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High beaming ettiquette


TLontheDL

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What exactly does a flash of high beam mean in your city/state? Instantly one would think of it as an offensive gesture but not necessarily, right?

 

I was traveling out of state last month and once I reached Oklahoma and Colorado, 70% of on coming traffic high beamed me and wouldn't turn it off unless i high beamed them back. I am guessing it is a way of saying hi instead of honking their horn. At 1st I thought of it as an offensive gesture but i came to realize its just a friendly gesture! As my 28 yrs of living in Texas, I have never seen or heard of this. It was new to me and I thought it was pretty cool!

 

Also a positive high beam that I have always known was the "there is a police up ahead - slow down" warning for others on the oncoming traffic. They'll flash their high beams a few times instead of just having it on. I do it for others b/c people do it for me. Its good karma, if you believe in that kind of junk.:thumbsup:

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What exactly does a flash of high beam mean in your city/state? Instantly one would think of it as an offensive gesture but not necessarily, right?

 

I was traveling out of state last month and once I reached Oklahoma and Colorado, 70% of on coming traffic high beamed me and wouldn't turn it off unless i high beamed them back. I am guessing it is a way of saying hi instead of honking their horn. At 1st I thought of it as an offensive gesture but i came to realize its just a friendly gesture! As my 28 yrs of living in Texas, I have never seen or heard of this. It was new to me and I thought it was pretty cool!

 

Also a positive high beam that I have always known was the "there is a police up ahead - slow down" warning for others on the oncoming traffic. They'll flash their high beams a few times instead of just having it on. I do it for others b/c people do it for me. Its good karma, if you believe in that kind of junk.:thumbsup:

 

Around here the flash of the lights is a warning of police ahead, or an accident, so a warning to slow down.

 

If it's dark, and someone has their highbeams on, then people tend to highbeam back until they switch to their lows. (This is advised against in driving courses though, as it puts two "blind" drivers on the road rather than one.)

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when i first got my Sol, i got high beamed by other drivers once or twice because i was changing lanes into a motorcyclist in my blind spot. MY BAD!

 

Usually, high beams are a warning if you are going to run another car off the road or a tire's out - i got high beamed for that. In the day time it's often used to notify another car that you will let them merge in front of you. Total opposite at night, a quick shut off of the lights is a signal for a car that they can merge.

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when i first got my Sol, i got high beamed by other drivers once or twice because i was changing lanes into a motorcyclist in my blind spot. MY BAD!

 

Usually, high beams are a warning if you are going to run another car off the road or a tire's out - i got high beamed for that. In the day time it's often used to notify another car that you will let them merge in front of you. Total opposite at night, a quick shut off of the lights is a signal for a car that they can merge.

 

Tractor Trailers around here shut the lights off quick to let another know it's safe to merge.

 

High-beaming on the highway is a signal for the person in front of you to speed up or go into the right lane(s).

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on interstates truckers use a flash to tell a passing truck that the trailer is clear of the front of their truck, and it is safe for them to pull back into the lane. they use this, becuase it is hard to judge distance of a trailer from behind the wheel.

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Around here the flash of the lights is a warning of police ahead, or an accident, so a warning to slow down.

 

If it's dark, and someone has their highbeams on, then people tend to highbeam back until they switch to their lows. (This is advised against in driving courses though, as it puts two "blind" drivers on the road rather than one.)

 

That's how it is here, except you flash your highbeams in the dark instead of leaving them on to tell someone else to turn thiers off

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I was traveling out of state last month and once I reached Oklahoma and Colorado, 70% of on coming traffic high beamed me and wouldn't turn it off unless i high beamed them back.

 

Well have you done any modification to you headlights where people might think that your brights were on? at one point I had stock enclosures but I had crapty blue walmart 9004's...I actually got a ticket for failure to dim even after I showed the lady my headlights were legal and they were dimmed. She was like "I've never seen both the high and the low beam in one bulb like that." I almost killed her.

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Truckers here high beam for another truck to pass. Then passer does it once the pass is done to say thank you.

 

I flash when there is a cop or wreck.

 

I flash when someone is beaming me.

 

I flash when I'm within a couple inches of someones ass on the interstate and they still won't move over.

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Believe it or not, bikers have their own gestures for other bikers as well. tapping the helmet means cop ahead. dragging the feet means either there is debris or water ahead...basically to slow down.

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Back when I used to go to Shady Valley (11 miles of switchbacks, the playground) I was passing by the place where the bikers park and stunt and got a head pat. Typical around here.

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