CUE's New Hybrid Gilligs

[DCT S9Z4Z6]

Thanks for the picture!  Wow, they finally put the full name of the system on the bus - the City University Energysaver!

I guess they are taking the cue from WMATA with those high mount turn signals.  They look great, though!

If your talking "hi mount turn signals", are you referring to the circular things, by the A/C-Engine vent? Those are NOT turn signals. They are flashing hazard lights, activated when the bus decelerates/applies the brakes.

Its like when you break down on side of road. .  in a perfect world, you put your 4-ways or hazard lights on, and people behind you, know your slowing down, and possibly stopping. Heck. .  here at HARTline (Hillsborough ARea Transit) we even have a red STOP in letters, that lights up, when the brakes are applied. But sometimes, after all the warnings, people will still plow into the rear of the bus. *sigh*

[Scrabbleship]

Thanks for the picture!  Wow, they finally put the full name of the system on the bus - the City University Energysaver!

I guess they are taking the cue from WMATA with those high mount turn signals.  They look great, though!

If your talking "hi mount turn signals", are you referring to the circular things, by the A/C-Engine vent? Those are NOT turn signals. They are flashing hazard lights, activated when the bus decelerates/applies the brakes.

Its like when you break down on side of road. .  in a perfect world, you put your 4-ways or hazard lights on, and people behind you, know your slowing down, and possibly stopping. Heck. .  here at HARTline (Hillsborough ARea Transit) we even have a red STOP in letters, that lights up, when the brakes are applied. But sometimes, after all the warnings, people will still plow into the rear of the bus. *sigh*

Isn't that "STOP" sign kind of standard in Florida? I know that MDT, BCT, and JTA all have it too. Has Lynx or any of the other agencies given in as well?

[Tristan]

Thanks for the picture!  Wow, they finally put the full name of the system on the bus - the City University Energysaver!

I guess they are taking the cue from WMATA with those high mount turn signals.  They look great, though!

If your talking "hi mount turn signals", are you referring to the circular things, by the A/C-Engine vent? Those are NOT turn signals. They are flashing hazard lights, activated when the bus decelerates/applies the brakes.

Its like when you break down on side of road. .  in a perfect world, you put your 4-ways or hazard lights on, and people behind you, know your slowing down, and possibly stopping. Heck. .  here at HARTline (Hillsborough ARea Transit) we even have a red STOP in letters, that lights up, when the brakes are applied. But sometimes, after all the warnings, people will still plow into the rear of the bus. *sigh*

Says who that they aren't turn signals?  Buses all over this region have additional turn signals in that general area.  Have you seen these lights on these buses functioning yet?

[DCT S9Z4Z6]

Sorry. .  I miss spoke.

yes   those ARE turn signals. .  but also they come on as flashers, when no turn signal is given, and the bus slows down, brakes for a service stop, or traffic stop.

[Tristan]

Not necessarily -- that all depends on how they were spec'ed by the agency.  In Virginia, such lights are not actually legal, IIRC.  We had "retarder lights" (as we called them) on our 2003 Orion Vs but we disabled them after a few months in light of this, then ended up recently converting them to brake lights (which is why these buses now have a cluster of three brake lights in the rear).

[Tritransit Area]

wow...what an oops!  I'd imagine they are taking after WMATA, the pioneer in the region of the upper rear turn signals.  At least they aren't full-sized the way another local TA used to get them...

[DCT S9Z4Z6]

Down here in Tampa, HARTline has them as hazard lights, but I have seen other T/A's in Florida use them as secondary turn signals.

I also know that some Orions & Gilligs ive driven also had a retarder light, in the same general area, but that was singular & remained on/off, depending on the retarder setting.

[Tristan]

Straying off topic a bit, but...

The lights I am talking about that we had on our 2003 Orions were mounted on either side of the rear brake light (there was a single rear brake light and two ambers on either side: O O O ) and they would illuminate whenever the retarder kicked in -- whenever the dashboard's "BRAKE RETARD" light came on, the rear retarder lights would also illuminate. 

The idea was that since only a physical brake application illuminated the brake lights, there should still be some warning that the bus is slowing to a stop (it is possible to retard a bus to a nearly complete stop if you wanted to).  I'm not 100% sure if we rejiggered the brake lights to illuminate whenever the bus slowed down (retarder or not) but I know that we just ripped out the ambers and spliced two new reds into the brake lamp circuit.

Many Ride On buses have the single, small, retarder on/off lamp of which you speak...at agencies where it is policy to keep the retarder on (most that I know of), this helps to enforce the rule (you still want drivers to be able to switch them on and off for winter weather -- you can skid if you brake and retard at the same time).

And that's the power of agency specification.  As for the CUE Gilligs, we'll only know for sure when someone sees one come to a red light :-)

[aznboy4305]

Yeah, different systems have different set-ups and specs for these types of lights. Champaign-Urbana for example, has strobing side turn signal and hazard lights (along the side of the bus).