Are most people who avoid turn signals do it to feel more normal? (Imitating their parents, avoiding perceived stupidity of using turn signals when it seems useless, etc)
They do it because they are fucking idiots who don't care about the safety of others. No exceptions.
It infuriates me too, my mother sometimes forgets to do it, and when we told her, she said she did put them on, so I assume that a lot of people forget to turn them on.
Some other people simply don't care, "why would I need to do it, it's not their business" is one phrase I read somewhere.
Personally, I always put them, even in empty parking lots with no soul around, better to always have the habit even when it isn't necessary, that forget to do something because you actively have to choose to do the task, when it should be automatic.
I’m like you: I don’t care if no one is around. People act like it’s some force of nature to muster the strength to signal.
I'm kinda in between...I don't signal in empty parking lots and rarely at 3am on the highway
But when I'm not totally alone and I intend to change lanes, my pinky flicks before I think about it or look to see if the land is open - I flick it back off if I realize I'd cut someone off regularly
Yea I signal even when I think no one is around. Because what if I just didn’t see someone? I don’t want to hit someone or get hit.
This is close to my personal take on the subject; "you don't turn on your signal for the car you saw, you do it (especially) for the car you didn't see"
Some other people simply don't care, "why would I need to do it, it's not their business" is one phrase I read somewhere.
I was parking my car two days ago, at a nearly full car park. This 50-something guy double parked while parking, so I let him know that he's double parked, and his response was "I know" and walked away. Why the fuck are people like this? He deserves to crash and break his legs so he's in a wheelchair for a little while.
Had two girlfriends (in a row!) that hated turn signals because they kicked off their "repetitive noise disorder" (misophonia). My wife hates the regular motion of her windshield wipers, fucks with her head, uses them manually.
We can't expect this many humans to play together nicely.
This is me. I do it anyway, but I do really really hate it. If I'm sitting at a long light waiting to turn left I will turn it off, unless I am the first or last person in line. I also manually turn it off half way through the turn before the steering wheel action turns it off. It's like someone is drumming their fingers on my skull.
But for merging, lane changing, etc., I always use it.
I don't know, but it fucking infuriates me when I'm waiting to turn, and someone turns at the last second next to me without signaling. My brother in Christ, the only reason I'm stopped here is because YOU appeared to be passing in front of me, and I could've turned ages ago if I knew you were going to be turning
I use my turn signal all the time so I’m not one of these people, but here’s what I’ve heard from others over the years:
The idea that moving your finger slightly to support the smoothe functioning of traffic and the welfare of other humans is not "masculine" enough makes me want to castrate some fuckers.
Stupidity knows no bounds
Why would anyone use them when you can keep your opponents on their toes? Driving is essentially a full-contact sport, and you don’t win by playing it safe with turn signals. It's all about the element of surprise!
Seriously though, some people see traffic in a really weird way. You can expect them to do the exact opposite of what you would do.
Basically. It comes down to habit and some times laziness.
There are a few times I intentionally don’t use mine, mostly because there’s this one intersection that if you’re turning left, for whatever reason people get into this “no you go first” bullshit that’s hard to read. So I turn it on after they start going.
Other tkmes, I fail to single entry into a roundabout. All the round abouts here are single lane and it’s pretty obvious you’re gonna enter. Also, they’re small so it becomes easily confused with signaling an exit from The roundabout. I do signal the exit appropriately, though.
But in MN the 2 things people don’t know how to do is a zipper merge and round abouts. It’s embarrassing, really.
I think not knowing how roundabouts work is all over the US. In my part of the country they put up stop signs at the roundabouts—does it not occur to them that it defeats the entire purpose of it?
If you ever go to Tijuana though they can be a lot of fun.
I dunno that stop sign would totally defeat the purpose.
Part of why roundabouts work is that everyone is basically turning right to enter and right again to exit, meaning none of the traffic streams actually cross.
Stop signs would slow it down, but not by much. At least, not for the smaller things.
My biggest issue with people here is the frequency they wait for it to be completely clear before going, or the idiots trying to drift around it because, hey, that’s actually fun.
My friend is trying to save the bulb because it's not been designed to be replaced, you have to disassemble a corner of the car (Opel Corsa).
Saving it for what? If they are not using it anyway it's not going to get used later either.
For the minority of situations he thinks the blinker is actually needed.
Ah, so you have BMWs in the States as well?
My secret shame, which is bad apparently, is that if I'm in an adjacent lane on the side lane of the road, waiting stationary, trying to merge into oncoming traffic, I don't indicate until I feel like there's less cars coming and more gaps. This is where my wife freaks out at my lack of assertiveness, it isn't a lack of confidence and I'm not hesitating, I feel that having turn signal-fu can be an ace up your sleeve in my opinion.
I'm with you on this one. Turn signals should be used before a manoeuver. If all I'm doing is eyeing up the gaps and I may not move, having the signal on is putting other people on alert for no reason.
People do or don’t do things depending on three variables: motivation to do it, the ability to do it, and the prompt to do it.
How do we change this?
The Behavior Design answer would be something like this: We need to patiently and kindly train people to recognize prompts to the turn signals. “When you get to the corner, put your left hand on the turn-signal control and move it up. Then turn right.” We also need to celebrate it the instant they do it. “Perfect”. Of course, you need to have a good relationship with whomever you’re doing this with.
Now, that is not the only solution; there are many. We might have one solution if we zoom in on one person. We might have another solution if we zoom out to a whole city or country.
In any case, if we want to solve the problem with Behavior Design, you could check out Tiny Habits.
I'm just trying to give you something to removed about on the internet.
Since when has using turn signals been the "normal"?
For the last 20 years, 90% of the drivers are so lazy that they can't be bothered to lift their finger a half inch even if it means preventing an accident or death...
As a motorcyclist, fuck each and everyone of you that's not using a blinker....
I live in the country side, and there's not many cars driving on the road. I'll still use my turn signals, even though there is no-one else on the road. I don't understand the laziness...