Who waves

[nuggetino]

Definitely has to do with the vehicle you're driving. If you want more waves than bells beach you just have to drive a kombi. Every time you get fuel people gawk or someone asks about it and pretty much everyone on the open road waves at you especially the kids. Used to take waving duties in turns with my girlfriend. It can get tiring. Had the back story of my kombi scripted and well memorized to recite efficiently every time i was at a rest area or servo.

 

[aussiefarmer]

Just spent the last 5 months doing the grey nomad thing from Central NSW , all the way to the Tip , Karumba ,Tennant Creek ,Uluru , Coober Pedy, Adelaide and now here in Vic . Over 20000ks. All the way up through NSW, Qld and NT everybody waved. As im going through SA i notice the waves are starting to go 50/ 50. Travelling along the Coorong getting less and less and in Victoria totally non existent.
Not saying anything but are Victorians really that unhappy? Or are they just smug cause they have the GT in there backyard? :/

Maybe the pedestrian fell off your bullbar by the time you got to victoria.

 

[madhatter]

I don't think its a Victorian "thing" at all I think its a common sense "thing"
From my experience,
As soon as you hit the suburbs and the metro city area in any state NO ONE waves at everyone else on the road.

Imagine.... driving through the suburbs or city areas during peak hour and everyone waved at each other all to and from their destination. Everyday!! :lol: :lol:

I agree, when out on a long trip, in the middle of Nowhere people always tend to wave. (mostly because they haven't seen a car for 30 min or more!!)

 

[Jaros]

Onceyou are out of cities and towns then it seems the norm to say g'day/safe trip with a little hand gesture. It brought a smile to our faces on our trip around oz in 2007.
Jaros

 

[Phoenix76]

Well I'm a bushie from way back, and out here in the boonies, well it's just one of those things you do. Mind you when I go into the big smoke (next week actually) well of course you're not going to wave at every car you pass. However, I still give a small wave when somebody gives me my right of way. Yeah I know that they are supposed to give way, but it is just a common courtesy to say thanks. If you don't acknowledge that a driver has done the right thing, then maybe down the track they won't do the right thing.

But you're absolutely correct when you say the type of car you're driving has a lot to do with it. Out here, if I'm in my ute, virtually everyone waves, well at least the locals do. We get a lot of tourists out here and some wave and some don't.

Thirty years back when we were doing a lot of outback touring, you always gave a wave. In fact on some rarely used outback tracks, if you came across another vehicle, you actually pulled over and had a chat. And I even waved at the wallopers when they went passed, and mostly I got a wave back. Still wave a the local copper, but then I know him anyway. Even did some interstate trucking way back, and you just did not pass another truck without giving a wave, or at night time, a flick of your indicators.

To me, i guess it's just an Aussie thing. We're a friendly mob and I just wish to hell that all these new arrivals would take up our ways. Just like after WW11, we couldn't speak their lingo, but you always said g'day. And those immigrants ended up becoming part of the backbone of the country.

Cheers mates

 

[Hardyakka1968]

Sorry took so long to get back to subject but im towing a van not just cruising around in a car waving at everything that moves. Been walking around Weddurburn listening to ground noise for days but thats another subject.

 

[The Green Wanderer]

Bubbles are about right, had a classic one the other day right near work.
Took several blocks of waving, hand gestures, light flashing and eventually pulling alongside her and shouting out to make her realize that there was a problem with her car.
Her response was more concerning, she nodded and then went back to the argument she was having with her boyfriend in the passenger seat.
No wave, didnt pull over to check the problem. Just kept going.

Back to topic, when im out in the 4wd away from the city I wave and sometimes people wave back. :lol:

In the city I spend more than half my work day on the roads and I still wave to others for small acts of driving courtesy, it still happens but is getting rarer and rarer... :|

Common sense should be a class in schools, rather than teaching 'how not to offend the person next to you'.

Happy travels,
TGW.

 

[Guest]

Yeah, no-one waves in Melbourne because of the lack of social trust the place now has. I'll leave it up to the reader to figure out why our once high trust society is now at a zero.

 

[rotor]

Gee I wave to a lot of drivers that haven't waved first .....

 

[Nightjar]

The most concerning part in my mind is a large proportion of todays population is oblivious to what is going on around them.
Last nights news showed a motorcycle cop trying to get a drivers attention. Music so loud she couldn't hear the siren so engrossed in texting she didn't see the flashing lights? Anyway $400.00 fine and 3 demerit points she was on her way.
Sitting in a waiting room their were 12 of us waiting to be called, 10 were glued to their mobiles. :/
Go for our afternoon walk near the beach and almost every other person we meet is glued to a device, no eye contact, no greeting or acknowledgement.
Blank faces staring.

 

[Davent]

When I drove south to tennant creek, I noticed every nomad waved at me coming from the other direction, at first I thought "thats nice" after about 600, I thought "how many more can there be?" And all I could think of was what a night mare the trip home was going to be, getting stuck behind vanners doing 90kmph in a 130 zone. At about 2 pm I realized that most were pulling over for the day, setting up for the night.
So for the trip home, I left tennant at about 3pm, and drove through the night, I didnt have one car in front of me untill I hit adelaide river, 100km south of darwin, great run, then I got stuck at the roadworks red light ......not another vehicle on the road, and here I am stuck at a red light in the middle of nowhere for 15 minutes......the roadworks are still the same, 3 months latter.

 

[Jaros]

I think it's all to do with it being a "me" world. Me and the Mrs. Me and the girlfriend. Me and the rest of them.......etc. Selfie's..........Joises!!!!