Missing The Point About Turn Signal Usage

[George7941]

The majority of drivers activate the turn signal as they start to turn. If you have commenced the turn, then everybody can see that you are turning and the turn signal does not contribute anything of value. I guess most people do it because it is required by law and not as a courtesy to fellow drivers.

Of course they are not as bad as those who do not signal at all, they are too important to bother with something as trivial as turn signals.

The one upside is if something is not quite right about a driver, it gives the cop an excuse to pull him over and check things out. The shady ones are usually not very conscientous about the little details of the law. The law does require turn signals to be activated a hundred feet/ 30 metres before the turn.

 

[goblin]

... then everybody can see that you are turning and the turn signal does not contribute anything of value...

This is patently untrue - at least it is untrue in any situation other than you and another vehicle on an otherwise empty road.

In a wolfpack in fast heavy traffic, you acknowledge other vehicles in a fraction of a second and many of them you only acknowledge in a blink - you don't linger watching them. You don't have the time to follow their movement to realize where they are going and how their paths interfere with yours.

If you catch but a few frames of movement from a specific car with your peripheral vision and your brain registers the blinker being on, you already know where the car is going and most importantly - where it will be a given amount time units from now.

This will consciously or subconsciously influence your own maneuvers and emergency actions, as your spatial awareness will be fed by all the info it can get.

It's like you see a motorcyclist in your mirror - once you stop seeing them, you don't do anything harsh till you confirm where they are. They are out there.

Don't dismiss road rules just because you got fined. All of them have been written in blood. And all of them make perfect sense for situations you might encounter a hundred times a day, or once in your lifetime.

I used to vacation in a small village where no one, ever, used their blinker. It was a matter of local pride.
When I asked a local why - his answer was "We don't need to use blinkers, because we know each other and everybody knows where the other guy is going and which way he's going to turn".

 

[4wd]

This is patently untrue - at least it is untrue in any situation other than you and another vehicle on the road ahead.

In a wolfpack in fast heavy traffic, you acknowledge other vehicles in a fraction of a second and many of them you only acknowledge in a blink - you don't linger watching them. You don't have the time to follow their movement to realize where they are going and how their paths interfere with yours.

If you catch but a few frames of movement from a specific car with your peripheral vision and your brain registers the blinker being on, you already know where the car is going and most importantly - where it will be a given amount time units from now.

This will consciously or subconsciously influence your own maneuvers and emergency actions, as your spatial awareness will be fed by all the info it can get.

Don't dismiss road rules just because you got fined. All of them have been written in blood. And all of them make perfect sense for situations you might encounter a hundred times a day, or once in your lifetime.

Sure, I know they are changing lanes - not videos

 

[JeffKeryk]

All the blinkers in CA are broken, so there's that.
At least AP signals...

 

[jsean]

The majority of drivers activate the turn signal as they start to turn. If you have commenced the turn, then everybody can see that you are turning and the turn signal does not contribute anything of value. I guess most people do it because it is required by law and not as a courtesy to fellow drivers.

Of course they are not as bad as those who do not signal at all, they are too important to bother with something as trivial as turn signals.

The one upside is if something is not quite right about a driver, it gives the cop an excuse to pull him over and check things out. The shady ones are usually not very conscientous about the little details of the law. The law does require turn signals to be activated a hundred feet/ 30 metres before the turn.

You’re also forgetting the geniuses that use their turn signal and then immediately merge. Oh there wasn’t a gap and your vehicle happened to be there and you had to swerve to avoid letting my dumba$$ merge into you? Sorry not my problem, I had turned on my turn signal

 

[Bottom_Feeder]

People around here are conditioned to either use their turn signals once they are already going where they intend to go or just don't use them at all because the idiots here will block them if given fair warning.

But people are also very guilty of using them like, 'Look out, here I come! Make way!' so that just amplifies the problem.

The latter is far worse in my opinion. Sorry, the piece of the road you're trying to occupy is already being used by me. Your turn signal means nothing if I have to make any kind of corrective action to avoid a crash. You and your turn signal can both get bent.

Years ago, my wife was sideswiped by someone who merged onto the road and immediately went across three lanes of traffic so she cold get into the left turn lane at the next light, and hit my wife's car like she wasn't even there. She told the cop, 'I had my turn signal on.' Nope. That's not how it works.

 

[Olds394]

Around here when they see your turn signal they’ll speed up to block you.

 

[SC Maintenance]

The law does require turn signals to be activated a hundred feet/ 30 metres before the turn.

At 65mph 100 feet is 1 second just about exactly.

The actual dangerous ones are those that turn their signal on and proceed to coast for like 30 seconds and near stop in the middle of the road before there turn, jamming everyone behind them in traffic.

 

[dubber09]

Try Richmond BC, many a times a person turns signal on but goes in the opposite direction of the blinker... And a whole bunch of Captain obvious, where they don't use blinker till they are in intersection already.

 

[ecotourist]

Try Richmond BC, many a times a person turns signal on but goes in the opposite direction of the blinker... And a whole bunch of Captain obvious, where they don't use blinker till they are in intersection already.

My Tesla (helps) make me look like an idiot. On some corners (certain angles probably) the turn signal doesn't turn off. So I come around the corner signalling a turn which I have no intention of making. And then when manually turning the darn thing off I sometimes get it signalling a turn in the opposite direction. Right turn, left turn, right again. I must look like like a total idjit.

 

[3GTL300k]

My Tesla (helps) make me look like an idiot. On some corners (certain angles probably) the turn signal doesn't turn off. So I come around the corner signalling a turn which I have no intention of making. And then when manually turning the darn thing off I sometimes get it signalling a turn in the opposite direction. Right turn, left turn, right again. I must look like like a total idjit.

I watched some early FSD videos. This guy came to roundabouts. I hope the software has learned to handle it better but at least the early versions would get confused. I remember it signaled right and left and slowed down. It angered this woman following the guy enough that she followed him for about mile and flicked him off.

 

[Capt W]

The majority of drivers activate the turn signal as they start to turn.

And this is based on what? Your observations? Canadian drivers? In any case it's an absurd over-generalization.

 

[Skippy722]

At 65mph 100 feet is 1 second just about exactly.

The actual dangerous ones are those that turn their signal on and proceed to coast for like 30 seconds and near stop in the middle of the road before there turn, jamming everyone behind them in traffic.

Then they proceed to crawl through their turn at 0.5mph. They’re the same ones who take 6 business days to hit 45 because RPM’s are scary or something I don’t know

 

[charbaby]

Since I started driving, I've never though that the driving skills of people was very good even as I was learning but it's worst today.

 

[John105]

Funny when I was about 12 y.o. I would tell my parents this car, and that car, didn't signal.

And they would say, why do you care about what others are doing?

And here we are in 2025, and there is a thread on it lol

Proof that my parents were not necessarily right, and I was not necessarily wrong.

Just to put it into perspective, people don't even have registrations, licenses, nor insurance, in Phila. So signaling really isn't too high on the list here. Kinda like when someone walks into Target or CVS in the pouring rain, and walks out with $900 worth of items and didn't pay, you tell them they should have not brought their umbrella into the store all wet, it should have been first put into a plastic bag and to be sure to return the cart to the corral

 

[RooflessVW]

The majority of drivers activate the turn signal as they start to turn. If you have commenced the turn, then everybody can see that you are turning and the turn signal does not contribute anything of value. I guess most people do it because it is required by law and not as a courtesy to fellow drivers.

Of course they are not as bad as those who do not signal at all, they are too important to bother with something as trivial as turn signals.

The one upside is if something is not quite right about a driver, it gives the cop an excuse to pull him over and check things out. The shady ones are usually not very conscientous about the little details of the law. The law does require turn signals to be activated a hundred feet/ 30 metres before the turn.

Just a other example of BiTOG "what I do is right and everyone else is an idiot"

Tou can basically just cut/paste "turn signals" with whatever topic and you have 50% of the posts here.

 

[rijndael]

Just a other example of BiTOG "what I do is right and everyone else is an idiot"

That's is probably just a slight variation of the Dunning-Kruger effect, being on the "Peak of Mount Stupid".

 

[John105]

Just a other example of BiTOG "what I do is right and everyone else is an idiot"

Tou can basically just cut/paste "turn signals" with whatever topic and you have 50% of the posts here.

And we wonder why BMW had to change their turn signal and wiper stalks and provide a detent

 

[skyactiv]

There are plenty of times I don't use the turn signal on purpose.

Like when changing lanes in busy slow moving traffic on the freeway. I want to be able to cut over to the next lane without the driver seeing me signal and nudging his vehicle forward to close the gap, preventing me from getting in front of him.

 

[SC Maintenance]

Then they proceed to crawl through their turn at 0.5mph. They’re the same ones who take 6 business days to hit 45 because RPM’s are scary or something I don’t know

Yes, I actually got clipped years ago - someone turning into one of those 45 degree curbed, marked, retail entrance corners designed so you don't have to slow down at all. Person turning pretty much stopped to turn and the guy behind clipped me trying to go around. I wasn't turning. They literally stopped in a 45 zone. I would say it was just as much there fault as the guy that hit me - your not supposed to stop on the road.