get philosophical. It’s all there, and it’s the perfect 25-minute listen for your commute.
🎧 Check it out now on Spotify | Apple | Google | Pandora
👓 Prefer reading your podcasts? We’ve got the transcript right here.
By the digits
450 BCE: The first mentions of “the Rose of Jericho” or nerium oleander, a red flowering plant that is highly toxic, another example of red’s role in nature as a warning color, which is said to have been the source of why red has become a color of warning, or stopping, which led to its use as the color of brake lamps and tail lights
5: The minimum number of required functions in a modern tail light: rear running light, brake lamp, turn indicator, reverse lamp, retroreflector. In Europe, a rear, red foglamp is often required as well
557,740,926: The estimated number of tail light units on registered cars in America as of 2022
20: The generally-accepted number for the number of global variants of VW Beetle tail lights from 1938 to 2003. These include “The Seventeen,” referring to the number of mainstream Beetle tail lights, and also the three known regional variants: the Mad Belgian, the Smoky Brazilian, and M018, the Scandinavian Ghost.
600: The number of people involved in a 1916 riot in Augusta, Kansas that was started because of unfair policing of tail lights
0: The number of light bulbs GM installed behind the amber lens of the Chevy Vega’s tail lights in 1976, which looked like it should be the turn signal, but wasn’t. Direct your complaints to GM.
Fan fic
Get a drink with me at the Lumiere Rouge or Flashing Amber’s: A peek inside the tail light subculture
The tail light community is still largely underground, but there are an increasing number of bars and nightclubs and similar establishments dedicated to the tail light aficionado.
The Taillight Community, as this author imagines it anyway, is highly factionalized, and it’s worth getting to know the main subgroups that make up this vibrant and energetic community. We couldn’t fit it all in this Obsession, so you’re just going to have to go here for the rest.
• Trad Reds: Advocates of red-only tail lights, though most accept the need for clear reverse lamps. There are some sects that even feel this is a debasement, and reverse lamps were the first slide into weak decadence. The Trad Reds are almost exclusively American and generally pretty xenophobic, though they do have many adherents who are auto designers. These designers are minimalist aesthetes who find tricolor tail lights gauche, saying they ruin their designs; some of these members may be non-American, and wish to push Trad Red ideas to Europe and Asia.
Trad Reds are a generally-hostile group. They exude a general sense of victimization, as the legality of red rear indicators pretty much only exists in North America.
• Ambears: A sort-of contraction of “amber rears,” the Ambears are advocates of amber rear turn indicators. Globally, the group is quite large and generally accepted as mainstream tail light culture, but in America Ambears are actually slightly outnumbered by Trad Reds. Ambears are a fairly diverse group, though American Ambears tend to be a bit strident and annoying, always quoting safety studies and having an attitude of the only smart person surrounded by idiots.
• Siders: These are side marker enthusiasts/fetishists, and are one of the non-strictly tail light-focused groups to comfortably hang out in a tail light bar/club/bathhouse, because side marker lamps are often integrated into tail light units.
• Blinkies: This one of the turn-signal subculture’s nicknames, along with Indys or Cators (both from “indicator” ) are generally welcome in tail light establishments, as the turn indicator is a key part of a tail light.
Pop quiz
What does CHMSL stand for in regards to tail lights?
A. Center High Mount Stop Lamp
B. Cuddly Ham Moistening Setup Logarithm
C. Central High Mobility Safety Light
D. Cheese Hoarding Mice Seek Love
Don’t set your foot on the brake yet, the answer’s at the end.
Brief history
1,500,000 BCE: First evidence of fire use by homo sapiens, and, as such, the first red-colored light made by humans
1832: First record of a railroad taillamp, on the Stockton & Darlington Railway’s Locomotive Number 32, Wilberforce
1867: Red lanterns standardized as signals for “stop” or on the rear of a caboose
1932: The first illuminated turn indicators appear on a car, the 1932 Talbot
1963: Front turn indicators required to be amber, formerly white, causing “turmoil”
1967: Reverse lamps required on US-spec cars (only one technically required)
1968: Side marker lamps OR reflectors are required on US-market cars
1970: Side marker lamps are required to have lights AND reflectors
1985: Center High Mount Stop Lamps (CHMSL) required on all cars in America
Fun fact!
Every day, tail lights are used for more machine-to-human communication than any other device on Earth, including computers, phones, telegraphs, or semaphore flags. This author may have made this up, but it could be true!
Watch this!
1959 European Beetle Semaphore Working
A number of cars from the 1930s to 1950s had turn indicators that weren’t flashing lights, but funny little arms that popped out of the car! These were called trafficators or semaphores. They’re charming as hell.
Take me down this 🐰 hole!
Sequential turn signals are getting more and more popular; if you’ve seen a car with animated rear turn signals, you know what we mean. They don’t just blink, they appear to move, like a tiny version of a Vegas casino sign. These are normally done with electronics, but decades and decades ago, when these first appeared, they were operated by tiny motors and camshafts.
Little bits of clockwork-like mechanisms, giving the illusion of moving lights. It’s magical, and you can see how they worked in this video, featuring a 1966 Ford Thunderbird.
Poll
Do you prefer red or amber rear turn indicators?
- Red, I’m an American, dammit
- Amber, because it’s safer. And cooler!
- What’s a turn signal? (BMW owners only)
Look, we don’t want to incite road rage, but we do want your answer.
💬 Let’s talk!
In last week’s poll on tote bags, 45% of you said you don’t have a tote bag (!!!) and just shove stuff in your pockets. Honestly, we’re going to need a moment to process this.
🤔 What did you think of today’s email?
💡 What should we obsess over next?
Today’s email was written by Jason Torchinsky, co-founder of theautopian.com (and almost able to hold down the favored cocktail of his local tail light bar, the Blinker Fluid) and edited by Susan Howson (is now dangerously distracted by tail lights and should not be allowed on the road).
The correct answer to the pop quiz is A., Center High Mount Stop Lamp. You probably call this a “third brake light,” like a chump.