Why YSK: Your signals alert other drivers as to what you’re doing; a signal bulb costs a few bucks and is usually a quick and easy repair to do yourself (consult YouTube); and any place that regulates motor vehicles probably requires you to have working turn signals. So knowing when and how to replace a burned out signal bulb can save you an interaction with law enforcement.
Adding: You can diagnose which bulb is out by turning on your hazard lights and checking all four corners of your car. It’ll be the one not flashing.
This is also probably a good time to check your brake lights. Put something heavy on the pedal or have a friend hold it down and check that all three brake lights illuminate. Replacing a burned out brake light is also usually pretty cheap, quick, and easy.
This 'hyperflash’ing will also happen if you have replaced an incandescent bulb with an LED bulb due to the different power requirements.
LEDs draw so much less power that they don’t draw enough current through the flasher relay. The relay will then think that the bulb is burned out.
To fix hyperflash due to having installed LED bulbs you can wire a resistor inline or replace the flasher unit with a unit designed for LED bulbs.Many seem to have the attitude that if you never use them, the bulbs will never burn out. Problem solved.
How is your BMW these days?
I sometimes back into parking spaces that are in front of a glass storefront so I can see that my brake lights are working.
I miss having a car that didn’t have timed pulses, like where if you tap it once you always get 3 blinks. I used to love overtaking people sat in the middle lane and then mash-tapping my inside indicator, as if to say “RRRAAHHH YOU SHOULD MOVE OVER!!” and then I would latch it on and blink normally while I pulled to the inside clear lane. Half the time, people understood what I was getting at and moved over themselves.
The other move on middle lane hoggers was to overtake them, move to the inside lane, slow down so they pass you and then move out and overtake them again. The game was to count how many times you could do this before they moved over. I never got a very high score.
Yeah. You are the asshole here
Really? Go on, back that up with some objective reasoning.
You are going out of your way to mess around with someone at speed in a public motorway. Is it your responsibility to teach every driver? No. Your actions are adding higher risk as you are changing lanes, speeding up, slowing down around a vehicle that is staying in their lane. The justification you are using is you are better than them, while you’re are creating more risk than they are. So you might be annoyed at someone in the middle of 3 lanes of travel, an adult would not increase risk for the sole benefit of their ego.
You’re the asshole
You’re talking about the risk of the maneuver as if it is significant and completely unwarranted. I would argue that the driver in the middle lane is causing far greater risk; they are absentmindedly driving along without any consideration for other road users or proper roadcraft. Neither of these actions are significantly risky.
I also wouldn’t call it “messing with someone”. I’m driving around them in an innocuous manner, not obstructing them or interfering with their driving in any way. The fact that they have to pay a little more attention to me is a far lesser offense than the hassle they’re causing by not adhering to the rules of the road.
It might not be my responsibility to notify another driver, but no one else is going to do it. I think my proposed action is better than letting bad driving go by completely unaddressed.
Nonetheless, thank you for your response, it was well reasoned.
Speeding up to pass, then slowing down is being an inconsistent driver. Inconsistent drivers that are changing speeds and lanes, are more of a danger than someone maintaining speed in a single lane. Given that you are passing them then slowing down to get behind them, there is the possibility that you are also in violation of the law. So claim you are teaching them while also possible violating the law is silly. The main issue is you are going out of your way to cause a situation and increase danger. Someone maintaining speed in a single lane is way less dangerous than what you are doing. You feel justified because it annoys you. Most likely you also violate the law when driving, like we all do at times. So this is just vigilante justice to boost your ego. It is not safe compared to someone sitting in the middle lane.
Possibility of violating the law, particularly in a controlled mannner << actually violating the law in a careless manner.
Getting in the car is going out of your way to cause a situation of increased danger. Driving your car in a controlled manner does not significantly increase this danger.
End of the day, sitting in the middle lane is not right, and it’s not legal. I don’t claim that my response to that is right, but it at least highlights the original wrong, when otherwise most people are unaware they’re doing something wrong.
So one wrong necessitates your vigilante wrong to prove they are wrong. That is all your ego. Everything you have said to justify your position shows you’re the asshole. They maybe incorrect in what they are doing. You are going out of your way to be an asshole. If they don’t know what they are doing is wrong, then how would they know the intent of your actions? They might think your drunk or a road rage nutter about to shoot them. Not the smartest tactic to boost your ego
Also depends on the location, where I live it isn’t illegal to stay in the middle lane.
You’re kind of an a*hole for doing the latter. But I get it. Middle lane hoggers are amongst the worst. And I have no good solution to offer.
Honestly the best solution, as with most traffic annoyances, is just to quietly curse at them as you go about your day and let the police deal with enforcing the laws.
When trying to teach someone a lesson, you might get the occasional person who was absent-mindedly being annoying, but most people are just going to come away from the interaction thinking YOU are the asshole. Not to mention the person who is being an asshole on purpose looking for confrontation…
The best option would be for ongoing training for driving.
Police don’t enforce the laws. Police are quite happy to punish people for speeding, because it’s an easy charge to convict - it’s much harder to convict someone with the crime of sitting in the middle lane. So they don’t bother.
In my experience in the UK, most drivers actually respond to an interaction like I’ve described. When I flashed the indicator, then moved over to the inside lane, many drivers followed and moved into the inside lane. When I’ve looped around them, I’ve never been able to complete that many loops, because the other driver has realised what I’m doing and moved into the inside lane.
Communication =/= confrontation. When driving, we are very limited in our communication - but that doesn’t mean there is no way to communicate.
