Like, if you accidentally cut someone off, and they get mad and honk, how do you apologize?
Hand up, and bow head.
This. It says, “I acknowledge you are upset, and accept blame.”
Instructions unclear. Ended up doing the wave (like you see at baseball stadiums) alone in a car.
Accidentally dabbed.
Accidently my ass! Stop trying to bring it back!
I have a huge purple dildo. I just start beating myself about the head and shoulders.
What about the “sorry, my bad” while driving though?
You can do that at the same time as beating yourself with the purple dildo
It’s performative self-flagellation, same as you would do in any religious event or office setting. The pink dildo is just for better visibility.
Otherwise known as a catholic penance.
Found the saints row player
Mantis starts beating off with a purple dildo
Me: “…the fuck is he doing?”
Here in the UK, turning on your hazards for a couple of flashes means either “Thank you” or “sorry” to the car following, depending on context.
Someone let you merge in? "Thank you!*
You cut someone off? “Sorry!”
In Sweden they blink left-right-left or right-left-right.
Same here in UK honestly - it’s that or the hazards, they both send the same message :)
I’ve personally observed that drivers of big trucks tend to do the indicator thing, while most people in cars do the hazards. Not sure if there’s a specific trucker reason for that divide! Possibly it’s less easy to reach the hazards in a truck but I don’t know, that’s just a guess!
Same in Estonia, seems continent-wide basically.
Truck gives you 2-3 flashes of the right (left in the UK I suppose) turn signal in the middle of the road, they want you to pass because the road’s clear and they don’t want a convoy forming behind them. So you pass and flash the hazards to thank them. Sometimes they’ll flash their brights as “you’re welcome” during daytime.
We can be completely self-centered assholes on the road, but we keep our common courtesy.
In America I do the turn signal hint as well. It seems no one gets the context, even when I can tell by their behavior (body language)?
That they desperately want to pass, and I want them to pass before I do (left lane is open).
Same in Germany! I mostly use it to signal „ thank you“ though. Usually the reply is flashing the high beams once very quickly.
Huh. Same in Korea. Which was odd to me when I moved here since I’m from Canada and it is not the practice there.
Weird. You’d think Canadians at least would have a way to say sorry ;P
Ha! The biggest problem with drivers in my hometown is that they’re too polite. It’s dangerous when people don’t take their right-of-way. It causes confusion in drivers who know whose right-of-way it is. It’s also infuriating being stuck behind someone who thinks they’re doing people a favor by sitting at a four-way stop until all traffic disappears instead of taking their proper turn.
Anyone can give someone the finger. But no one ever expects to get the toe.
🚬😎🖕
I have a 52" screen mounted to the tailgate connected to a laptop on the passenger seat with a bunch of PowerPoints queued up.
Sorry.pptx SorryNotSorry.pptx Thankyou.pptx NiceDrivingDipshit.pptx YouBlindMotherfucker.pptx Appreciated.pptx ILoveYourSprinterTruanoAE86ItsJustLikeTheOneFromInitialD.pptx
Not all of those get a lot of use. I’ve never used SorryNotSorry.pptx, for example
Funny, I know the Sprinter Trueno from either Forza Motorsport 2 or 3, Gran Turismo 3, or Sega GT 2002. It may have actually features in two or all three of those games.
Edit: I would be way too tempted to use the “YouBlindMotherfucker,” one on a cop.
Most people follow and likely understand the manual hazard lights.
Two blinks in the tempo of “I’m sorry”.
I’ve made mistakes before and did so, sometimes they flash one quick blink of high beams to acknowledge.
I thought two blinks was thank you? Are you telling me I’ve been going around apologizing to people for letting me in?
Its contextual, and can be both :)
I use it for thank you as well. OP asked about apologies, I probably should have mentioned it could be both
Flash the hazards twice, also works as a thank you for letting me merge in or whatever, it’s pretty common in the UK.
I have gone to using a single hazard flash when people are in front of me as well instead of flashing high beams(reserved as the head tap equivalent for cars) because I hate when people blind me at night trying to thank me… high beams are way brighter than they used to be.
This is SO true. I let a few people pass at a narrowing in the evening and they sometimes thanked me by blinding me temporarily. Like, I appreciate the gratitude, but just don’t.
I think the fact that there isn’t a good way I think escalates a lot of otherwise defusable road rage situations.
Many people who get angry at strangers easily see someone apologizing as legitimatizing their anger, and people not apologizing as not understanding they are wrong. I don’t think there is a good solution if people can’t just accept that other people make mistakes and move on without any needed follow up.
Hard disagree, everyday life is full of defused accidental escalations because pointless escalations benefit no one.
It is the same with animals and humans.
I live in Hawai’i and, as far as I can tell, we have far fewer road rage incidents than other parts of the US (but not zero). I honestly think a lot of it has to do with us having a third hand-gesture: the shaka (I mention this elsewhere in this discussion). The shaka is truly amazing. You give it when someone lets you in the lane AND you can give it when you mess up and everyone understands that it’s you admitting your mistake. Might even get a shaka in response for giving the penitential one. It’s awesome.
Telling people in New England to use the Shaka hand gesture is gonna end up a lot different.
Best case scenario, they think it’s the “I love you” hand sign. 🤟
Yeah, I was just sort of answering the initial question of “How do you communicate…” I imagine in New England the response to the shaka might be “What?! You want me to call you?! How 'bout I call you an asshole, cuz that’s what you are! Asshole!” lol
Sorry? Hell naw. Double down. Make it their fault. Get even more mad than them. Brandish your gun. Then brandish your second gun. Fire a warning shot towards their vehicle. Finish your beer in case you need to get out of the car. Challenge other driver to fisticuffs. Lose. Go home and explain to wife why you lost another fight. Get sad. Go to bar. Get really drunk. Pass out on stoop of the Wayne County Building. Miss work for the 3rd time this month. Get fired. Get kicked out of house by wife. Move into bachelor apartment. No artwork on walls. Only Kroger brand bread, condiments, and cheese slices in fridge. See kids every other weekend. Start going to AA meetings on a whim. Find new job. Hit the gym. Find new hobbies. Meet new girlfriend. Come to terms with faults and find peace through meditation and mindfulness. Experience growth. Drive to work one day. Accidentally cut a guy off. Double down…
The figure 8 of life
Middle finger possibly brake check
Sounds like NE USA, but where is the swearing?
I usually just honk “SORRY” in Morse code.
… — .-. .-. -.-- for anyone who wants to try
That’s an absurd amount if honking.
Try and record it if you do.
If I’m really sorry, I’ll add a few more ‘O’s in “SOOOORRY!”
(Edit: real answer) For most acknowledgements, I double-tap a light — beams, brakes, or hazards depending on current lighting conditions and relative position of other driver — because most things I would say to them are two beats long:
- “Thank you”
- ”Sorry”
- “My bad”
- ”Go on”
- ”Nice drift”
- ”You drunk?”
I once got an A on an anthropology paper by analyzing body language in vehicles and different driving cultures in different places.
Rock on. Were there any instances of local parlance you found peculiar or surprising?
One insight was the different behavior when a light turned green with someone at the front making a left turn.
Where I grew up that person would just have to wait, but in the city where I went to college they’d let one car turn left before opposing traffic started.
It was a bit of a culture shock being honked at for obeying the actual law.
If you mean that the way I think, in Los Angeles when you’re going to make a left turn at a light without a red arrow, AND there’s enough clear road ahead on your left for you to turn into, you’re expected to “post up” into the intersection while you wait for opposing traffic to clear. Which often it never does until the light turns yellow, or even red. Then you’re expected to make your turn on the red, and the car behind you is allowed to follow you if they’ve got their front wheels over the line into the intersection. The cross traffic has to wait until you’ve cleared the box. “Two cars on a red.” Of course if it’s an especially large intersection, it’s possible for the first car and second car to post up so far that a third car can get those wheels over, and all three can make their escape from the box after the light changes. But the cross traffic considers this rude.
I don’t think oncoming traffic “lets” the first car go. It’s more that if the person in the front of the left turn queue is on the ball and ready to go, he’ll scoot out while the oncoming drivers are typically looking up from their instagram or TikTok or whatever and understanding that they need to drive again.
I’ve done that before when I’m in a hurry, but this was actually people waiting for that initial left turn.
Also this was back before smart phones, so things may have changed. Culture evolves.
I remember reading a while back that the hazards twice = thank you.
I’d certainly interpret it that way if it fit.
The only issue I’d see with that convention is that in many scenarios in which you’d use it — other driver makes room for you to merge, brakes early to let you turn left, and so forth — you (should) already have half of the hazard lights actively repeating, which could muddle the message. But otherwise I like it.
Another random convention I learned early on was rapid triple-tap beams (i.e., like a strobe) = “speed trap ahead”
I’ve mostly seen the double-flick of lights to mean either “Go ahead, make your move, I see you and I won’t hit you” (to pedestrians or someone waiting to turn into/out of a driveway in heavy traffic) or “turn on your lights you idiot, it’s pouring rain.” But it’s always heavy traffic in Southern California, and it never rains, but man, it pours.
For me, I go with:
One long honk : PAY ATTENTION! Right now to avoid an accident!
One short honk: hey bud, not mad but the light changed, or similar. Also used when I see someone I know.
Two short honks: did not respond to one short honk. Also used when I was the one to fuck up - accompanied by head nod/bow, arms up with hands upturned, mouthing “I’m sorry”, and/or similar gestures.
Two long honks: you did something bad, like turning out in front of me with not enough room. I’m yelling about it!
Combination of short and long honks: I’m pissed at what you just did. Mad enough that I want to shame you, at least enough to make your next several minutes awkward. Given the chance I’m flipping you off, or simply shaking my head in acknowledgment of your shame.
because most things I would say to them are two beats long
LOL. Doesn’t that mean it’s completely ambiguous? There’s plenty of awful things you could say in 2 beats.
I imagine that people flash twice because once could be a mistake, twice demonstrates intent. Three would make me wonder whether it’s an ongoing flashing light.
I think generally one long flash is a negative acknowledgement or warning, 2 quick flashes is positive, and 3 or more is back to negative
I dont think any of that is a generally accepted code.
LOL. Doesn’t that mean it’s completely ambiguous?
Well granted, it’s high-context communication. But I’m willing to bet you’d know what I meant if you were trying to merge and I double-tapped lights.
Three would make me wonder if it’s an ongoing flashing light.
Yeah IME three is less general, usually reserved for a problem or need for caution, like if someone is driving at night with all their lights out or a visible chassis/drivetrain issue, or there’s a cop/wreck ahead.
I’m willing to bet you’d know what I meant if you were trying to merge and I double-tapped lights.
Yeah if you’re in the lane I’m merging into then two taps means “it’s ok for you to merge in because there’s enough room for you”. That’s more than 2 beats though.
Maybe you mean “o kay” or “yes merge” or “no stop” or “look out” or “nice car”
Oh you mean the two-syllable thing. That was more for the joke lol
I think it works as a rule of thumb: if message is simple enough that context makes it obvious, two blinks will suffice. But no, it wouldn’t be useful as an actual lexical cypher.
Here in Hawai’i it is likely that we will give a sheepish shaka as the driver passes. Might get a tense shaka in response. I am in no way kidding about this.
