Whatever Happened to the Courtesy Wave?

Okay...am I the only one who has noticed this disappearing act of civility on the roadways?

I'm not talking about the road rage you hear about or read about on a daily basis.  I'm talking about the courtesy wave.

Used to be, you let someone in front of you as he's trying to merge onto the highway and the driver would make eye contact in the mirror and wave to you.  Nothing big. I'm not talking about a wave from the Queen of England. I mean just a nice acknowledgement of the fact that I allowed you to slow my day down just a few nano-seconds and let you move ahead.

Of course, then you were obligated....no not obligated, but allowed the privilege to wave back and let them know it was no big deal.

I've even done the "mea culpa" wave. I know those of you who know me will find this hard to believe, but I have made a mistake in the past while driving and then as the driver pulled up next to me to give me the one-finger salute, simply waved with a "my bad" or "my mistake" look on my face.  Typically the other driver realizes that yes in fact I am a bonehead and simply waved back and we drove on.  Without the obligatory pulling over to the side of the road and threatening each other.

Maybe that's it.  If more people would take the time to wave to say thank you, to say no problem, or to say my bad then just maybe we wouldn't have so many stories about road rage dominating the news.