I think there are things that people say here with the assumption that the behavior is widespread that leave at least some people thinking “people do that?” I’m curious as to what those things might be.
One poster complained that people who do not signal their turns while in a traffic circle/rotary are a terrible menace. I don’t know where he is from, but here it’s really odd of someone to signal their turn (unless they’re taking the very first exit just a few yards from where they’re getting on). I’d say less than 1% of people use their turn-signal on the traffic circle I go through twice a day or at any of the others I drive through a few times a month, and almost all of the drivers who do are lost. Since it’s so very uncommon, it makes other drivers wary of what you’re going to do next.
Several posters have mentioned that they flash their headlights to indicate that they’d like to pass someone. I’ve been driving more than half my life, and I have never, ever seen anyone do this and would likely assume you’re being an asshole for flashing your lights for no reason even if I did.
Flashing your lights here means two things only:
a. watch out (there’s a speed trap or a road obstruction coming up)
b. you can pull out in front of me from a side street
My examples are both driving related, but I know there are all sorts of other potential behaviors that people find confusing, so list whatever you want.
Flashing your lights to indicate you intend to pass used to be fairly common. I’ve not seen it in a long time, though I also haven’t lived in the Midwest in a long time. I’ve never seen or heard of (b) and would have guessed it meant exactly the opposite – watch out
Most commonly flashing your lights was used for (a), to tell you to turn your lights, that one of your lights was burned out, or there was some other problem with your headlights. It was also commonly used to indicate to a truck that had passed you that it was now far enough ahead that it was safe to pull back in front of you.
I agree with OldGuy. These were things I was taught in Drivers Ed in high skool in the 70’s. They were also practices I picked up from my father and uncle. I learned that they were somewhat universally understood by drivers when I took my first drive cross country. And yes, I almost forgot, flashing your lights to indicate to a truck that had passed you that it was now far enough ahead that it was safe to pull back in front of you. Is that still practiced?
…signalling in a traffic/circle/roundabout is the law here, and everyone does it, and not signalling will get you at best a horn blast and at worst a ticket. (The tone of that sounds quite harsh and I don’t know how to soften it, so will insert a random smiley for the sake of it. )
I live in DC, which has lots of traffic circles. If you don’t signal when you are exiting the circle, I have to wait to see if yo do or don’t exit the circle before I can enter. The steps are: didn’t signal while exiting, look for the Maryland tags and then enter the circle.
Interesting! I live in Michigan and I wouldn’t associate flashing your lights to mean anything about passing you.
That’s what I assume it to be, OR something is wrong with my car and they’re trying to get my attention.
Oooh, I DO do this! I remember reading about this on the Dope and thought it was pretty cool. I’ve found that a lot of truckers appreciate you flashing your lights/brights. Sometimes I’ll get a quick double-tap of the brakes (lightly, not slowing down at all) as a thank you and I get so dorkily excited. It’s like I’m in a secret club!
Flashing headlights, in what context? To do so at someone head-on either means “you forgot to turn on your headlights” to someone coming in the opposite direction on the other side of the road, and “you go first” at a four way stop intersection, to someone going perpendicular to you. Flashing high beams to someone in FRONT of you means “let me pass” (or, GTFOOMW).
Never thought about using headlights to indicate a road hazard.
I do it, and the trucker will sometimes cut his running lights for a moment to acknowledge / thank me.
I also flash to pass, but mostly when someone is going under the speed limit in the left lane, and I want to remind them that there are other people on the road…
I’m in the midwest and flash my headlights (not brights) to let truckers know that it’s okay to move in front of me. I try to do it only when they have their blinker on (or know that they’re going to need to move over in the next few seconds ie if traffic is about to back up suddenly). I also wait until I see them looking in the mirror so I’m not randomly flashing my headlights at the person in front of me for no apparent reason.
After flashing headlights for a truck to move back across, the commonly accepted way of them saying thanks is a quick right-left, or right-left-right with the indicators (one flash either side).
A brake flash as a thanks would be a bit disconcerting to me! (but only because it isn’t the signal used here and I’d suspect heavy braking)
When people casually mention “my therapist” or “in therapy”, it does weird me out a little, I must admit.
I’m sure there’s plenty of cooking ones too, but nothing is coming to mind other than the odd “help I left the X out of the fridge for 30 minutes - should I throw it out / will I get food poisoning if I eat it?”
Signalling is essential when traffic in the system has right of way (as opposed to traffic entering), which is the only sane way to implement roundabouts, but not the way it’s done everywhere.
There’s a traffic circle not far from my home where one major road ‘turns into’ another major road, with a few side streets also connecting to the circle. The major roads entering the circle have right of way, with prominent ‘yield’ signs warning you if you’re continuing on in the circle to the point where one of the major roads is entering.
Most people driving through this circle never have to yield. They drive into the circle from Main Street, circle around, leave on Queenston Road or vice versa. Or sometimes they enter via a side street and leave on the next major exit.
IANAORTD (I am not an over the road truck driver), but my friends who are have taught me that you should turn your lights off briefly to indicate it is safe for them to merge in front of you, rather than flash your brights.
I love roundabouts! They ease traffic congestion. In St Martin, every year it seems like they add one more and it always has a positive effect on traffic flow.
The only time I flash my headlights is to warn oncoming traffic about a speed trap.
The traffic circle in the village where I used to live gave the right of way to entering traffic. It was a very small village, so not a ton of traffic.
There’s no way on Earth I would turn my lights of at night for any reason, so at night I will use the brights briefly (less than a second) to alert truckers.
They also have a common response to the courtesy – to quickly flash their running lights 2 or 3 times to acknowledge it.
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