Variation on a theme-Those who use the signal after they’ve started the turn. Thanks, Moron. I never would have figured out that the vehicle was changing direction if it weren’t for the blinking light. :rolleyes:
Wrong. It’s the business of everyone who has to be on the road with you. When you build your own private roads, you can drive any way you want. In the meantime, you can follow the same rules as the rest of us.
Because if you use your turn signal every time, then you won’t need to decide if there’s a reasonable risk of you failing to see a driver, because it’s the law and you shouldn’t break it just because the majority of the time you can get away with it and anyone who doesn’t use their turn signal is an asshole. By your own admittance, you don’t use your turn signal. Ergo, you are an asshole.
If by habit, you mean signaling should be so ingrained as to be nearly involuntary for me, then I don’t think it’s anyone’s place to define what my habits are. Saying I should follow the law is fine, but defining my habits is something else. The law requires signaling but does not require signaling become a habit.
Come talk to me when you drive free from traffic infractions.
Or that by turning on the signal, it causes the person behind you in the lane you want to get into to hit the gas. Ergo, the cutoff. (Personally, I turn it on approximately 2 nanoseconds before I make the lane change).
Same here. I’m pretty sure this is what evolutionary biologists call “adaptation”. 
…they’ve got North Carolina plates.
Here’s an interesting turn signal related conundrum–in Oregon the law says that you have to signal for 100 feet of distance before turning. Therefore, it is possible on the freeway while travelling at legal speeds to signal for less than a second before changing lanes and be perfectly in accordance with the law, whereas it is also possible on some very short streets that actually exist to never be able to turn off that street legally no matter how long the signal is on–because the street is less than 100 feet long. This has been pointed out to law enforcement on several occasions and suggestions have been made to change this to something more sensible but the cops say they prefer to leave it as is, presumably because it’s very difficult to judge what 100 feet is when driving and therefore the law as it stands is quite useful as an excuse to pull someone over as it can be nearly impossible to determine if one is in compliance with the law.
Now, is that fucked up or is that fucked up?
Those aren’t turn signals, they’re deceptive counter-measures!
I don’t use a signal every time, but I do most of the time. I happen to think about whether to use it, and I can’t control my mind to not think about it whether to use it. Is that enough to brand me an asshole? Any knowing traffic infraction makes one an asshole? All those who don’t quite fully stop every time at stop signs are assholes? All those who may knowingly drive a couple MPH over the limit now and then are assholes? Seems kinda harsh judgment for such a common thing.
Making excuses for your non-use of turn signals makes you an asshole.
Since 99% of my driving is urban and I end up signaling most of the time, accordingly, this should probably be rephrased to say that I signal unless I am reasonably certain no one is in a position to rely upon it. Then, I can’t be bothered.
I don’t know if that is any better.
As a civil libertarian, I generally believe in restricting the powers of law enforcement rather than expanding them. In certain cases, however, I am wont to make exceptions. Usage of turn signals happens to be one of these cases. You see, I believe that, upon noting a vehicle that has failed to make proper use of turn signals, police officers should be empowered to immediately detonate that vehicle with a rocket launcher.
Besides making the road safer in general by removing inconsiderate drivers from existence, there’s the added benefit that arguments such as Bearflag’s would resolve themselves. Clearly, if there is no one around to see your turn signal (and therefore no need to use it), there is also no one around to fire rocket-propelled high explosives at you without warning. If your judgement of your surroundings is perfect, you need never fear. I often wonder, if my law were to pass, how many of the people who only use turn signals “when they need to” would continue this practice. Would these folks bet their lives that no one was around to see their signal?
If they wouldn’t…then why, as things stand right now, do they bet the safety of others on that same thing?
To clarify, anyone who knowingly fails to comply 100% with all traffic laws at all times, except in cases of emergency, is an asshole, including those who consciously limit their infractions to situations where the risk of harm to others as a result of the infractions is minimal.
Missed edit window…Bearflag, my above rhetoric isn’t intended to cast you as some kind of villain. I’m sure that 99 times out of 100 that you don’t use your signal, not a soul in the world is around to notice, and I’m equally sure that of the remaining 1%, it’s another one in a hundred chance that anything would ever come of it.
The question I would pose to you is, when all it takes is a little flip of a lever – which, if you get used to doing it, becomes so subconsciously ingrained as to not require any effort anyway – why take even that small of a chance?
I suppose if you’re infallible, like Bearflag and the Pope–if you don’t see them, they must not be there–then by all means expend the extra energy weighing all the relevant factors and deciding on a case by case basis whether, this time, based on a quick cost-benefit analysis using the algorithm you’ve devised for just such complex situations, to flip your signal.
Me, I’m not so smart, so I use my signal.
I am not and never claimed to be infallible.
Moving past that, I am glad to see that name calling is starting to yield to reason here.
I have argued that the benefit of signaling when I can’t see anyone around is virtually zero, and that benefit is less than the cost of signaling.
You argue that the cost of signaling is near zero and the benefit of avoiding a risk of harm to others and to myself is greater than that cost, even when it appears no one is around, given that human perceptions are fallible.
I’ve never thought of it that way. It’s a damn good argument and I’m happy to think about it.
Let me ask this hypo:
You come across a four-way stop in the middle of the open desert on a clear day. You intend to turn right. The land is flat, open, and clear. You have not seen another car or pedestrian for miles. You see none now. Do you make a full stop and signal every time you encounter this situation?
Well, thinking about it, yes. Traffic laws aren’t created to be an onus on you. They’re for the safety of everyone using the road. If you think a particular law is daft then the proper course of action is to start a petition or something to change the wording of the law to something you find more acceptable, not to decide when and where you’re going to follow it. Earlier I was trying to say that it was the bullshit justifications you were coming up with that makes you an asshole. If you had said, “Yeah, I forget to use my turn signal. My bad. But, honestly, I’m probably not going to start using it because of this thread.” I would have passed on by because you’re behaving childishly but at least you recognize it.
And in response to your latest post: I’ve never been at a four way stop in a desert on a clear day. In the 3+ years that I’ve driven, I’ve never knowingly made a rolling stop or not signalled a turn or lane change. Maybe I haven’t driven enough to be lax about it. (Truth be told, I dislike driving and try to avoid it at all costs. And when I do drive, I drive like an old granny. Cars and I don’t get along.)
Yes, entirely out of habit; it honestly wouldn’t occur to me to do otherwise. These behaviors are so ingrained that it’d take a conscious effort not to stop at the stop sign or signal the turn.
Hell, I occasionally catch myself flipping the signal while turning into a parking space in an empty lot. It’s less to do with CONSTANT VIGILANCE! , and more just a good thing to get used to doing.
Bearflag: I understand your view. If I can see in all directions (a four way stop in the middle of flat country, and I can literally see for miles.), then I even blow stop signs. :eek:
But in urban environs, keep in mind that there may be pedestrians and cyclists that you don’t see, who generally appreciate turn signals.