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A Light Bar (or '''Lightbar''') is a device designed to make an official vehicle easily identifiable. Lightbars are fitted to nearly every emergency vehicle and most utility vehicles for the purpose of alerting other vehicles and pedestrians of emergency situations or other road hazards. COLORS Most people interpret the color of a lightbar with a given situation or incident; as a result, lightbars usually come with all yellow lights to denote utility based work, or in red, blue, or a combination of red and blue to denote emergency vehicles. Because of this, most states have enacted laws to prevent ordinary people from buying, owning, or operating red and/or blue lights. Internationally, the emergency color varies: In North America and Asia the usual emergency color is red and blue, while in Europe the emergency color tends to be only blue. In recent years ordinary white lights have found their way into both utility and emergency lightbars; additionally, yellow light have found their way onto emergency vehicles for use in traffic control (traffic director sticks) during emergency situations. They most often have 6 or 8 lights that either light up 'left-to-right' or 'right-to-left.' TYPES OF LIGHT BARS There are two main types of light bars: single rotating or flashing beacons, and larger car-sized lightbars. Both are effective at drawing attention to a vehicle, but since their inception lightbars have increasingly displaced the single beacons as the preferred lightbar of the world. Single Beacon First used in the typically rotates a mirror around these bulbs to provide 360-degree coverage. Because of their shape, these single rotating beacons have been nicknamed "gumball machines", a name which has stuck with these beacons through the years. One police agency that famously continues to employ a traditional single beacon (in a custom hue of red) on their patrol cars is the Michigan State Police . The single beacon is also the most common Magnetic-mount light used in situations where permanent mounting is not appropriate. This can include Volunteer Fire Fighters , or senior Executives for Rail or Port operators who get a company car but may need to use it for travel within a working Freight yard - they will normally display an Amber light, as a Safety Measure , though this may vary according to local custom Lightbars Police Car with a Vector lightbar also called "V bars" due to the shape.]] First used in the 1960's, light bars have since become the dominant means of drawing attention to official vehicles, as they are found on nearly every emergency vehicle and on certain other semi-official vehicles (like Tow Truck s) that require attention. Modern lightbars have several capabilities that can be preprogrammed in, such as traffic control and rotation speed. Usually these arrays are multicolored, and can contain anywhere from six to ten lights, which are rotated by motors within the assembly. Lights within the lightbar are usually configured for one of three outputs — rotating, strobe, or constant — and the amount of power associated with the lightbar derives from these outputs. Strobe Light s can put out 1.5 million candle power for roughly 250 microseconds, while rotating and constant lights equipped with halogen bulbs can put out roughly 50,000 to 70,000 candle power for a longer duration. Lightbars that use LEDs are becoming very popular among many emergency agencies, as their performance can not be beat. In addition to these lights an eight bulb yellow light stick has found its way onto several vehicles. This device is used almost exclusively for traffic control, and has become popular in recent years with several police agencies. Red lights are used by EMS, Fire departments, and other related services. Blue and red are used for police only. Blue is onlt to be used by high-authroity services like the CIA, FBI, bomb squads, DA, etc. LIGHTBARS AND EMERGENCY VEHICLES Nearly every Police Department , Fire Department , and emergency medical service (EMS) use lightbars on their respective vehicles for rapid responses in emergency situations. Each of these departments will have researched a lightbar design that best suites the agency and its purpose. In general each agency chooses a lightbar that best fits its line of work. Lightbars used by emergency personnel will share at least one common color in their design to denote the vehicles as an emergency unit. In the North America this color is usually red and blue, while in Europe this color tends to be pure blue. When considering what kind of lightbar to use, emergency departments usually take several things into consideration: the size of the bar, the weight of the bar, and its design. This is especially true of light bars that will be attached to Police Cruiser s, as the additional weight of the bar and its aerodynamic drag will effect the vehicle to which the bar is attached. A single rotating beacon usually increases a vehicles aerodynamic drag by roughly 2%, while lightbars can increase the aerodynamic drag by up to 7%. Because of this, some departments police cars do not have roof mounted lightbars, instead they are "slick-top" cars with their emergency lights mounted within the cruiser. Police and Fire departments are now moving to LED light bars. The LED bars are very thin and super bright. They also draw far few amps from a cars battery; this is important because with computers, digital radios, and cameras in police cars more strain is put on a car battery. LEDs have no moving parts and are rated for up to 100,000 hours of use reducing downtime for departments. For EMS and Fire Department personnel, the choice of lightbars depends on local laws and other situation conditions. In general, lightbars fixed to fire engines and ambulances usually share the same lightbar color scheme. Tradition is often to have red light bars. LIGHTBARS AND UTILITY VEHICLES Yellow lights have become popular in the civilian arena as a way of drawing attention to a vehicle involved in non-emergency work. Most phone and cable companies, towing services, and certain types of construction equipment mount some type of lightbar; additionally, several local and state vehicles involved in maintenance work for roads, gas and water pipes, electric services, and so forth utilize yellow lights for a higher degree of visibility. Typically these lights are the single beacon kind, although lightbars have been used for vehicles of this type. SEE ALSO |
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