To ask a driving question?

[SendforJulietOne]

If I passed you when driving (passing each other going opposite ways) and I flashed my headlights at you and made a thumbs down sign, would you understand what I mean?

Context- I thought this was well-known, DP has never heard of it, so we're wondering if it's local to my area.

I’ve been driving for 40 years and had never heard of this. Nor have I ever seen anyone flash and give a thumbs down sign.

In my experience a flash usually means that someone is letting you out. I know that it’s not supposed to be used for that purpose so if someone flashes at me I use my judgement to work out whether they are letting me out or warning me about something. It’s usually pretty obvious, but I err on the side of caution!

Never heard of it. To be honest your hand gesture would be met with a different one from me.

Speed trap is what he means to me

Yes and with a “thumbs down” gesture. Like “bad news, you can’t speed up ahead”?!

Police speed check ahead would be my understanding. I cannot remember a time when it was not used and have been driving for around 50 years. Bloody hell 50 years 😂

Speed trap warning - and I think there have been instances of people being prosecuted for doing it; the offence is wilfully obstructing police from doing their duty (paraphrased).

Never heard of this, and you’re breaking the law.

Yep Police ahead 👌🤣 I do the same 🙂

Tee hee - what a joke.

I spent 10 years working on a trauma unit - no joking here ....

Speed awareness course seems like a great idea. The hand gestures are irrelevant, he should have been observing the road signs.
Why would I warn someone of the police car? My taxes fund the police to do their job. Seems utterly silly to rob myself of the service I pay for.

Gosh I forgot that noone on MN has ever driven a mile over the speed limit. I'm so glad there are so many perfect drivers on here.

Are you being sarcastic? It is a good thing that so many drivers don't speed.

I've never heard of that gesture, flashing lights has different meanings and clearly anything to do with thumbs isn't universally known so not sure who useful it is anyway

Yup this.

I've no idea what the thumbs down means in this context.

I am just trying to work out how I can flash and make a thumbs down sign at the same time while still managing to steer.
Sorry but I would warn other drivers unless they were driving more than 10 miles over the speed limit.

Can you not flash while holding the steering wheel? Then you would do the thumbs down with the other hand.

I’ve only ever seen other drivers warn with a hand signal with the hand going up and down like you would naturally do for a ‘slow down’ motion. Never seen a thumbs down and wouldn’t know what it meant. I’d assume you were calling me a knob or something.

They do but probably the majority don’t drive significantly over and would like those that do punished. Warning them prevents that.

Perhaps because I have driven an automatic for many years, I always have one hand at least for nothing other than the steering wheel.

This.

Never heard of this. I’d have no idea what it meant.

I'd have no idea what this meant.

I would guess from the thumbs down that you're one of the wazzocks warning people about the police legitimately doing their job. Your dp isn't doing a speed awareness course because he doesn't know a gesture, he's doing it because he can't drive his car within the law.

Round here, the main gesture used - very helpfully - is an arm out the window, palm down and moving down to indicate speed reduction. Rural Norfolk so there are very often animals in the road round blind bends, plus horse riders and slow-moving agricultural vehicles.

Surely you can pull the stalk behind the wheel and keep your hand on the wheel at the same time? No different to going from dipped to full beam.

I would think it’s a warning that there is a speed check ahead on my side. I’d think it’s quite irrelevant these days with cameras on most main roads so you’re gonna get caught regardless of lurking Police

Flash and a palm down hand movement to me means "hazard ahead, slow down". Sometimes that hazard may be a police speed trap. Other times it's a bike in the road just round the corner, or a horse or a tractor or anything else that might require slower driving.

Not come across a thumbs down version but I think I would have guessed it meant something similar.