When I had my beetlebug 30+ years ago, the custom was giving the peace sign. I enjoyed that.
The custom for Beetles used to be to turn to the person next to you and hit them in the arm. Whether this was called “punch buggy” or “slug bug” seems to vary depending on your location. This was also only for old style Beetles.
I have a 1968 Beetle. I don’t see people punching each other much these days, though I do often get a lot of waves and the occasional peace sign from random folks on the street.
I also have a 1926 Model T which gets a lot of waves from random folks on the street.
I own a Jeep Wrangler and I can confirm that waving to other Jeep drivers is definitely still a thing.
Duck Duck Jeep is also a thing. Subaru owners also wave to each other and they also have Moo Moo Subaru which is based on Jeep Ducking.
Motorcycle drivers also wave at each other, but a motorcycle wave is done like this:
You can just stick your hand out or you can flash a peace sign.
See you at midnight Monday night!
A couple of years ago I was on the Chief going through Austin and texted hi to my brother who lives there. He replied that he was at a downtown restaurant with outdoor seating with his family, very near the tracks. Sure enough, we were able to wave to each other!
I was five and riding the Super Chief train to NY. One night we were stopped at a station, I was sitting up in bed looking out the window, and a woman in the station saw me and waved. It meant a lot.
Now that’s cool!
Back when I was working I’d always wave to @BippityBoppityBoo when I flew over Lincoln. She never waved back that I noticed. Snooty B***h! 
It was sorta out of the way for my usual routings, so it didn’t happen too often and when it did, “over” often meant “passing by 50 miles away”. I swear Lincoln must be overcast most of the year; seeing the ground there versus just clouds was rare. But see it or not, I waved.
I will too!
In sufficiently rural areas, people often do wave at people in cars.
I think it may have to do with most people seeing a lot more cars than trains and buses. An occasional wave is one thing; few people want to wave more or less continuously.
Many years ago, I used to drive a SAAB 95 when SAABs were an unusual car in the USA. If somebody driving one saw another one drive by, we used to honk and wave at each other.
Shortly after I gave up and admitted that mine was dying and got a different car, I saw a SAAB go by and honked and waved – to their apparent puzzlement, as although I’d momentarily forgotten that I wasn’t, I was no longer driving one myself.
Yeah, that’s a pretty common version; sometimes a finger, sometimes four with the thumb remaining on the wheel.
– I often also wave at bicycles and buggies. To some extent that’s a sign of ‘yes I see you and acknowledge your right to the road!’
There are, but I fear few will be worth the viewing.
Growing up in farm country, you always waved at every passing car. We did the “raise index finger without letting go of the wheel.” There was also the “raise index finger and move left to right” depending on where you lived. If you didn’t everyone thought you were stuck up.
There used to be a thing you could buy (probably from JC Whitney) for Beetles that would flash one headlight, so you could “wink” at other Beetles.
We live under the approach/takeoff pattern (depending on the time of day) for Sky harbor, and I wave at all the planes. I figure, if there is some kid with really sharp eyes, looking out the window at just the right time and direction, it could make a lasting impression, a story he can tell for decades.
Alas, no one ever waves back.
I remember another urban legend from the 1980s about Porsche cars where 911 drivers wouldn’t return waves from drivers of 924s/944s, supposedly because if they weren’t rear engine models, they weren’t “real” Porsches.
The “wave at cars like my own” thing seems real common among the more rare cars of whatever sort. It sure would be real difficult to do if you drive a white Celica; you’d never have time to steer between all the waving.
I also think it’s slowly going out of fashion even for the rare cars. Everyone being lost in their own thoughts and having the windows up & the HVAC running sure provide a lot of insulation to noticing particular other cars.
High traffic density sure doesn’t help, and in most of America, that’s going nowhere but up.
Tons of tour boats and water taxis, and plenty of sailboats and small yachts, on the Chicago River. Passing under a whole slew of fairly low drawbridges. With crowds of pedestrians going to and from work. Including some unhappy people primed to lash out at someone more privileged than themselves (have the day off to take a tour, own an expensive boat).
If spitting on boats was something Americans did as a thing, Chicago would be the epicenter. I don’t recall seeing anyone spit on a passing boat in my decades of going downtown. I’m sure someone’s done it, but I’m fairly sure it’s not a thing.
I’m glad to hear it.
The boat trip I was referring to took place last November. I wasn’t feeling too sanguine then about Americans showing common decency.
I was working at the city’s Christmas festival last year and they had a little train going around a loop, like you’d see at the zoo or something. No track just a little “engine” pulling like 6 cars about 1/8 mile.
People were waving at each other all night. Like being on the train made you a super star. Kids, adults. Everyone happy to wave to and from the train. Choo coo!
There was, however, that time the Dave Matthews Band’s tour bus dumped it’s sewage tank into the Chicago River and hit a passing tour boat.
It’s not just Jeep Wranglers, even CJ drivers will wave at each other (and sometimes Wranglers too). I’ve never been told the origin, I’ve just gathered that it goes back a long way. My mom even got a wave from the driver of a Willys MB (or Ford GPW, she wasn’t quite sure) when she was driving her '03 Wrangler.
Full size Jeeps (Wagoneers, Cherokees) don’t seem to share the save comraderie.
That was always a nice gesture, and I hated to not do it, but it could really get old on a nice summer ride.
I have distant memories of my first time at sea.
I was on the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Nimitz, and we had been in the yards at Puget Sound in Washington State for a long time. We all knew when the ship was going to leave port, but the only way I knew it had actually happened was when I looked up at one of the TV monitors we had around that normally showed an unchanging view of the shipyard…except it was now showing the shores of Puget Sound slipping by.
The weird thing was that the ground felt just as solid as wherever you might be standing now–the ship was so big that it didn’t begin to feel like a ship until it was out on the open ocean.
I went out on deck and joined the hundreds of sailors at the rails looking out as the water slid past our hull. There were dozens of small boats, even a yacht or two, pacing us as we headed out. Everyone was waving at us–even the snooty yacht-dwellers were all on deck waving at us, and we waved back.
As I gazed out at some people dressed for a day of fun on one of the yachts, a melancholic feeling washed over me–I thought how we were a bunch of guys who would rather not be there waving at a bunch of folks who looked to be having a joyous time, and I wanted to be one of them.
And we waved.
I wave at other folks on bicycles – at least when I am a rural area.
Brian
I wave at trains.
'Nuff said.