The same thing happens if you ride motorbikes and see another rider, or drive an old combi and see another combi.

Also happens in all cars in some of the rural areas in my country.

My only theory is once a community is small enough, the hello wave is used.

It's one of my favorite things about living in a suburban area. Someone will drive down the block, or be walking by, and I legit have no idea who the hell they are as I'm not super neighborly - but I'll still do the little head nod thing and the half wave, and they see it and do it back, and it's just a nice little way of saying "hi, yes, we're in each other's extended personal spaces but have no plans on murdering one another - have a pleasant day."

I'M ON A BOAT

Every time I've seen the Coast Guard in close range I've waved... and every time they've waved back.

I think it's a positive feedback loop.

It's from back when Neanderthals were taking us out by the thousands, we had to identify our kind from afar and show signs of good intentions.

Also, none of this is true.

I often wave and smile at people in cars. Usually they smile back.

When I was visiting Hiroshima Japan we took a boat out to Miajima (an island). I was standing on the back of the boat and saw a similar boat bringing tourists back. I started to frantically wave and eventually the other boat waved back.

I do the same thing when I'm in my car, sitting at a stoplight 😂 hey look we are both driving!

This is like when the Queen was at a livestock show and they brought in some cows. She leaned toward Prince Phillip, pointed at the cows, and said, “Cows!” Why? Because there were cows, I guess.

It's a similar reason people wave to train engineers, trains and boats are cool and by extension the people on them are cool.

Motorcyclists, jeep wrangler drivers, people in convertibles, and to a lesser extent, people in muscle cars all do the same thing.

You straight flipn copies