Originally Posted by John Wilke
Is the 'slow hand signal' for motorists or other cyclists?
I really don't think any motorist is going to follow my cue to slow down, they're going to do what they want and I'm getting out of the way as fast as I can.
It could be useful if you want to pass back an "on guard, people, something's goin' down ahead" type of signal. Example: I was heading south on Regal in a line of cars at probably 25mph and accelerating (obligatory "400 watts!" comment here
), and was able to see up the right side of the line of cars ahead of me. The lead car hit its brakes. I gave a slow/stop signal and froze my pedal stroke to give the person behind
me an early heads-up that
hey, the line's slowing down, cover your brakes, folks, while scrubbing some speed with my rear brake. I do the same thing in my car, I'll drag my brake just to "pass back" a heads-up to the people behind me, if it looks like it would help.