http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-23717575

Hopefully this stupid idea of flashing fellow road users out of junctions will now stop, surely road users can work out the speed of traffic and make their own decision when to pull out safely.

Its a real pain when youre in a cycle lane and some muppet decides to flash another vehicle accross your path.

flash–flash its safe to proceed.

flash–flash its safe to proceed.

Yeah, right. Then you get a situation like one on a then recently opened bypass around Chippenham, when a woman was flashed to pull out of a junction, and as she pulled out, another car overtook the one flashing her and drove straight into the side of her car.

I’ll still be flashing people.

…surely road users can work out the speed of traffic and make their own decision when to pull out safely.

I think it’s more to do with intentions. Whether they’ll ease off to let you go, or speed up just to spite you!

But I agree, it causes all kinds of problems.

depends when it is really busy often let folk out costs very little in time and stops them just pulling out anyway

I think given the news i will be more cautious when folk flash me though

It is annoying as a cyclist and i have been hit by a car that was flashed across and hit me in the cycle lane as I could not see it nor them me.

Apparently I was going too fast and should have stopped legal action was required for the damage to my bike

That said I learnt a lesson and always slow now at blind junctions – better to be alive than right and al lthat

My friend and I were riding along the A6 in stockport on his motorbike. Him driving, me on the back. As we passed through a junction a bloke flashed this lady coming the other way to say she could turn across him, she hadn’t looked to actually see if anything was coming, she implicitly believed his flash.

The bike hit the side of the car, my we both went forwards, my friend hit the side of the car and I hit him. His arm got broken at that point. Then we both spun over the roof of the car and my friend landed on his neck and back. I carried on spinning through the air eventually landing on my feet although I stumbled and fell onto my knee thus resulting in the only injury I sustained. My friend meanwhile had bruising all over his back and shoulders.

An ambulance was passing so they stopped and offered to take us to the hospital. We both spent the night in a ward with some guy who’d been in a major accident and lost both his legs. He screamed and screamed.

That’s the danger of flashing kids.

edit:
That’s the danger of flashing, kids.

My house has been hit 3 times due to people flashing their headlights and I’ve had one car on my doorstep.

What happens is there are 2 lanes, one for turning right and one for straight ahead. Traffic turning across this traffic into my side street are often flashed by traffic which is stationary in the right turn lane without any thought for what’s coming up the inside.

Also happens when waiting to emerge from the side street. Again the right turning traffic is stopped and they wave you in which is nice, but they don’t see the massive truck coming up on there left in the other lane……… 🙄

and another pointless exercise is carried out by proffesion lgv drivers when their colegue passes them on a dual carrigeway or motorway,flash flash it safe to pull in.

How the overtaking driver ever manages to overtkae a cyclist, or reverse into amloading bay i dont know.

Flashing is not cool and totally unecessary.and now it seems used as a way of defrauding the insurance companies and costing us all more money.

Highway Code clearly states what flashing headlights means. If everyone gave it a read every couple of years, a lot of this would go away.

So, when someone flashes me, I take it to mean that that person has seen me, and is allowing me to make whatever manoeuvre I’m trying to. It remains my reponsibility to ensure that the way is otherwise clear for me to carry on.

I mean the same thing when I flash someone else, and I’ll continue to do it, as I think it’s polite and helpful on that basis.

Not sure why everyone above seems to think it’s such a crazy thing to do?

How the overtaking driver ever manages to overtkae a cyclist, or reverse into amloading bay i dont know.

I often hold the door open for folk when i go through. It does not mean they could not open the door if i was not there

what fadda said as well
I think it serves a useful purpose but it doe snot enable the flashee to just go without looking

My mate has a damaged kidney and liver thanks to someone flashing another driver across traffic, and subsequently into us in the cycle lane. I got away with it, my friend wasn’t so lucky. The issue is that people interpret it as “it’s safe to proceed, I don’t need to check”, and that simply isn’t the case