Tonight the car in front flashed a van out, totally ignoring the fact the van was pulling a large trailer with a lawn mover on the back, he almost hit the trailer as he then tried to scoot behind the van.

As a professional driver we were told during training not to flash motorists/pedestrians etc .. As stated above it creates confusion and cause accidents..

It’s amazing the folks that get wound up when you stop to let them out leaving a gap for them without flashing etc !! 🙄

As others have said, its very rare I flash anyone. My preferred method if I want to let someone out/across is to just take my foot off and allow a gap to open up, if I notice too late and would need to brake then I just don’t. Occasionally I will point to make it clear who am I waiting for but only after looking to see whats coming up behind/around me.

This morning I raised a finger off the wheel at a colleague driving the other way, next thing I know a pedestrian about 50 metres up the road has stepped out, it wasn’t until they were halfway across and said thanks to me that I realised they thought I had invited them across! No matter as I was doing 20mph and a fair way back but still…

totally ignoring the fact the van was pulling a large trailer

I get this…my trailer is huge and white and very heavy, its always a difficult decision to go when invited as it takes a long time to get moving (and even longer if I want the horses to stay upright) and its rare that the ‘flasher’ has taken this into account. I can’t really get going out of 1st until its all in a vaguely straight line. Another is slip roads joining the motorway, it can be quite scary when you know the joiner hasn’t checked their blind spot and is trying to merge directly behind the van whilst I try to eek out another 2mph to pull the trailer into their view.

I get this…my trailer is huge and white and very heavy, its always a difficult decision to go when invited as it takes a long time to get moving (and even longer if I want the horses to stay upright) and its rare that the ‘flasher’ has taken this into account. I can’t really get going out of 1st until its all in a vaguely straight line. Another is slip roads joining the motorway, it can be quite scary when you know the joiner hasn’t checked their blind spot and is trying to merge directly behind the van whilst I try to eek out another 2mph to pull the trailer into their view.

I saw a cracking example of a motorist not noticing / taking into account a trailer.

M6 junction 34 southbound is a horrible on slip as its short and uphill. I was in lane 2 behind a United Utilities Transit with trailer which had a little digger on it.

Some clown came on the motorway from the slip then, indicator on, moved into lane 2 right in front of the Transit which forced him into lane 3.

Obviously this is illegal with a trailer but it really was the only thing he could do else he would have Jack knifed if he had slammed on. The driver who moved out really didn’t care that the Transit had a trailer on it.

Flashing headlights means “I’m coming on” not “be my guest”

No it doesn’t it means “I’m here” same as the horn does.

Yup peeps should just use their right of way! I’ve lost count of the amount of dangerous indecision I’ve seen over the years.

My pet peeve is when someone stops on a dual carriageway flashing you out of a side road (except in stop start nose to tail where it can help), when they have no control over the other lanes, they be stopped and no one else gives a ****.