Flashing headlights, waving people out and edging into junctions

Three habits you learn from other drivers rather than from a lesson: a flash to send somebody through, a wave to let somebody out, and a nose into the junction to manufacture a gap that traffic never offered you. None of the three is a signal in the Highway Code. Two of them the Code warns about by name, and the third runs into a single sentence that settles most of the arguments about it — do not cross or join a road until there is a gap large enough for you to do so safely. Here is what each habit is actually worth, who carries the blame when a courtesy goes wrong, and the version of all this that an examiner is watching for.

Two rules, pointing in opposite directions

Flashing gets a rule for the driver doing it and a separate rule for the driver receiving it, and they are deliberately not mirror images of each other.

Flashing headlights. Only flash your headlights to let other road users know that you are there. Do not flash your headlights to convey any other message or intimidate other road users.

Never assume that flashing headlights is a signal inviting you to proceed. Use your own judgement and proceed carefully.

Read them together and the design becomes obvious. Rule 110 gives the flash exactly one meaning — I am here — which is the same job the horn does in Rule 112. Rule 111 then tells the other driver not to read anything into it even if the sender meant something more. So a flash cannot transfer priority in either direction: the sender is not permitted to grant it, and the receiver is told in advance not to accept it. Whatever the driver behind you intended, the decision to move is still yours alone, and so is everything that follows from it.

That is not a quirk of the flashing rules. It is how the Code treats every signal between drivers.

use an arm signal to emphasise or reinforce your signal if necessary. Remember that signalling does not give you priority.

Rule 104 puts the same point on the receiving side: watch out for signals given by other road users and proceed only when you are satisfied that it is safe, and be aware that an indicator on another vehicle may not have been cancelled. Rule 170 repeats it once more for the specific case that catches people out — do not assume, when waiting at a junction, that a vehicle coming from the right and signalling left will actually turn. Wait and make sure.

Three rules, one idea: a signal is information about intention, not a grant of right of way.

What each signal is actually worth

The gap between the second row and the fifth is the whole subject. A police officer beckoning you across a junction is a legal instruction you commit an offence by ignoring. A stranger in a Golf doing the identical arm movement is offering an opinion about a road they can only half see. Pedestrians are told the same thing from their side: at a crossing controlled by an authorised person, Rule 29 tells them not to cross unless a police officer, traffic warden or school crossing patrol signals them to, and to cross in front of them.

Waving people across: the one place the Code names it

There is exactly one rule that spells out the practice of waving somebody across, and it is a prohibition on doing it.

do not wave, flash your lights or use your horn to invite pedestrians across; this could be dangerous if another vehicle is approaching

The reason is in the second half of the sentence. You have stopped, so from your seat the road looks clear — but you have also become the thing that hides the pedestrian from the driver in the next lane, or from the motorcyclist about to pass the stationary queue. The Code deals with that risk from both directions: Rule 167 tells you not to overtake on the approach to crossing facilities, or where a vehicle ahead is slowing to stop for a pedestrian crossing from a pedestrian island, and Rule 19 warns pedestrians to keep looking both ways in case a driver has not seen them and attempts to overtake a vehicle that has stopped.

Nothing in the wording is limited to pedestrians in principle, and nothing about the physics is either. Wave a car out of a side road and you have made exactly the same offer — clear as far as I can see — about a stretch of road you cannot see.

That bullet is advisory. Rule 195 does carry a MUST, but it sits elsewhere in the rule — on giving way once a pedestrian has moved onto a zebra crossing, or a pedestrian or cyclist onto a parallel one. The distinction matters less than it sounds, which is the next section.

Who carries it when a courtesy goes wrong

The instinct is that the person who waved is responsible for what happens next. The Code has already arranged things the other way round: Rule 111 tells the driver who moves that the judgement was theirs. That does not leave the waver untouched, though, because an advisory rule is still evidence.

A failure on the part of a person to observe a provision of the Highway Code shall not of itself render that person liable to criminal proceedings of any kind but any such failure may in any proceedings (whether civil or criminal, and including proceedings for an offence under the Traffic Acts, the Public Passenger Vehicles Act 1981 or sections 18 to 23 of the Transport Act 1985) be relied upon by any party to the proceedings as tending to establish or negative any liability which is in question in those proceedings.

So both drivers are exposed, in different ways and in the same courtroom. The one who moved has Rule 111 quoted at them. The one who flashed or waved has Rules 110 and 195 quoted at them. And the underlying conduct can be an offence on its own account, whichever seat you were in.

If a person drives a mechanically propelled vehicle on a road or other public place without due care and attention, or without reasonable consideration for other persons using the road or place, he is guilty of an offence.

The practical answer is not to stop being courteous — it is to be courteous in a form that transfers no false information. Hold back, leave the gap, and let the other driver decide. A gap says nothing you cannot see; a wave says something you cannot know. Our guide to MUST vs should works through why “it’s only advisory” is a weaker defence than people assume, and flashing to warn of a speed trap is a separate problem with a possible offence behind it.

Edging out: Rule 170 sets one test, and it is a gap

The junction version of the same argument. Traffic on the main road is nose to tail, you have been waiting to turn right for two minutes, and somebody — often, in the threads where this comes up, an instructor — tells you to creep out until a driver has to let you in.

Rule 170’s last bullet is the whole standard for emerging, and it does not mention creeping.

look all around before emerging. Do not cross or join a road until there is a gap large enough for you to do so safely.

Rule 180 says it again for the right turn specifically: wait until there is a safe gap between you and any oncoming vehicle, watch out for cyclists, motorcyclists, pedestrians and other road users, check your mirrors and blind spot again to make sure you are not being overtaken, then make the turn — and take great care when turning into a main road, where you need to watch for traffic in both directions and wait for a safe gap.

The test is is there a gap, not can I make one. A gap you created by putting your bonnet where a moving vehicle was going to be is not a gap; it is somebody else braking. And on a right turn out of a side road you need that gap in both directions at once, which is precisely why the wait is long and why the temptation to manufacture one is strong.

What is legitimate, and what people confuse with edging:

• Move to the give-way line, not past it. Getting your car far enough forward to see both ways is observation. Rule 170 asks you to look all around before emerging, and you cannot do that from three metres back.
• Be ready to go. The gap that appears is often short. Sitting in neutral with the handbrake on and no plan is what turns a usable gap into another two minutes.
• Take it promptly once it is there. Rule 169 asks you not to hold up a long queue of traffic — the one behind you is real too.
• Do not roll on the assumption somebody will yield. That is the move Rule 170 rules out, and it is the one that gets marked.

If a driver on the main road does stop and leave you space, you are back in the previous section: their stopping is a fact you can see, their wave is not. Look past them yourself before you cross the lane they are blocking from your view.

Where you are allowed to wait inside a junction

“Never stop in the junction” is nearly right, and the exceptions are worth knowing precisely because they are the ones the test asks about.

The right-turn exceptions in Rules 174 and 176 are what make people think edging out is generally sanctioned. They are narrow. Both describe a driver who is already committed to a turn and is held up by oncoming traffic alone — not a driver using their car as a wedge, and not a driver going straight on.

There is a matching duty when you are the traffic in the queue rather than the one trying to join it.

allow access into and from side roads, as blocking these will add to congestion

The same rule tells you to allow pedestrians and cyclists to cross in front of you and to stay aware of cyclists and motorcyclists who may be passing on either side — which is the whole reason to leave the gap rather than wave into it. Rule 179 adds the mirror-image duty when you are the one waiting to turn right: leave room for other vehicles to pass on the left, if possible. Merging in turn is the lane-closure version of the same courtesy, and there it is written into the Code as a rule rather than left to custom.

When somebody lets you out

The other half of the etiquette, and the part the Code does back.

slow down and hold back if a road user pulls out into your path at a junction. Allow them to get clear. Do not over-react by driving too close behind to intimidate them.

Rule 147 also asks you to be understanding if other road users cause problems — they may be inexperienced or not know the area well — to be patient because anyone can make a mistake, and not to allow yourself to become agitated or involved if someone is behaving badly. That is the rule under the entire subject. Holding back is a courtesy the Code endorses without reservation, because it hands the other driver space rather than a claim about the road.

The thank-you flash is the same problem in miniature: it is a message, and Rule 110 allows the headlights only one. A raised hand once you are moving costs nothing and misinforms nobody.

Funeral processions and the courtesies with no rule behind them

The Highway Code contains no rule about funeral processions. It does name the vehicles you are expected to make way for, and it is a short list.

Emergency and Incident Support vehicles. You should look and listen for ambulances, fire engines, police, doctors or other emergency vehicles using flashing blue, red or green lights and sirens or flashing headlights, or traffic officer and incident support vehicles using flashing amber lights. When one approaches do not panic. Consider the route of such a vehicle and take appropriate action to let it pass, while complying with all traffic signs.

Note the qualifier in the last clause — while complying with all traffic signs. Even for an ambulance on blues and twos, the Code does not authorise you to break a rule to get out of the way. That answers the funeral question by analogy, and it answers it the same way for every other unwritten courtesy: a cortege has no priority, so let it stay together if you can do so without stopping on a roundabout, entering a box junction, crossing a solid white line or blocking a crossing. Rule 147’s patience covers the rest, and Rule 219’s own advice not to brake harshly on approach to a junction or roundabout, because a following vehicle may not have the same view as you, is worth applying to any sudden act of politeness.

Rule 223 is the only “give priority when you can” instruction the Code aims at a vehicle rejoining the traffic, and it is limited to buses, coaches and trams signalling to pull away from stops. Where else the Code hands priority out — to traffic approaching from your right at a roundabout under Rule 185, for one — it is the road layout deciding, not a driver’s gesture. Everything else people insist is a rule — flashing a lorry back in, waving right-turners across, stopping on a main road to let a queue out — is local custom being described as law.

How this reads on the practical test

The standard the examiner applies is not a separate rulebook.

show that you know The Highway Code by the way you drive

So each habit maps onto something the Code already told you. Moving off a flash is Rule 111. Waving a pedestrian across is Rule 195. Rolling out of a side road until the main road yields is Rule 170’s gap test failed in front of a witness. Waiting inside a box junction when you are not turning right is a MUST NOT under Rule 174, which puts it in a different category again. Our guide to driving test faults explains where the line between a driving fault, a serious fault and a dangerous fault actually sits.

The version that scores is dull and consistent: signal your own intentions clearly, read other people’s as information, wait for a gap you did not have to create, and let the courtesy be the space rather than the gesture.

Common test questions and the answers

“A driver flashed me out of a junction and I pulled out. Whose fault is the collision?”

Yours, in the sense that mattered — Rule 111 tells you never to assume flashing headlights is a signal inviting you to proceed, and to use your own judgement. The other driver is not clear either: Rule 110 permits a flash only to let road users know you are there. A failure to follow either rule can be relied on by any party under section 38(7) of the Road Traffic Act 1988.

“Is it illegal to flash your headlights to let someone out?”

Flashing is not an offence in itself, and Rule 110 is advisory. It is still the wrong thing to do, because the driver you flash is told by Rule 111 to ignore it and the whole exchange can be put in front of a court if it goes wrong. Flashing to warn other drivers of a speed trap is a different question with a possible offence behind it.

“My instructor told me to edge out into busy traffic until someone lets me in. Is that right?”

No. Rule 170 says not to cross or join a road until there is a gap large enough for you to do so safely, and Rule 180 repeats it for turning right into a main road. Moving forward to the give-way line to see properly is observation and is expected. Moving into the path of traffic that has not stopped is the thing both rules exclude.

“Can I wait in the middle of a box junction to turn right?”

Yes, in the one case Rule 174 describes: you may enter the box and wait when you want to turn right and are stopped only by oncoming traffic, or by other vehicles waiting to turn right. Going straight on or turning left, you MUST NOT enter until your exit road or lane is clear — and at signalled roundabouts you MUST NOT enter unless you can cross the box completely without stopping.

“Should I wave a pedestrian across at a zebra crossing?”

No. Rule 195 says not to wave, flash your lights or use your horn to invite pedestrians across, because it can be dangerous if another vehicle is approaching. Stop, wait, and let them decide when the road looks safe from where they are standing.

“Two cars arrive at an unmarked junction at the same time. Doesn’t a flash sort it out?”

It does not resolve anything the Code recognises. Rule 146 warns that in side roads and country lanes there are unmarked junctions where nobody has priority, and no rule appoints a winner. One driver moving decisively when the way is clear settles it; the same standoff at a roundabout is worked through in our roundabouts guide.

“Do I have to give way to a funeral procession?”

There is no rule requiring it. Let it stay together where you safely can, but not by breaking a rule to do so — the Code’s own instruction for emergency vehicles in Rule 219 is to take appropriate action to let them pass while complying with all traffic signs, and nothing weaker than an emergency vehicle gets more latitude than that.

Where this shows up in revision

Driver-to-driver signals sit in the Attitude section of the question bank, and emerging at junctions runs through Rules of the road and Hazard awareness — you will meet the same two ideas in all three. Read Rules 103 to 112 and 167 to 183 in the Highway Code in one sitting, keep the glossary open for the Law-line abbreviations, work the 14 DVSA topics, and sit a full mock theory test under the real timer. It is free to get started.

Sources

• GOV.UK — Highway Code: general rules, techniques and advice for all drivers and riders (Rules 103, 104, 105, 109, 110, 111, 112, 146, 147, 151)
• GOV.UK — Highway Code: using the road (Rules 167, 169, 170, 173, 174, 176, 179, 180, 185, 195)
• GOV.UK — Highway Code: road users requiring extra care (Rules 219, 223)
• GOV.UK — Highway Code: rules for pedestrians (Rules 19, 29)
• legislation.gov.uk — Road Traffic Act 1988, section 38 (effect of a failure to observe the Highway Code)
• legislation.gov.uk — Road Traffic Act 1988, section 3 (careless, and inconsiderate, driving)
• GOV.UK — Driving test: cars

Highway Code excerpts are reproduced under the Open Government Licence v3.0.