# What Does Flashing One's Headlights Mean to You? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 29, 2005, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-flashing-ones-headlights-mean-to-you/296764 "2005-03-29T13:54:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2005, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-flashing-ones-headlights-mean-to-you/296764/61 "2005-04-01T16:04:33Z")
> [@LouisB](#): > > You were then expected to flash your lights to signify “thank you.” I follow the example of lorry and van drivers and flash my hazard warning lights once after passing to say thanks to someone who pulled over to let me pass. ---
**Author:** ![LouisB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2005, 10:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-flashing-ones-headlights-mean-to-you/296764/62 "2005-04-02T10:18:18Z")
> [@Pushkin](#): > > I follow the example of lorry and van drivers and flash my hazard warning lights once after passing to say thanks to someone who pulled over to let me pass. I haven’t seen this here in the USA. When I learned to drive, there was no such thing as hazard warning lights—for that matter, turn signals were rare. Those were the bad old days. ---
**Author:** ![calm\_kiwi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9fc348/32.png) [@calm\_kiwi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/calm_kiwi)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2005, 10:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-flashing-ones-headlights-mean-to-you/296764/63 "2005-04-02T10:31:00Z")
> [@Pushkin](#): > > To me it means; > > 1.) You’re sitting at a junction waiting to pull out onto a main road (or another street) someone who stops and flashes their lights is indicating they’re letting you move on out of that junction. > > 2.) Someone flashing lights at you as you drive along a road is warning of a speed trap. > > 3.) Is saying Hi (If you’re driving an Opel, har-de-har 😛 ) > > 4.) Is warning you that your lights aren’t on and they should be. > > 5.) Is warning you that your lights are on but are on full beams and not dips. > > 6.) Is warning you that something is amiss with your vehicle. > > 7.) Apparantly on dual carriageways drivers of lorries do it to tell another (overtaking) lorry driver that they have just cleared the length of their vehicle and can pull into the slow lane again. So pretty much anything? Only time I have ever seen flashing headlights is to warn of a speed trap ahead. ---
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2005, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-flashing-ones-headlights-mean-to-you/296764/64 "2005-04-02T13:10:56Z")
> [@calm kiwi](#): > > So pretty much anything? Pretty much 😛 I suppose I would have been better off stating that the only use I would _not_ have for flashing headlights is to ask to pass. ---
**Author:** ![xash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c6cbf5/32.png) [@xash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xash)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2005, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-flashing-ones-headlights-mean-to-you/296764/65 "2005-04-02T20:11:04Z")
In India, it’s a polite way of requesting to pass the slower car in front of you. We honk all the time too, although headlights are considered more polite. Plus, with headlights you can give warning from far behind the car in front of you, which gives enough time for the slower driver to move off the fast lane. Flashing headlights to the car on the opposite side of the road (at night) is a request for the other driver to turn off high-beam and switch to low beam. We often drive with high-beams on. Flashing the opposite driver in the day is sometimes to inform the other driver that they forgot to switch off their headlights. We do not drive with headlights on in the daytime, and if you drive with your headlights on in the daytime in India, you’ll find strangers frantically waving out to you trying to inform you that your lights are on. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2005, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-flashing-ones-headlights-mean-to-you/296764/66 "2005-04-02T23:09:41Z")
> [@Pushkin](#): > > The mention of flashing lights to ask to pass someone is something I’m not familiar with at all here in the UK or Ireland. I _did_ see it mentioned as something British drivers would need to be familiar with if driving in Continental Europe. …if ‘continental’ includes any road within 60 miles of London 😉 > [@Dead Cat](#): > > I agree with most of the earlier posts - the flashing of one truck to indicate to another, overtaking truck that it is safe to pull back in is particularly common in the UK, and the usual response is a left-right-left indication. > [@Pushkin](#): > > I follow the example of lorry and van drivers and flash my hazard warning lights once after passing to say thanks to someone who pulled over to let me pass. The L-R-L system seems to me to be the more common one (and the one used by continental lorry drivers, of which we have plenty around here). Maybe this is due to hazard lights more commonly being used for the ‘queue up ahead, start braking’ indication? > [@](#): > > What no-one has mentioned yet is that although in the UK (and US, it seems) a flash often means “I am giving way to you”, apparently in France it means the opposite! In Italy, too. My Italian cousin admits to several very ‘inefficient’ weeks after arriving in Britain, until he figured this one out. > [@lachesis](#): > > i don’t think i can react quickly enough with the lights to signal “merge now, fercrissakes!”. i usually wave them on by hand. Huh? How can waving be easier than flicking the lights? ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2005, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-flashing-ones-headlights-mean-to-you/296764/67 "2005-04-03T15:49:18Z")
If you are in Alaska, flashing headlights from an oncoming car more than likely means there is a moose near the road ahead. There are over 600 moose collisions annually, at a cost of over $9 million dollars. If you have ever seen [a car that has collided with a moose](http://www.snopes.com/photos/accident/moose.asp), you will take notice and slow down. ---
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2005, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-flashing-ones-headlights-mean-to-you/296764/68 "2005-04-03T16:47:38Z")
> [@GorillaMan](#): > > …if ‘continental’ includes any road within 60 miles of London 😉 Is that because of the plethora of lorries from the Continent coming off ferries and the Chunnel or just common practise in SE England? > [@GorillaMan](#): > > The L-R-L system seems to me to be the more common one (and the one used by continental lorry drivers, of which we have plenty around here). Maybe this is due to hazard lights more commonly being used for the ‘queue up ahead, start braking’ indication? I’ve seen that one too come to think of it, I just chose one over the other. Using the L-R-L would be easier than reaching for the hazards though. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-flashing-ones-headlights-mean-to-you/296764.md?page=3)