It could be a hazardous situation if the driver behind doesn’t see a car door opening, someone stepping out or you beginning to back up. Hazard lights are used prevent problems too, not just when the hazard has occurred.
If it’s such a hazardous condition (70+ to 0) I’d rather keep both hands on the wheel and get on and off my brakes a few times as a signal to those behind me.
Oh, by the way and just to clear things up:
If we’re driving 70mph on a six lane highway (meaning that we have three lanes on our side);
And you and I are the only two cars within a mile of each other;
And I’m not in the left lane;
And you’re tailgating me…
I’m going to jam on my brakes and flip you off.
Just saying.
Obviously it’s an if-possible-and-safe rather than obligatory action, and I suppose I should be more clear that it might be after the initial braking, that one makes the decision to warn drivers behind of a potential hazard. On the other hand, there has to be a reason Ford made my hazard light switch two inches big and as easy to reach as any regular control. (I do have to wonder, where are you from? If you’re not generally driving in dense fast traffic, as typical on a British motorway or in some parts of America, then I can see why this seems at most a superfluous action.)
No, the person who is already in the lane has the right of way.
I can definitely agree with your first sentence and would certainly turn my hazards after slowing. My switch is on the dashboard ('84 model, manual) and would require taking one hand off the wheel. I definitely would not want to do that if I were suddenly and rapidly decelerating.
I live in New York City and seldom drive on the expressway (dense, fast traffic). I was initially speaking about conditions where one might be able to park, and I tend to drive in residential and business areas, with fairly continuous and somewhat, but not always, brisk traffic flow.
(OP, sorry for the hijack.)
Fair enough, that’s pretty much the situation I was intending to describe, maybe not very well. If you hit the hazards after the initial braking, it gives the traffic perhaps half-a-mile behind, who saw your brake lights but not that they were more than regular traffic movement, that they too should be prepared to brake. The situations I’ve seen it occur in are very varied. Not just when an accident had actually happened on the road ahead, but on hitting a sudden wall of rain which was causing traffic to slow to 20 or below, a cow on the motorway (seriously) meaning everybody was filtering into one lane, and so on.
These stories remind me that once upon a time I wondered if I could make a mint selling secondary horns that made a loud sound of brakes screeching. Then I decided that (1) it would only be effective until people got used to it and (2) people would use it to be jerks.
I still wish I had one every once in awhile.
this is also my “tiny little thing that pisses you off” post:
People who block entryways while at a stoplight/sign so people in the opposite turning lane have to wait for you to move (which usually requires a green light and then guess what - I have to wait for traffic to stop and pray to gawd that the next batch arent full off inconsiderate drivers).
Being bumper to bumper with the person in front of you WILL NOT make the light change to green any faster and allowing a couple of feet distance between to allow a car from the opposite lane to turn in to the lot/road WILL NOT cause other vehicles going the same direction as you to cut in front of you.
GRRRRRRrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr (of course, this is before I get my dose of coffee.)
BTW - one merging lanes I was always taught that if you have room to get over into the next lane to let the mergerer in, you should do so. If you fail to comply you could be found at fault if an accident occurs - especially if there is more traffic coming in from the ramp vs the highway/interstate. Maybe it’s just common courtesy to slide over to the next lane (assuming there is low/no traffic) than to be a road-hog.
And one from my morning commute today:
If you are hauling big bales of hay on the interstate at 70+ miles per hour during morning rush hour, you might want to tie those things down somehow.
That was pretty exciting, those two flying off your trailer onto the highway in front of all of us.
Another one that really bugs me. If you’re making a right turn off of a side street onto a road with a 50MPH speed limit, do NOT wait to turn until I’ve almost reached you causing me to jam on the brakes and swerve to miss you’re incredibly stupid ass when you could wait 2 more seconds until I’ve passed you.
What do you call three young guys on crotch rockets weaving in and out of traffic, splitting lanes and doing wheelies before settling down to setting the pace at ten miles below the speed limit on the parkway in all eastbound lanes at eight o’clock the Friday evening of a holiday weekend?
SPEEDBUMPS! (or organ donors)
Guys like that (if they live long enough) make the folks who ride safely on two wheels look bad.
(I know…run on sentence. 
)
A small annoyance:
When parking in a big lot that has many aisles with cars on both sides (the typical configuration with nose-to-nose parking), it is really rude if you pull in to a space from your aisle while I am pulling in to the corresponding space from my aisle and then you pull your car forward into my empty space, so you can conveniently drive out without backing up :mad:. Worse still if I am already a quarter of the way into my space and I have to lock up my brakes and back up to avoid hitting you.
I don’t mind if you do this move when nobody else is trying to get into the second parking space, but if you drive through to the other side like this while someone is trying to park, you have blocked them and they will probably have to go around to the next aisle over in order to park in the spot that you drove through, possibly losing it to another person.
This is my biggest peeve. Look, even during commute time there is a handful of cars on the road. Must you pull out and make me brake when all is empty right behind me. I’m almost at the point of honking, and no one ever honks here.
I got a good one…
When there is a lane offered for the use of a maneuver - USE IT!!
If there’s a left turn lane, get the fuck in the lane and *then *slow down.
Same with a right turn, u-turn, or any other possible traffic act. If you’ll be slowing down or otherwise disturbing traffic you need to be aware of others around you and make use of the looonnnnngggg swwweeeepiiiiinnnnnggggg lanes the DOT as graciously constructed for you to use.
I got more news for you too. The middle part of a two-way street (the median?) is often wide enough for your whole vehicle to fit in. It is not necessary for you to leave 3 feet of your bumper/trunk in the traffic lane behind you when there is still 12 feet of unobstructed room in the median for you to inch forward. Cripes!!
It seems to be the current fashion in Edinburgh, especially in suburban, residential streets, to refuse to perform a parallel park, and instead park in the street itself across an empty space, especially if you’re up and out to work before the wardens are known to come around.
I cannot even begin to describe how much this pisses me off, as everybody who does it wastes a valuable parking space on the street. If you are going to park in the street instead of in the bays WHY THE FUCK BLOCK AN EMPTY SPACE instead of parking parallel to two parked cars (so both can move out)? The council already gives out way too many parking permits for the available spaces, so don’t waste them!
I’m sick of having to spend fifteen minutes every night driving around side streets in my parking zone to try to find an available space not completely blocked by one of you idiots.
All this does is tell me:
a) you’re a shit driver—you live in a city and can’t perform a parallel park?
b) you’re an idiot.
c) you’re an arrogant prick who feels everybody should drive through your self imposed chicanes when driving down the road.
d) you’re lazy—go park in the next street down if there’s no spaces in this street.
“If I have an opportunity to get over or slow down I will”
What does this even MEAN? Fucking let people merge, asshole! There’s no “if” about it!
How are they doing this? If they were in the bay they’ve parked alongside, then nobody should be parking in their original spot, because it’ll block them. 
(Can’t disagree that it’s obnoxious because of the unnecessary narrowing of the road, however.)
I’m tempted to side with you here - the ‘opportunity’ to slow down surely just involves lifting off the gas for a moment?
I think the poster meant that he/she would try to get over if the merging car didn’t make a proper effort to merge without disrupting traffic.
Sometimes you can’t safely move over or slow down too much if traffic is heavy.
The merging vehicle needs to place the car at the proper location and speed to make things happen.
Yes, but as the merging vehicle you also need to be aware of traffic conditions and speeds and such so that you don’t force others to drastically alter their positions to let you in. Obviously if there isn’t a large enough opening to let you in the cars in the right lane need to either slow down, speed up or get over. If there *is * a gap in traffic the merging vehicle should time it so that they can enter that gap safely.
Gas pedal, floorboard - floorboard, gas pedal. There they’ve been introduced. Some people loligag when merging and it’s clear they have no concept of the term “flooring the gas”.
Oh, and don’t be afraid to drive in the emergency lane for a tad if you run out of room. Your car will not explode if you drive over the bumps.
Compact and mid-size cars are perfectly capable of instituting a right hand turn into a single lane. If you are turning onto a two or three lane road, you don’t need to make this wide turn that crosses two lanes of traffic. So, now that you know this, the next time I’m sitting behind you and you are waiting to turn right and there is no one coming in the closest lane but traffic in the middle and far lane, MAKE THE FUCKING TURN!! You can do it without hitting the people in the middle lane! Honest. If you get the fuck out of my way, I’ll prove it.