Does anyone do this in the US? In Japan, when another driver let's you cut into his lane in crowded conditions, drivers briefly switch on their hazard lights to indicate thanks.

I had assumed this was a Japan only thing, but this past week my son visited us from San Francisco and while driving my car on the highway here in Oregon, switched in the hazard lights briefly when he cut in front of someone.

Surprised, I asked him if people did this in the US. He said he thought so, but on the other hand while he's lived in the US for the past ten years, since university, he was raised mostly in Japan.

Are hazard lights (AKA emergency blinkers/flashers) used this way to thank courteous drivers in the US?

I will sometimes put on a turn signal to let someone know they can go in front of me. Usually get a wave of the hand in thanks.

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protocalldesign.com

In Japan, we flash our lights to indicate someone can go ahead or turn in front of us across our lane. The other guy then briefly beeps his horn in thanks.

Truckers had lots of light signals if you did not have your "Ears on".

Learned most of them when young and on long trips with my father or on family outtings, going to meet with friends.

Hazard lights blinked once or twice as a thank you has been trucker language since at least the fifties, probably a lot longer. Still in use AFAIK.

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Formerly Model520Fan

Never seen hazard lights habitually used for anything but a legitimate hazard.

There are a couple of interesting amber signal light functions on cars in Europe.
A fog switch that boosts the output of signal lights, to be substantially more visible in bad weather.
A turn signal stalk function that powers the signal lamps on one side of your vehicle, at reduced power, when the car is turned off. Used when stopped on narrow road shoulders with part of the vehicle protruding into the roadway. Kind of a dim nightlight caution warning to other drivers.

The signal I've used for trucks to pull in front of me is headlights off and on.

Even in today's "aerospace - electronic" world the truckers -- even if they don't speak English -- know the light signals of old.

I always see a double hazard flash from one when I "high beam" her or him to let them know they can pull in after they've passed me.

Common courtesy lives on.

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Wrangler of stray Chiefs
Bob

While traveling on interstates, I flash my headlights to let truckers know it is clear to enter my lane after passing me. By flashing your lights you are telling the trucker that they have space to change lanes and that there are no cars in their blind spot. I usually get a thank you from the trucker by their flashing their lights or a quick use of their hazard lights. I've been doing this since I was 16.

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That's gonna leave a mark.

Yes, a very common practice in the trucking world. Shows thanks or acknowledgement for pulling over and letting a faster vehicle/truck to pass or letting them know it's safe to pull back into their lane, etc. Flashing headlights or clearance lights conveys the same.

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213th FBINA

There are many ways to communicate while driving. Turning lights on and off and flashing them has certainly been around a long time.

I remember in the mid 60s stomping on the high/low beam button on the floor of my vehicle to flash my lights. Turning headlights on and off was a different slower tempo and meant different things. There weren’t even flashers on cars until the late 70s I don’t think, but they got their uses also.

Friendly hand waves work at close range. Most of such signals are used for day time driving, but at night headlights on/off is pretty clear, and quickly flashing an oncoming distracted high beam driver sometimes get the desired response. Turn indicators can signal more than a turn (freeway—you left yours on buddy).

I think such communication efforts are rooted more in driving traditions than taught to new drivers in some sort of school. Thus there are different interpretations possible. Mostly I think drivers are just ignorant, don’t care, or are so distracted they don’t notice.

I try to be friendly with my signaling rather than using it aggressively to express anger or frustration. As I’ve gotten older I’ve become more mellow. My experience is that signaling with truckers works about 90% of the time. They’re professionals paying attention. Average Joes and Josephinas? Maybe 40% of the time.

Polite signaling is courteous and helpful, increasing safety and driving satisfaction. Unacknowledged efforts to communicate like this say a lot about others’ driving knowledge and skills. That’s what I find so interesting.

Buckle up boys and girls and drive defensively.

I have never heard of that in my 53 years of driving and nearly 2 million miles. It sounds like a great idea. I have always thought cars needed a few things. First is a rheostat on the brake lights so that the following driver can be warned at the severity of the drivers braking ahead. Dog walking near the road a dim brake light, all the way to holy****** a herd of elk standing in the road. Next they need a way to say thank you such as mentioned, but they also need a way to say "opps sorry dude". Lastly they need a 2 tone horn. The first load and proud to warn off a moose but then a gentle "hey buddy the light turned".

See it and do it a lot more on rural roads than on urban. Its also much more prevalent when dark outside as no one can see you wave.

Then again I mostly drive in Houston and with one hand on the wheel, one on the gun (kidding), one foot on the gas and the other hovering near the brake, there are no appendages left to operate the hazard switch.

I've seen truckers blink their trailer and cab lights but never their hazards. In FL, driving with hazard lights on is illegal. People commonly turn them on during downpours, probably knowing no trooper is going to stand out in the rain over a blinker violation.

Never heard of it, only use/have seen the wave.

Actually required in many European countries if there is no other light source (street light) illuminating the car and the car is in the public roadway fully or partially. And because European dtreets are generally much narrower than ours, parking half on, half off the sidewalk is the rule.




Another use of the hazard lights very common in Europe is when you come up on the end of a congestion. As you slow down for a traffic jam you turn on the flashers until you‘re sure the car behind you has noticed, and is passing the flashing backwards. Don‘t see that much here. Helps limit rear-enders. There‘s a lot of congestion in Europe.

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When I was driving large truck I had a little different light blink I could do. When I got past a vehicle if they used their head lights to tell me all was OK I could just gently hit the break pedal and make the light go on and off a couple times as a thanks.. Did it easy enough, I was not actually making the breaks work just the light. That allowed me to have both hands free to hold the wheel.

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14 S&W Revs none with locks!

This usage is common in Japan as well.

Strange---- truckers around here move over after they get your flash, using their right turn signal of course, and give you about three flashes of the left turn signal as thanks.
Matter of fact, I've seen that all over the US. I've seen a few use the brake lights or hazard flashers, but it is usually the left turn signal.

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Regards,
Lee Jarrett

acknowledgement from truckers is usually the clearance lights (ICC lights) blinked once or twice.

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ask questions- then shoot!

Like anything else, different folks interpret things differently. I have people thank me and rarely others try to run me off the road. I stick to a wave in my old age.

A day or two ago I signaled the driver. by flashing the headlights, just ahead of me and in the left lane that he/she could get into my lane ahead of me. They must have been asleep, they never moved, so after a few seconds I closed the gap and went on my way.

Have a blessed day,

Leon

The signal I've used for trucks to pull in front of me is headlights off and on.[/QUOTE]

Finally someone who knows how to properly "flash" someone over. With over 30 years over the road there are a few that still know how to do it.
When the new millennial drivers started showing up 10 years ago things started going to the brights as it was the lazy way. You don't have to reach up and actually turn the lights off then on.
But let me tell you what the brights flashed on those large west coast mirrors does to your eyes after many hours of night driving. Spots and blinding glare for a while. See when you pass someone you will instinctively look in the mirrors to see if you have cleared THEN BANG YOU FLASH THE BRIGHTS
So please if you must flash a vehicle over do it properly, believe me the driver will think wow this guy knows how to do it.

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Keeping America Moving

Thanks. Learned it from watching truckers more than half a century ago, riding alongside convoys at night. Made a long lasting impression because it made good logical sense.
Breaker-breaker. Thanks for doing what you do, "good buddy".



Sent from my Moto G (5) Plus using Tapatalk

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Slava Ukraini!

What drives me CRAZY are the idiots qwho drive with their emergency flashers on in a rain storm. That is illegal!!! if you feel the need to do that-PULL OVER AND WAIT FOR THE RAIN TO STOP. Seeing flashers up ahead and you don't know if the car is stopped or moving is very dangerous and it really pisses me off.

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Forum consigliere

Trucking and truck drivers are not what they used to be. I have 25 years on the road as a "professional" driver and I get disgusted at some of the stuff I see truck drivers do these days. The majority (barely so) are courteous, respectful, careful drivers but the remaining "steering wheel holders" don't give a **** about anyone else on the road. Drive through a truck stop parking lot and look at all the trash and pee bottles laying around. Look at all the garbage piled up on the dashboard of their truck, I'm surprised they can see out of the windshield. And the messes they leave behind in public restrooms....you wonder if their house looks the same way. There are quite a few who don't know the meaning of personal hygiene. Sometimes it makes me ashamed to have been in the same profession.

I tap my brakes repeatedly to make sure the driver following me gets the message that we are slowing down. Same effect as hazards, I guess.

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Or something like that . . .

Courtesy, and marker lights, reminded me of the marker lights that, were popular, circa,1950. They were, mounted in the center of automotive grills, and were popular, in the same era, that curb feelers, were in vogue.

The first homemade ones, were merely a small clearance light with a clear ribbed lens, and a low wattage bulb.

Later, thin, 2”, round diameter, lights, with clear, ribbed lenses were supplied by, most automotive light makers, and suppliers.

One of those dim lights, was mounted in the center of a car’s grill, as a marker only.

In their Hay -day, every pickup truck, or car driver, just had to have one of those lights, to keep up with the Jones-es.
I installed them on all my family, and friend’s vehicles.

Do any of you, remembers them?