The two (or sometime three-fingered) wave is usually done without detaching the hand from the steering wheel. This hello signal to oncoming drivers appears to be a common thing on rural roadways only. On the rural roads of Nebraska, Kansas, and South Dakota, we have observed that the two-fingered wave appears common.
We speculated, based on initial observations, that the wave was more common from other males, who were solo drivers, of pickup trucks. We tested these hypotheses on a rural roadway on two separate days during the summer.
We drove Nebraska highway 2 through the Sandhills region of Nebraska recording waves over 2 separate days. We did not record whether the wave was a response to our wave, we always waved, or whether the wave began before our own wave.
One hundred and twenty one drivers were recorded over the two-day period. Most driver were solo (85) and most drivers were male (97). Sedan were the most abundant vehicle type (37) followed closely by pickups (32) and then semi-trailers (28).
Most drivers waved (74) and those in semi-trailers always waved (Figure 1). Contrary to our initial hypotheses, those in pickup trucks did not wave the most because there were 100% wavers in semi-trailers. Sports car drivers also always waved, although the number of sport cars was the lowest of any vehicle type (2) and conclusions are hard to draw from those numbers.
Besides the 100% wavers driving semi-trailers no significant pattern was calculated between vehicle types and waving or between males and female drivers and waving via chi-square analysis (Table 1 shows the sex relationship only). The sports cars, with too few recorded, falls out of any calculation.
analysis of this data reveal no significant differences.