Drive-by Wavers

The more we appease the rude, the impolite, the aggressive, the dangerous, and the frightening, the more of their "qualities" we can expect to endure.

When in Rome, do as the Romans do.

It´s considered common courtesy, though people sometimes tend to misuse it for plain rude driving.

I really wanted her to wave as a way to ward off trouble. My experience with traffic in Belgrade has brought me to the conclusion that people are complete lunatics when they get behind the wheel.

You're a brave man because you write on the Serbian blog about what bothers you in Belgrade. Normally you should be verbally attacked by many local bloggers but you are harmless because you write on English and there is no danger (guess why).

Point is that this place sucks.

I truly appreciate your time and effort.

When starting each turn of driving lessons, an old school driving instructor used to begin with: "Each time you step into a car, you are (god forbid) one leg in prison and other leg in grave. And that's what driving is all about, to begin with at least".

I drive around 25000 km per year and 90% of these is made in Belgrade.
People in Belgrade wave to me (and I wave to them) for two reasons:

To excuse for making mistake or being slow
to thank because somebody let them pass or something like that.

When you walk and hit somebody, do you say "excuse me" to avoid trouble or because you are polite?
When you walk and somebody open a door for you, do you say "thank you" to ward off trouble?

Your description of Belgrade traffic is not quite accurate. You are overreacting.

I've noticed that behind the wheels many in my country (and based on some secondhand knowledge - many in other countries too) become much more irritable and violent.

We have a saying which says roughly translated: "He swears as a carriage-driver" (Psuje k'o kočijaš).
And Murphy's law says: "You never really learn how to swear until you sit behind the wheel" or something like it I'm paraphrasing.

George Carlin used to say: "Have you ever noticed how everyone that drives slower than you is an idiot and everyone that drives faster than you is a maniac?"

But on a serious note: the first rule of dealing with violence (directed at you):

Avoid dangerous people and dangerous places.

- The best way to avoid becoming the victim of violence is to not be where violence is likely to occur.
That’s not always possible — but it is first and best option.
One should learn to recognize and avoid status-seeking displays of aggression.
Men are easily lured into social dominance games from which neither party can find a face-saving exit.
If you want to preserve your health and stay out of prison, you must learn to avoid or defuse conflict of this kind.
When a conflict turns physical, there is always a risk that someone will be severely injured or killed. Imagine spending a year or more in prison because you couldn’t resist punching some bully who dearly deserved it, but who then hit his head on a fire hydrant and died from a brain injury. As a matter of law, the moment you engage in avoidable violence of this kind—rising to a challenge and escalating the conflict—you lose any legal claim to self-defense. Rather, you were fighting—which is illegal—and in this case you accidentally killed your opponent. You are now likely to get more practice fighting in prison. Self-defense is not about winning fights with aggressive men who probably have less to lose than you do.
Never threaten your opponent. The purpose of his verbal challenge was to get you to respond in such a way as to make him feel justified in attacking you. You shouldn’t collaborate in this process or advertise your readiness to defend yourself.
Even if violence seems unavoidable, and you decide to strike preemptively, you should do so from a seemingly unaggressive posture, retaining the element of surprise.
Thus, whatever ego problems or impulse-control issues you have should be worked out ahead of time.
You should forget about saving face while recognizing that if you ever find yourself in a social-dominance contest you will probably feel a deep urge to say or do the wrong thing.
Deciding on an appropriate course of action in advance is your best protection against being dangerously stupid in the heat of the moment.
If you want to avoid unnecessary violence, you must keep your inner ape on a very short leash.)

Principles two and three are:
2. Do not defend your property.

(Violence must truly be the last resort. Thus, if someone sticks a gun in your face and demands your wallet, you should hand it over without hesitation—and run.
If you look out your kitchen window and see a group of youths destroying your car, you should remain inside and call the police.
Unless you or another person is being physically harmed, or an attack seems imminent, avoiding violence should be your only concern. )

3. Respond immediately and escape.

If you have principles 1 and 2 firmly installed in your brain, any violence that finds you is, by definition, unavoidable. There is a tremendous power in knowing this: When you find yourself without other options, you are free to respond with full commitment.

This is the core principle of self-defense: Do whatever you can to avoid a physical confrontation, but the moment avoidance fails, attack explosively for the purposes of escape—not to mete out justice, or to teach a bully a lesson, or to apprehend a criminal. Your goal is to get away with minimum trauma (to you), while harming your attacker in any way that seems necessary to ensure your escape.

Whatever your physical skills, when you commit to using force against another person, your overriding goal is still to escape. Even if you are at home, in possession of a firearm, and well trained to use it, when confronted by an intruder your best defense is to get out of the house as quickly as possible. In such a circumstance, a gun is a means of ensuring that no one can block your exit.

If you cut me off in traffic, your wave will not get you any extra points.

You are certainly becoming one of us, a true full-blooded resident of Belgrade - grumpy, rebelious, cynical nitpicker