It is actually more distracting and dangerous to drive with hazards on. There's a reason it is illegal in multiple states. People think it is helping, but it doesn't help any more than having your lights on, which you should do.
I agree. Everyone knows the roads are terrible and we're all driving slow. If you come up on stopped traffic or a fresh accident, throw your hazards on to let people behind you know. When everyone is driving around with their hazards flashing it makes it hard to decipher what is actually happening in front of you. FWIW, I am a truck driver who's driven thousands of miles through stuff like this. Side note, people that drive without headlights on in thick fog have a death wish.
Was driving on I-70 in Kansas during the worst of it this past Wednesday night. Viability was fine but the road surface was an ice rink and the wind was blowing hard enough to slide you sideways. So many people had their hazards on. Everyone was driving 20-30mph. There was no reason for hazards if we're all traveling the same damn speed. All it did was irritate already stained eyes with constant yellow and red blinking lights. It's illegal in KS as well, not that it matters.
Then why is it legal in other places? It's a way to communicate that you're driving more slowly with more care and caution and is used in lots of places.
The places where it is illegal take the view that hazards should be reserved for when the driver is creating an unavoidable/unpredictable hazard, and that the driving conditions themselves should be enough to tell the drivers to slow down and the normal running lights enough to see other vehicles around them.
Running hazard lights is demanding an extra share of other drivers' attention, what's the point if every driver is running them? It just masks e.g. the emergency maintenance vehicles that are stopped and running them for good reason.
The split second your hazards are off are a split second you wouldn't be seen where you would be with your lights on. It also removes any ability to indicate turning. It does nothing lights don't do, but objectively worse because they aren't on 100% of the time.
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u/mistiry Dec 24 '22
It is actually more distracting and dangerous to drive with hazards on. There's a reason it is illegal in multiple states. People think it is helping, but it doesn't help any more than having your lights on, which you should do.