I still have to agree with **leftfield6 **on this. Obviously if you blow a tire on your boat trailer, there is no safe shoulder, you’re on a downhill run with no brakes, a crazed semi-tractor is chasing you, yadda, yadda, yadda – you put on your flashers.
But for normal driving, especially when one is actually keeping up with traffic and there is no special emergency, turning on flashers whenever one turns on one’s wipers marks one as a selfish ‘special snowflake’ whose need to feel visible and protected supersedes the confusion of other drivers. Here in Florida (where it is still ‘against the law’) we have tons of drivers who seem to find flashers appropriate for every situation except an emergency. They’ll drive up and down the roads all day with flashers on, but as soon as they actually pull off the road with a flat or breakdown, or to wait out torrential rain, they shut them off apparently to ‘save their battery’.
And indeed, slight correction to what is stated, many vehicles’ flashers actually illuminate the brake and/or turn signal bulbs (not the tail lights, which are dimmer by design), making it virtually impossible for following drivers to know what intentions the flasher-driver has.
Media across Florida have recently been giving special attention to informational pieces publicizing the law and the rationale behind it. Here is a google dumpshowing practically the entire first page is such media coverage. Apparently the OP and I are not the only ones seeing a problem.
Agreed. Emergency flashers aren’t inherently bad. They are extremely good – for emergencies. Apparently many states (and many of us) differ on whether or not “some rain is falling” constitutes an emergency or an abusive use.
About a month ago, I head the pleasure of driving down I-95 to Miami and back in a torrential downpour. Visibility was really awful - gray clouds in front of us blending in with rain, so there was little depth perception. We were going about 30MPH on the highway.
Some of the cars had their hazard lights on. I found it annoying if a car was in the lane next to me with the hazards flashing, because it kept drawing my attention. I was focusing on the rear lights in front of me.
Yeah, I live in New York State and there are signs on certain Interstates (like sections of the NY Thruway) which specifically state “USE FLASHERS BELOW 40 MPH”. I always assumed it’s because these highways can be *extremely *busy (bumper to bumper at 70+ mph!) and there are often lots of tractor trailers which inevitably can’t go that fast up hills.
*****emphasis mine
I agree. Again I’m from NY and whenever there’s a bad (or even just moderately heavy) snowstorm or downpour I always come across people driving with their four-ways on. It isn’t merely to warn others that they’re going slow but to essentially declare- WARNING! TIMID-INCOMPETENT DRIVER AHEAD! In other words it’s always someone who is terrified to be behind the wheel because of a little harsh weather and they’re signifying so to warn as normal folk so as to not get too close lest you spook them and they scream, slam on the brakes and/or throw their hands in the air and cover their eyes!!
