Hazard Lights as a Thank You?

Onomea · Sep 14, 2021

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?

Protocall_Design · Sep 14, 2021

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.

Onomea · Sep 14, 2021

Protocall_Design said:
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.

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.

Nevada Ed · Sep 14, 2021

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.

ImprovedModel56Fan · Sep 14, 2021

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.

bigwheelzip · Sep 14, 2021

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.

two-bit cowboy · Sep 14, 2021

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.

Doug627 · Sep 14, 2021

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.

CH4 · Sep 14, 2021

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.

CB3 · Sep 14, 2021

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.

30-30remchester · Sep 14, 2021

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".

duman444 · Sep 14, 2021

Rural thing

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.

SMSgt · Sep 14, 2021

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.

waffles · Sep 14, 2021

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

Absalom · Sep 14, 2021

bigwheelzip said:
There are a couple of interesting amber signal light functions on cars in Europe.
…..
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.
.

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.

NYlakesider · Sep 14, 2021

SMSgt said:
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.

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.

Onomea · Sep 14, 2021

Absalom said:
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.

This usage is common in Japan as well.

handejector · Sep 14, 2021

two-bit cowboy said:
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.

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.

michael1000 · Sep 14, 2021

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

HOUSTON RICK · Sep 14, 2021

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.

Hazard Lights as a Thank You?

Member

Vendor

Member

US Veteran

US Veteran

Absent Comrade

US Veteran

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

SWCA Member, Absent Comrade

Attachments

Member

Member

Administrator

US Veteran

Member

Similar threads