For the 12 or so years that I’ve been a licensed driver, I’ve spent many hours on the road griping, silently or otherwise, about people who don’t use their turn signals. I am extremely anal about using my signal, primarily because I never know when someone sitting in a driveway or at an intersection or any number of places might be looking for that signal from me. To me, it’s a safety issue AND a matter of courtesy.
Yet, it seems to me that half of the population (at least here in the Los Angeles area) rarely or never uses their signal. I know some of these people, and some of them are intelligent folk. They’re good citizens, and not particularly lazy.
So I’ve reached a point where I’m tired of being bewildered, and I come to you - the good people of Straight Dope - to try to get some idea of where the non-signaling population is coming from.
Dopers, help me out. If you don’t use your signal, can you provide some insight for me? What’s the rationale?
Not my rational 'cuz I indicate even when there is nobody around, but…
“Everyone outside my car is the enemy. Why let the enemy in on where I’m going? They may try to slow me down.”
I’ve heard this from several SF native going to school in Riverside, CA (So Cal). “If I use my turn signal, everyone speeds up so I can’t get in front of them.”
Yeah, I’ve heard that a few times. They put convenience over safety.
But lately I’ve noticed that many of my friends don’t use their signals. And they are great people otherwise so I’m trying to be less inflamed when I see strangers doin’ it.
I wonder if state law varies on when one needs to signal. In Oregon, there are a lot of situations that people think require a signal which do not require one. For example, if you turn from a protected turn lane, a lane where turning is the only option, you don’t need to signal. This is also (sometimes) true of forks in the road and turning onto intersection bypass lanes (those special right-turn lanes at busy intersections).
Can’t help you on the mindset of the non-signalers, but I’ve often been baffled by the fact that so many people in Indiana, Ohio, Michigan and Illinois have spent large amounts of money on brand new cars, only to find out that their expensive new cars evidently do not have working turn signals. I mean, crikey, you’d figure that after shelling out $30-$40 thousand for a car, they’d spring the extra $5 for the turn signals.
I started a thread on this subject a while back (last year?), and if I recall correctly, the concensus amongst the non-signallers is that if you signal, other people will obstruct you, so don’t signal. Which is total bullshit, and deep down, I think we all know it. Who’s going to obstruct you when you’re sitting waiting to turn left, and the oncoming people are also sitting waiting for you, because they don’t know you’re turning left instead of going straight because you can’t be arsed to turn your signal on?
Bottom line - I have no idea why people won’t use a device that is there to increase the safety of a very dangerous activity for everyone. It boggles my mind. All I can come up with is that people truly don’t think about and don’t care about other people.
Are you joking or something? I’m not trying to be a smartass, it really sounds like you’re serious, but I can’t imagine the situation you’re describing being true.
And I think it’s catching. I used to be religious about using them. But, in the last few years, I’ve become more complacent. If no one is around, or near enough to my car for it to matter, I don’t use them. If I’m in a dedicated turn lane, I sometimes don’t use them.
Unfortunately, in this state, drivers who see you signalling to go in front of them or to merge into their lane will actively try to stop you. Just the other day, as I tried to merge onto the interstate, a driver a big Buick deliberately refused to get over (she had two wide-open lanes to her left). Instead, she matched my speed, pulled up right alongside me, and blew her horn like a maniac.
Do you guys think flipping off an eighty year old woman with a handicapped sticker is going to get me consigned to hell for all eternity?
My best friend is a no signal using type. I give him crap about it and he insists he does use his signals. So when I’m in the car with him and call him on it he goes into this "I always use my signals I don’t know what you’re talking about I only didn’t use them that time because [insert stupid reason here] and I don’t know why you always gotta be such a hater, 'cause I always use my signals… "
He also jaywalks as a matter of principle. I’m white and he’s non-white, and we have a running joke about how using turn signals and crossing the street in crosswalks when the light actually says “walk” is just a gullible white people thing.
Anyway, I use my turn signals in the city, but on the freeway, well there’s some truth to the saying here in CA that turn signals are just a sign of weakness. You signal a lane change and everybody speeds up to pass and/or cut you off. “Just do it” as the Nike slogan says.
Yup, I’m being sarcastic. It’s just how I laugh at the non-blinker-using morons: “you know, for all the money they paid for that car, you’d think they’d have made sure it came with blinkers” or “you’d think they’d have made sure the blinkers work.”
-DogMom, living in Indiana, home of people-who-don’t-use-blinkers-and-who-think-stop-signs-are-optional.
Thanks to all of you for the feedback. I’m surprised that no one really stood up in defense of not signaling.
I understand about people wanting to cut you off when you signal for a lane change, but there are ways to deal with that, too. My wife and I joke about the fact that, if you ever need to get over quickly from a red light, the easiest way to do it is race the person next to you at the light. They’ll do anything they can to keep you from getting in front of them, so there’s always a big gap behind them once you’re off the line. Presto!
Outside of simply changing lanes, though, there are plenty of other situations, as others of you brought up, where signaling is helpful to other drivers that you may or may not be aware of. I despise when I’m sitting at a corner waiting to make a right turn, and the oncoming car that I’m waiting to pass me ends up making a right turn without signaling. Grr.
Now now, let’s not paint the entire state with that brush. There’s all of about two people in the state who use their turn signals, and I think they’ve both posted in this thread.
There seems to be a Conan the Barbarian thing with Californian drivers
Using blinkers is a sign of weakness.
Using Breaks is a sign of weakness.
Using the clutch is a sign of weakness.
Playing music at anything other than max volume is a sign of weakness
Being in the right hand lane is a sign of weakness.
Being in the correct lane is a sign of weakness.
Mirrors are for applying lipstick, any other use is a sign of weakness.
Using both hands on the wheel is a sign of weakness.