just drove back from northern iowa and almost every vehicle going south down there was driving with there flashers on!! is this the norm? no headlights on in a blizzard white out WTF! was there a emergency? lmao! hea people turn your lights on and others will see you!!! how many of you drive down the road with your flashers on? AM I MISSING SOMETHING?? should I have mine on?? I guess its a emergency to get home! lol
It’s not legal to drive with your flashers on in MN. Must be an Iowa thing.
I will drive with my flashers on anytime I’m the trailing vehicle in a line-up thats slowing or stopped. It’s to warn others coming up fast from behind that traffic has slowed or stopped. I’ve also done it in a blinding downpour of rain. I see no reason not to do it. If somebody wants to give me a ticket go ahead and start writing.
It’s a safety thing for me.
I saw this starting in Iowa and saw it all the way to Texas. Snow, fog, rain in all those states and I see it often when trucks are in their lane going up a steep hill here in Minnesota so if its against the law, someone needs to start promoting the law. As mentioned, its a safety thing for those approaching from behind. I’d rather see the flashers as I approach a vehicle from behind so I’d know in advance that it wasn’t traveling as fast as the rest of the traffic. I think its a courtesy really.
It’s not legal to drive with your flashers on in MN. Must be an Iowa thing.
According to Triple A (per their web site):
Hazard Light Use
Minnesota
Hazard lights are not permitted while driving except to indicate a traffic hazard.
Might be a gray area of what constitutes a traffic hazard.
I’m guessing they have better things to do than give people a hard time for that during a snowstorm.
I hear ya Scratcher. Also Dutch. My problem is peeps driving the interstate, going way below minimum speed with their flashers on by themselves. If its that bad, and you have to drive that slow to feel safe, get off the interstate. 
As important as you are you will find two lanes on the freeway. If somebody feels the need to go slow and isn’t endangering anybody who are we to question them?
As important as you are you will find two lanes on the freeway. If somebody feels the need to go slow and isn’t endangering anybody who are we to question them?
Nothing about being important, or more important, or someone less important……or any of those things. If a person needs to go less than the minimum speed with flashers on, then use a different road, please. That person now becomes the bigger hazard. Imho.
And, i hope this is the type of discussion where you and i and others are at the bar having a beer, laughing at each others opinions. Maybe calling eachother a dumb***. Worst case scenario….. 
I have to agree with pop here. If there is someone who is completely over reacting and driving way too slow on the freeway for the conditions, they need some training, need to take side roads, or they shouldn’t be on the road. Slow cars cause accidents.
And I agree with Dutch that hazards should be an option, especially in low-viz, slow-moving situations.
I once saw a minivan that had been accordioned between two eighteen wheelers because traffic had slowed and it was caught last in line and the trailing wheeler had no clue of the slowed traffic—– I can’t help but believe that family would be alive if that driver had had their flashers on. Just sayin.
It happens all the time down here even though the message signs over the freeways tell you not to turn them on during the rain.
I see it as a problem because hazards indicate something else and it makes it difficult to know if people are applying their brakes.
People approaching think you are stopped or stalled and will react according. It also renders your blinkers usueless.
You only drive the interstate at 70+ mph all the time? Ice, rain or snow? I have a very hard time believing that.
I drive 80k miles a year, it’s pretty much the norm to drive with your flashers on when the visibility is low and traffic is slow.
You can get pulled over for driving too fast for road conditions, even if your going the posted speed
My flashers never come on unless I’m stopped. Guess that I never thought of them in otherwise.
Like Tom said, in the hills around Diamond Bluff the trucks are running with them on all the time going up hill. That’s WI of course. School busses will have their hazard lights on stopping for train crossings as well.
What is the purpose of flashing lights?
Has anyone here been ticketed for having their four ways on?
Hazards lights are for emergency use period. I saw a guy last week towing a trailer at night without trailer lights. Apparently he thought if he turned his hazards on he didn’t need trailer lights 
I find the whole thread funny.
One person turns their flashers on for the safety of others and themselves. Whether it’s for weather or slow moving traffic. Others feel this is a inconvenience for them. Maybe the lights hurt their eyes?
Personally I don’t care either way. Normally when I see “Hazard Warning Lights” I expect to see a stopped vehicle. Since some of them (I’m told here) are moving, it justs gives me more time to slow down and assess the area.
Live, Love, Laugh and use your 4 ways if you like. 
Ever driven in snow that covers your tail lights? It’s almost impossible to see. The flashing light seems you catch your eye better.
I have no problem with them being used for safety, but it’s not an excuse to break the law. No trailer lights, no towing the trailer! Your car half broke down and only goes 15 miles an hour? Doesn’t mean you can turn your hazards on and drive down the shoulder of the freeway at 15mph!
huh.
Navel-Gazing.jpg
Sticker, I agree! If the roads are good, get out of the way!
People have every right to drive slow on the interstate, that’s why there’s a minimum, as long as they are going that, no one can say otherwise especially during adverse conditions. We don’t know the circumstances, perhaps driver only has one eye, or new to driving, or gets anxiety from a past accident, either way there’s a hundred other things it may be due to but they pay for the roads as much as anyone else, we all need to start just taking a deep breath and slow down as a society.
Unless of course I haven’t fished for about 10days during the spring bite and I hook up the boat, then its move B!TCH GET OUT THE WAY!!
It’s against the law for a reason. Obey the damn law. I hope you do get ticketed for it.
If I can’t tell when you hit your breaks, you’re creating a problem. Turn the off unless you’re stopped.
i turned my flashers on last nite, after i noticed an accident ahead of me and i noticed in my rear view mirror i had other traffic fast approaching me from behind. after i got past this i shut them off. all about saftey.
i believe big rigs turn them on when mainly there going under 45 miles an hour on inclines!!!!!
I see it every now and then up here in MN, doesn’t really bother me. Driving and working in SEMN, I have experienced two storms this year where even my headlights weren’t enough so I turned my light bar on. Legal? no. But it’s a safety concern so other drivers can see me, same reason some people use their hazards in adverse snow conditions.
Don’t get me started on Tampa though…it could be drizzling and half of the drivers on the road have their hazards on…shoot, it could be a blue bird day and some people still have em on!
Last night at 7 headed home on the hyway bypass. Had I known that I’d be skating home on a sheet of ice, I’d taken the back roads. In about 3 miles there’s 5 cars in the ditch, troopers at two that looked pretty bad. I hit my hazards as I saw some headlights approaching pretty fast, it worked. They slowed down to a crawl in that bad stretch. I couldn’t exit, nowhere to exit. I couldn’t hit 30mph, everyone put their flashers on…sometimes common sense outweighs the opinions of a few of the posters here.
Hazards lights are for emergency use period. I saw a guy last week towing a trailer at night without trailer lights. Apparently he thought if he turned his hazards on he didn’t need trailer lights
You might consider the possibility that when you see somebody doing something the “wrong way,” it doesn’t necessarily mean that person is an idiot or an a-hole, he might just be making the most of a crappy situation.
I have been that guy in that exact situation before — when I left the house the trailer lights were groovy. When I loaded the boat back on the trailer at 10pm, I found that the harness had been damaged and I didn’t have the tools or parts to fix them. At that point you do everything you can to make yourself visible.
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