Wave or dont wave but dont look away

and i'm sure those people will also be on here reading your rant :)

Err, shouldn't you be more concerned about the road ahead rather than looking at what someone coming the opposite way is apparently doing.

Have you ever thought people might be checking their mirrors or side roads to make sure everything is clear prior to 2 vehicles passing? I like to make sure no one is trying to overtake in potentially dangerous situations including when 2 cars are headed in opposite directions on a single lane highway. How could you tell if someone approaching at 200kmph is checking their mirror or head unit?

Isn't this a case of the pot calling the kettle black wrt concentration? They are probably practising good driving procedure while you're focussed on their response to a wave.

Am I missing something?

If you are that close you can see their makeup or lack of, and no wave too, if anything is not correct for safely passing at that instant it will make no difference to the accident about to happen.

Perhaps a sign on the front of your vehicle, "please wave" will assist the feeling while passing. Then again, if they are reading it and not concentrating on the pass manoeuvre, the danger will be increased but not realized by the then happy satisfied you.
The head unit on each pair of shoulders is what is important and how it performs.

Hmm talk about inane posts!
Reason look away is to ensure my rig is stable and close enough to the edge of the road and away far enough from the white line.
You are supposed to be driving not watching passing motorists and what they do and don't do. You are probably an accident looking for a place to happen more interested in other people's actions than paying attention to driving.

Most times I don't see the friendly wave. I am too busy checking clearance between vehicles, making sure there is no sudden deterioration in road surface ahead etc etc etc.

You know, all that safety stuff .....

Qldcamper : interesting reply comments to your post ... the way I read your post is to keep concentrating on your driving and not worry about anything else as you pass each other .
I think I might be a bit like you and i am also watching the driver as they approach to check that they are also watching as they approach .
It is amazing how some people have tunnel vision and can only look straight ahead and not be aware of anything else bar what is straight in front of their bonnet...
The wave his a dying habit as more and more City Slickers go out on their adventure or maybe it's because there are so many out there you could end up with RSI in the wrist waving to the thousands LOL ;)))
I am old school and simply give a wave to my fellow traveller just as to say g'day ! ...back in the day of old on your country road most people would give a courtesy wave just to say hello how are you going .

For safety reasons we outsourced "The Wave" some time ago.

If you're lucky you might get a "tweet" as we pass you.



Cheers, Baz - The Landy

(Actually, this is fake news...)

Yeah...

I may glance at the passing vehicle, but I'm scanning all the time, rather than fixing my steely gaze on the approaching driver.



You're not coming at me with a jousting stick, so a glance is enough to see you're on your side of the road and got sufficient clearance, after that I'm interested in whats behind you.
The very definition of a passing interest.

I find obligatory waves insincere. Did you wave because you wanted to or because you were expected to? My waving is regulated by the amount of traffic, if I pass a person on a remote track then I want to give them a wave. If it's Pitt St on the Oodnadatta Track, Stuart Hwy or Eyre Hwy then forget it, I couldn't be bothered.

On my travels with caravan attached, I only madly wave if someone has the same make of van as me. If they also happen to have the same make of van and the same make of car then they get my "beserk" wave. Ie its good to see that besides myself there are also some smart people who just know they have bought the right sort of equipment! Otherwise I just ignore any sort of recognition!!

Why should I wave to somebody I don't know ? I live out west , I wave [ if you can call lifting the appropriate finger - pick one ] to people we know not to every Tom -Dick or Harry ......

Wave or not, not bothered. But pick the time and place. On our recent trip through the top end of SA, a particular wave was a bit frightening. A rig plus twin axle van came towards us and we were meeting at the bottom of a small valley with (of course) a narrow bridge. We had something behind us, they had two not far behind them, we met on the bumpy bridge, again of course. Driver took one hand off the wheel to give us a hearty wave and looked straight at us for what I thought was too long given the circumstances!!

When being approached by any oncoming vehicle, I'm fixated on watching the other driver to see if they really are, concentrating on their driving! - or whether their concentration is fixed on a phone, a radio, or turning around to slap a misbehaving child!!

I have never forgotten the driver who ran head-on into us, when I was 13, and Dad was driving - he was fully turned around in his seat, and concentrating on a child in the rear seat!!

He pulled the steering wheel to the right as he did so, and swerved directly into our path!!

Only last month, an oncoming female driver swerved into my lane, on a major highway, over double white lines!!
As I passed her, she had her phone balanced on top of the steering wheel! - and 98% of her concentration was on that phone!!

"Distracted Drivers" is a huge problem in our society today, and it is one area that is currently being hammered by Police and Road Safety authorities.

I note that the annual road toll is up about 40-50% in both S.A. and VIC - thus showing there's a serious level of poor driving skills in abundance today.

S.A. Police operation "Fatal Distraction" - Aug 2019

Cheers, Ron.

I use to give people a wave it was common when I got my first 4wd in the late 80's and into te 90's more square bodied upwright windscreened vehicles around then. You could easily see inside the vehicle as simple as lifting your index finger off the wheel a little got a response and a sense off respect towards a fellow traveller something some people wouldn't understand these days there was less traffic though in outback or country areas.

Lucky if you can see inside a vehicle now with dark as tinted windows and layed back windscreen phone in their hand blocking half their view of the real world that passes them by.

Well this is a different post, I can understand discussing waving and non waving but I can't understand telling us what to do.

Then again maybe someone died and made you BOSS.

Hmm!. . What about the traditional Landrover Wave?..LOL.


Really, a glance out of the right or left eye ,raise the middle finger with both hands on the wheel, if its someone you know, !......Naah that's to old school !


Cheers Axle.

Maybe it's a bit of city Vs country folk

.
Blimey, there are some emotions in that lot!

We picked up on this thread as we were leaving Mt Dare to come down the Oodnadatta Track so tried to make some observations of the oncoming traffic.

Hard to make out some signals but the well-rigged 4WD's seemed to mostly raise one finger if any at all. The shiny posh cars with caravan were more likely to wave with the full hand lifted from the wheel.... maybe first-time out?
Roz wondered if the vehicle colour had any bearing so we started to survey between light and dark coloured cars. It did seem that the lighter colour was more likely to wave but we failed to be very precise as we could mot agree where the dividing line fell..... was a "mid-grey" lighter or darker?

Also wondered about the number of fingers raised. One finger seems to be appropriate for a laid-back casual signal with four fingers being somewhat more chummy. But raising just two fingers risks being misinterpreted.... hard to discern if you are viewing the front or back of the hand!!!

We tried to correlate custom rego plates with waving but nearly did a couple of side-swipes whilst peering at oncoming plates so dropped that idea.
Actually heard one bloke tell his mate on the UHF that he "didn't get a wave from that one". Perhaps they were also doing a survey too?

Did ponder if the Seinfeld crew may have looked into this waving behaviour. Certainly George would have had an interesting viewpoint. Maybe it is only an Aussie thing, although I bet the Kiwis do it too! We eventually got bored with the whole thing and ignored everyone.

Roz did however find this article on the Grey Nomads website which throws some more light on the subject.

Anyway guys, keep up your discerning and knowledgeable views on subjects such as this. Much better than the battery nonsense. I learn so much informed wisdom on this ExplorOz forum.

Getting back to the original question, I would say that 90% of those who look away just prior to passing realise that they have in effect safely passed the oncoming vehicle and they cannot wait to get back to the text they were sending or reading or Facebooking or reading e-mails or just surfing the net in general. Either that or they have an unhealthy interest in whatever is between their legs because often that is the direction in which they look.

Tried to ignore the hypocritical rant.

On the one hand you remind us all of the obvious: "the most critical time where your attention should be focused in controlling your vehicle"

Then you tell us the results of your informal survey, indicating YOUR focus at this "most critical time" is on the oncoming driver's face and hand(s). Give me a break!

TBH on unsealed roads my focus is on the road surface ahead AND on ensuring recycle is selected on the air vent, to avoid ingesting too much of the other vehicle's "rooster-tail".