I miss when Jeeps were a small enough community that it was a fun thing. Now you have people practically hanging out their windows to get your attention out of a jeep that has never seen a spec of dirt.
I used to have an FJ cruiser- sort of sad that the community was so small but also not!
Loved going to Ouray Colorado and Moab for adventures (mine was definitely not a mall crawler but also not absurdly modded).
Yeah but your examples are members of the same community. What is weird and endearing is that people who have never been on a boat will wave at people just because they are on a boat. Conversely, people on a boat will eave at people on land. Its as if a transport vehicle was a ride. A jet ski or something.
Okay, buy why do people on land wave at people on a boat? Is it a throwback from when people might travel to new and exotic lands possibly never to see their families again? Peopkr also wave at people on carnival rides. Is that the same impulse? Whats up with that?
Once you get outback in Australia pretty much everyone will at the very least lift one finger off the streering wheel.
I like to play a game when I'm driving, if they don't wave I wait until the last second to do it and see if they're fast enough to react before we pass
Bus drivers, truck drivers, farmers do it too, established villages smaller than 150 inhabitants as well.
Small community theory: I'd argue that it's associated with this peer group of approx. 300 people thing, where humans get influenced by only a very few hundred people directly or smth lioe this, but I don't remember the source.