From: tmkk@uiuc.edu (Khan)
Subject: Re: Signalling one's desire to pass
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Thu, 1 Oct 1992 13:38:40 GMT


In article <1addqnINNa66@gilligan.East.Sun.COM> mike@gilligan.East.Sun.COM (Mike Roncadori) writes:
>
>I thought to myself "Self, how'd you like to get hit from be-
>hind by bright lights off a vehicle that is a good 2 feet hi-
>gher than your own?" Self answered "I'd be pissed.". So, I
>thought "Self, how can we make this guy aware that we're here,
>and would really like to pass, without pissing him off?".

There is no guaranteed way.

>bring to mind a question. Why is it that we have an accepted
>signalling convention (left-hand blinker) to indicate one's
>desire to pass, but that signal is so ambiguous that it is
>often ignored. I think that the headlights off (in darkness)
>or on (in the daytime) should be the way to signal one's de-
>sire to pass, because it is much easier to see, and also not
>quite as intrusive as flashing one's brights.
>
>Comments? Better ideas?

My car's owner's manual refers to the headlight flashing feature as the
"flash-to-pass" feature (as opposed to the
"get-your-lard-butt-out-of-the-left-lane,-dork!" feature). Based on this
scant evidence, and the utter lack of anything contradictory, my guess
is that flashing one's brights is and/or was accepted standard practice
for informing forward vehicles of a rearward vehicle's
about-to-be-initiated passing maneuver, i.e. the flash means "I'm here
and I'm about to pass you."

The unfortunate reality on American roads today is that so many drivers
are completely clueless as to make any such conventions useless. Take,
for example, the "it's safe to merge back into the right lane" flash
that truckers use. When truck A passes truck B, truck B will dip its
headlights to inform truck A that its trailer is clear of truck B's cab
and that truck A may safely merge back into the right lane. Truck A will
respond by blinking his "thank you" lights which line the edges of his
trailer.

Try this signal with your average car driver. At best you'll gt a
dumbfounded look; at worst, the guy will get pissed off and try to run
you off the road.

This type of intervehicle communication works with truckers because they
are serious about the driving task - they're professionals, after all.
Most of the people reading this group would also fall into the
"professional" or at least "semi-pro" categories, IMHO. After all, you
care enough about driving to read this group, so you probably have a
fairly good idea about what you're doing. The dorks who cluelessly park in
the left lane doing 55 MPH are either *ssh*l*s who do it on purpose just
to piss people off, Homer Melchrome types who think they're doing
society a favor by "blocking" speeders and slowing them down, or Aunt
Thelma types who are merely unclear on the concept.

The only people who would understand what your flashing really means are
those people who won't get in your way in the first place. They're aware
of what's happening around them, they're courteous, and they're
cooperative. They won't pull out and start a sluggish pass when their
rear view mirrors reveal faster traffic approaching; they'll wait a few
moments for that faster traffic to pass before beginning their own
maneuver. They never pass sluggishly, so even if they were to
accidentally block someone, it would be only for a very short time, not
for mile after mile after mile. Heck, these drivers might even speed up
a little bit in order to clear the way faster.

This is why I don't bother to use my "flash-to-pass" feature much. For
the most part, it would be wasted effort.

Newsgroups: rec.autos.driving