Path: utzoo!dciem!dretor!trigraph!john
From: john@trigraph.UUCP (John Chew)
Newsgroups: ont.general
Subject: Re: Highway Driving Rules
Message-ID: <451@trigraph.UUCP>
Date: 7 Apr 89 16:11:34 GMT
References: <8904061731.AA21685@ellesmere.csri.toronto.edu> <89Apr6.161212edt.19462@me.utoronto.ca>
Reply-To: poslfit@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca (John Chew)
Distribution: ont
Organization: Trigraph Inc., Toronto, Canada
Lines: 47

In article <8904061731.AA21685@ellesmere.csri.toronto.edu> 
malton@csri.toronto.edu (Andrew Malton) asked about the legal
standing of lane discipline rules.

...which made me think about the fun I've had driving in and around
Cancun, Mexico, where `discipline' and `rules' do not seem to have
much to do with driving.  Some of the signalling protocols that are
widely used down there are interesting though:

1) If your right turn signal is flashing, it indicates that you are
   inviting the person behind you to overtake you on the left, on
   a two-lane undivided highway.

2) When two cars approach a one lane constriction from opposite
   directions, the first one to flash its headlights has right of way.

Signal #1 seems like a useful sort of thing to have.  The nearest
thing to it that we have is the use of four-way flashers to indicate
a vehicle travelling substantially below ambient speed, but in Mexico
I'd signal right even if I were travelling a good forty or fifty
km/h above the nominal speed limit and I saw someone approaching
rapidly in my rear-view mirror (a common occurrence).  The problem
of course is that the turn signal is also used to signal a turn.
Thus if you see a right turn signal flashing, it means either "go
ahead and pass me, I won't try to race you and I don't see any
oncoming traffic" or "I'm just making a right turn and I wouldn't
try to overtake me right now because there's a tanker truck behind
a school bus full of nuns barrelling towards us at 150 km/h".  I
suspect that this is probably the reason for the large number of
really messy high speed head-on collisions on the highway south
of Cancun.

Signal #2 is also nice, though it seems to be the opposite of
usage hereabouts, where we flash headlights to yield rather than
claim right of way.  It also makes for nice games of chicken
where two drivers will repeatedly flash headlights at each other
trying to claim right of way until one of them gives in.

Does anyone know of any other regional or national variations
in signalling?

John

-- 
john j. chew, iii   		  phone: +1 416 425 3818     AppleLink: CDA0329
trigraph, inc., toronto, canada   {uunet!utai!utcsri,utgpu,utzoo}!trigraph!john
dept. of math., u. of toronto     poslfit@{utorgpu.bitnet,gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca}