In general people can tell that you are going to pass them by the manouvres you would do in any event – signalling, crossing to the passing lane, etc. There’s no need for a flash of the lights.
In Europe, a flash of the lights is the conventional signal when you are asking for the co-operation of the driver in front to complete the manoeuvre. And, if you have flashed your lights, you don’t pass until you get an acknowledgement. Say you are behind a large truck and you want to pass, but your lines of sight are not so good. If you flash, the truck driver will understand that you want to pass, and you are asking him if it safe to do so from his perspective – he has a higher vantage point, and better lines of sight, than you do. If it seems safe from his point of view, he’ll sound his horn; if not, you’ll see a flash of his brakelights. There may be a pause before you get any signal, while he waits for an obstacle to clear, or for a slightly better line of sight, or slightly better passing opportunity for you. When you pass, you thank him for his co-operation with a wave or by sounding your horn.
Which leads to three conclusions. One, if you flash and then pass before getting a positive acknowledgement, you are likely to be seen as an impatient and even aggressive driver.
Two, you rarely need to do this when you want to pass an ordinary family car. The driver of the car in front does not have a significantly better vantage point than you do. Three, precisely for this reason, the drivers of ordinary cars may not be completely familiar with the convention, since they are not often at the receiving end of flashes. If you flash when there is no reason to ask for co-operation, this may be taken amiss either because the driver in front is unfamiliar with the convention or because he realises that you are.
As roads are redesigned and realigned on more generous lines and with better angles of sight, etc, the need for this diminishes, and the convention may be falling into disuse.
I really, really wish that this mindset was just a fictional example (and I definitely think it’s quite a lot more annoying than flashing lights). Some people do a simple “beep-beep” every time they pass as a “courtesy” (not as common in the U.S. as elsewhere, but there are still a few). A subset of these drivers can’t make a relatively quiet (if still annoying) beep because they seem to have installed supertanker foghorns in their car.
I think what you are saying is that people should only find the flashes objectionable if they aren’t doing anything wrong. In principle I agree, but the people who need to be warned of your intentions by flashing are the probably the type of drivers who are convinced that they never, ever do anything wrong.
Use them when there’s no street lighting, or whenever you find them helpful, as long as there are no cars ahead of you in either direction (high beams in your rear view mirror are almost as annoying as straight on). If a car approaches, turn them off until it passes. And of course, flicking your high beams can be used to signal other drivers.
The thing that really annoys me is that trucks / vans / SUVs have headlights that are higher up and don’t point down, so they effectively are as blinding as regular highbeams. I would gladly vote for anyone that can legislate this out of existence
The short answer to the OP, you use the high beams when nobody can see you doing it. If someone else knows you are using them, you are doing it wrong. Depending on your location, that might mean anything from never use them to all the time.
Because not everyone looks at his rearview mirror or side mirror every ten seconds, especially when on a not very busy road. A flash catches your attention.
As for turning on and off your lights, I do that when I am behind someone who forgot to put his lights on, and it is far more difficult to do than flashing high beams. I’ve driven cars where it is more difficult still. In today’s cars flashing only require the flick of a control right by your hand, in the old days we had buttons you hit with your foot. Turning lights on and off happens less frequently while driving, and so is often more out of the way.
OK. I get it. Do not use highbeams if it is inconveniencing the other drivers.
Just another question - I can see how a highbeam can dazzle a car travelling in the opposite direction one that is within the spread of the light.
But for a car travelling in front of me and in the same direction, the only dazzle possible is in the rear view mirrors and in all the cars I have seen, these can be put into the ‘dim’ position where the lights from the vehicle behind appears dimmed.
So, how exactly am I dazzling a driver when I approach him from behind with my highbeam on. The door mirrors? But that would be for a very short duration.
You must live in some part of the world where they use turn signals. They seem to have been banned in California, judging from traffic.
Still, I don’t recall having my attention captured by a turn signal the way it is by a flash of a high beam.
Many people (myself, I must confess, included) have their side mirrors adjusted so that part of their view includes some portion of the car. This is a traditional mirror-adjustment technique, and it means that a car directly behind them will also be visible in the side mirrors, especially if the two cars aren’t perfectly aligned left-to-right in the lane. And, of course, there’s no way to dim the side mirrors on most cars.
Middle of the night almost no trafic on a multiply lane freeway or highway. You are driving in the #2 lane, no one is in the #1 lane. You come up behind another car in the #2 lane going slower than you. Would you flash your lights to catch their attension before changing to the #1 lane? There is very little differance.
I would rather meet a car from the oposite direction on high beam than have someone behind me on high beam. If I put my center rear view mirror on the dim position then I will loose depth presecption. And if I readjust the side mirrors then I loose all knowledge of where the guy behind me is. Just think how would you like it if as you passed me I used the flash lfrom my camera/ It would even be a shorter duration.
Seriously, have you not been driving long enough to have a jerk with his high beams on follow you at night? Yes, you can put down the mirror, but that does nothing to counter-act the fact that if he’s right behind you, your entire car’s interior is now lit up almost as well as if you put the dome light on.
I’m a little confused by what you mean about “a very short duration,” though, so perhaps I’m not answering your actual question. Are you just talking about approaching the car with your high beams on, then dimming them, or to drive behind him for some distance with them on like I talked about in the above paragraph? Because if it’s the latter, your lights will continue to reflect off the mirrors the entire time you’re behind him with your brights on. Unless he adjusts his mirrors like a friend showed me, and then they can reflect the light into your face instead.
Actually I’ve only done this on two lane roads, where to pass you have to go into the lane traveling in the other direction. That’s the case where it is important to limit your time there. On a four lane road, it is fairly safe to assume that the other car isn’t going to be wandering into the passing lane - and there is no reason to reduce the time required for passing. I don’t argue there is some annoyance from flashing, but the benefits in the case of doing it on a two lane road far outweigh these. Not so on a freeway.
On a freeway someone passing you on the left or on the right is perfectly normal. (Not that I don’t see plenty of people start to make lane changes without looking - in the day time.) On a two lane road you don’t expect someone to suddenly show up on your left. But the brights aren’t to tell the car in front not to wander into the wrong lane, it is more an advisory that I’m going to be in a place where you aren’t going to expect me, and a polite request to slow down a bit to let me get back to the proper lane more quickly.
I’ve never had a problem with someone being obnoxious about this. I have had people who I’ve passed and who clearly decided that they hadn’t been going as fast as they wanted to, and soon passed me. Which is fine with me.
When driving at night on a two lane road I have never been suprised by someone suddenly showing up on my left. When they came behind me their lights light up the insides of my car, I could tell they were there even with out looking in my mirrors. If they came flying up behind me I expect to get pass when it is safe. If you can not pull to the left and pass the car infront of you with out them slowing down then you should not be passing it is not safe. I have always driven at a constant speed and with cruse control if I can set and leave it I do. I do not want to have to hit the breaks so you can pass.
And if I was driving my old VW buss I normally drove it pedal to the medal, and if I slowed so someone could pass it was a problem getting back up to speed.
The show was based on current (but possibly outdated) road rules. Now, in this case, I don’t think you are correct. In the dark, if there was oncomming traffic, they would have their lights on - which means that you would NOT even try to do an overtaking maneuver. If the road ahead was clear (ie no lights), turning your highbeams on would help in these scenarios:
See a potential idiot who has their lights turned off / broken.
See a possible bend (or signs) on the road further up ahead.
If you’ve ever driven at night, in the middle of nowhere, you will realise that a car’s light looks the same 1km ahead and 10km ahead. If I’m the oncoming driver and I’m being blinded, I will be more cautious when nearing the guy with his highbeams on - he may be closer to me than HE thinks. I will then FLASH my beams, and he will know that I am neared to him (ie near enough to be blinded). If he turns them off, thats great, if no, then he is either stupid, or is drowsy. In any case, I will be EXTRA cautious. So I’d rather be blinded temporarily by an oncoming driver, then suddenly realise that he is in my lane and its too late to do anything about it.
Do note that your lights at night only hightlight a short distance ahead of you - highbeams help you see much further.
