HEY!!! I drive a bimmer and I use my signals religiously. Of course I also drive an escort, so it must be my low class upbringing 
The no-signals movement has reached California too! I have this fantasy of carrying a hammer and following drivers to smash out the signals, hell they weren’t using them anyway.
I use my turn signal wheever I turn or change langes, without thinking about it.
I don’t know said this originally, but it definitely holds true:
“A turn signal is a warning, not a promise.”
Me three. I use them when I am sitting in the “left turn only” lane too, just so people know that I know what I am up to. If I am in the middle lane and see a Masshole in the “left turn only” lane with no signal flashing, I can be reasonable sure they will dart out ahead of me when the light changes. arg
Thank you Chubbs, thank you, you said it all! I could not have expressed it better. I feel like opening a new “blinker thread” every two days… It gets to me bad… can you tell?!
It be 3 AM and I be on US-23 North, then on US-611. Then I turn onto Rt 1230. I see maybe three cars total in these two turns sometimes.
I use my signal onto a road where I have seen approximately two other cars drive: gf’s and her mom.
My turn signal is my anti-drug.
You should come to New Jersey, where stop signs and red lights are just suggestions…
I use my seat belts ALL the time, but somehow I have a serious turn-signal deficiency. Wonder if there’s a pill for that…
Now I understand why there’s road rage.
Why are people getting so worked up about this? Is it that someone cut you off or is merely that someone broke the rules and the violation itself bothers you? Do you feel like yelling “Citizen’s arrest! Citizen’s arrest!”
Are all of you perfect drivers?
It can be dangerous that’s why Cognoscente!
Does getting angry while you’re driving make it any less dangerous?
:rolleyes:
(The very first time I’ve ever used the roll-eyed smilie)
Well, I can’t speak for everyone, but…
You know, if they made turn signals, there must be a good reason for them.
It isn’t because it makes me mad to almost hit a car that did not signal its turn that I will lose control of my vehicule and swarm all over the road.
So yes, driving angry is less dangerous to me.
Not a belief, a fact. This may sound nuts, but it actually works: If someone is driving too slow in front of me, I will sometimes put on my turn signal, at which point they will immediately move over one lane in order to try to block me. Once they are out of the way, I can cancel the signal and proceed in the original lane.
And the converse to those who don’t signal, of course, are the ones who think that putting on their turn signal automatically gives them carte blanche to run people off the road. “I have my signal on - get out of my way”.
[Chief Wiggum]You got a short and your taillight started blinking when you made that turn.[/Chief Wiggum]
Can I also add a bit of vile for those people who see you put your turn signal on before you pass someone and decide that’s a good time to pass? On my way home this afternoon, I was behind someone who was going about 10 mph below the speed limit on city streets. When a gap finally opened up in the left lane, I put my turn signal on, then started to pull over only to find the twit behind me was starting to do the exact same thing. This time I did not give way; I just kept pulling out. I didn’t notice if the guy behind me signalled. When I saw how close he was behind me after I pulled over a lane, I realized he was so close to my bumber I couldn’t see his turn signal, although after he passed me, I realized he wasn’t in the habit of using it. Three types of fools in one encounter: people who don’t use turn signals, people who tailgate, and people who drive significantly lower than the speed limit. I scored a hat trick!
As for me, I’m afraid I signal pulling into parking spaces. I have this crazy notion that if I tell you what I’m doing, a) you’re less likely to hit me, and b) if you do hit me, it’s less likely it will be considered my fault! Since I used to drive a Geo Metro, a was particularly important.
CJ
Rule One of Driver Safety: It is better to be predictable than polite.
I haven’t gotten a citation of any kind – moving violation, parking ticket, nothin’ – in twelve years. I haven’t been involved in a vehicular collision in fifteen. Avoided several that would have been the fault of others, too. Not perfect, but I bet I’m better than you. (Cool username, though.)
“In the event of Rapture, this vehicle will make a turn at the next intersection.”
I have to contest this whole “people cut me off if I signal” argument. The assholish behaviour of others hardly justifies stooping to their level any more than it did on the playground as a kid. I’m sorry, but “he started it” is not a valid argument for adults.
Instead, I prefer to use the New York cabbie technique to create space if someone is crowding me and trying to cut me off while I’m changing lanes with my signal blinking. What you do is jerk your car suddenly in the direction you’re planning on going, then straighten out. The driver who was trying to cut you off will invariably hit the brakes to avoid a collision, creating the space you need. Then you simply move into that space. Works every time.
I also put it to all you Dopers that if just the people who have contributed to this thread start using their signals properly, the world will be a better place and the roads will be safer. Little improvements in human behaviour can become contagious.
Someone tell me he’s joking. Have I been whooshed? 
There must be some recognition of the irony here, surely???
Yeah, to hang your air freshener from.
Oh, as for the “New York Cabbie” method of lane-changing - I use that too, in extreme circumstances (like I’ve had my turn signal on for two blocks and some prick with an agenda is basing his manhood on not letting me make my exit ramp). It is a thing of beauty when done properly - the look in their eyes is worth the yelling and rude gestures.
We’ve encountered this practice at the Dulles Expressway/I-66 merge. There was also a particularly nasty encounter in Grand Rapids when trying to merge from 196 to 131, a whole row of cars refused to let us in and then the jerk in the Mercedes beind us had the nerve to honk when we finally were able to get over!
Oh, and the time I was driving home one night after grocery shopping at the giant Giant in Bailey’s. Got onto Columbia Pike from Jefferson Street fine but nobody would let us out of the turn only lane so I had to go through a parking lot to get on Columbus. Then I nearly hit the rear quarter of some big-ass van which was turning left, not signalling, and not yielding to oncoming traffic (me). I’m damn glad I waited to see what that asshole was going to do.