You must have seen it. Cars moving through four lanes of traffic with no signals of any kind to notify other cars of your lane change, or you are trying to cross the street but the nearest car suddenly turns toward you without warning you that it is turning. Or you probably have committed these sinful and shameful acts. Many of us have done it, consciously or not. And if you’re a strict, law-abiding driver, you might be surprised at the common reasons people may decide not to use their turn signals to turn and change lanes, despite knowing better.
(Unconvincing) Reasons People Don’t Use Turn Signal
Do you signal with left turns, but right turns? Meh

We are more negligent in signaling right turns than left turns as it is less dangerous. Photo Credit: YourMechanic

Failure to signal while turning left is obviously dangerous, so the vast majority of drivers are actually law-abiding citizens when it comes to signaling left turns. In fact, a 2013 study of turn signals conducted by Harold Faw at Trinity Western University in Canada found that 94.8 percent of vehicles in British Columbia signaled correctly when turning left and from a dedicated right-turn lane. left.

This makes sense. When making a left turn, you should let people behind you know early on that you are slowing down and potentially stopping in the middle of the road to cross or make a U-turn, which can be a major disruption to the road. vehicle flow. traffic. Also, you must notify oncoming traffic that you are about to cross. The left turn signal is even more important at a four-way intersection, as it will also need to alert crossing pedestrians.

By comparison, right turns are not as dangerous or disruptive to traffic. In fact, in Harold Faw’s study, people did not signal right turns as regularly as left turns, and the group with the lowest right turn signal rate (only 74 percent ) were pickup trucks. But remember that this kind of (unconvincing) reasoning won’t save you from getting a ticket for failing to signal.
You are already in the right turn lane and following other cars

In the same study conducted by Harold Faw, another strong motivator for not using turn signals was discovered. Faw found that at the same intersection in British Columbia, drivers who were back in a long line in a dedicated right-turn lane and closely following a car in front of them were 7 percent less likely to signal a right turn than turning drivers. without another car in front of them.

Many people might think that since they were stopping behind a long line of cars in a dedicated right-turn lane, it’s obvious that all nearby vehicles must know they’re going to turn right. That makes signage unnecessary. Granted, that line of reasoning isn’t all that lame, but remember that there may also be pedestrians crossing. So be careful or you could hit a pedestrian you assumed was going straight because you didn’t turn on your indicator.

There’s no one on that local road

This is something many of us are guilty of. Sometimes we deliberately turn without any sign, other times we just forget to when driving on a local road with a 25mph speed limit and there’s not a soul in sight. This habit of human nature is confirmed by an extensive study of turn signals led by John Sullivan of the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute. Their results establish that drivers are more likely to remember to turn on their signals and generally drive more appropriately when there are other cars around.

The study found that drivers driving on a local, low-traffic road in their own neighborhood are almost five times less likely to signal, compared to when driving on a main road with regular traffic.

While you can be sure you’re familiar with the traffic around your neighborhood, and aware of every blind spot from your house to the grocery store, not using your turn signals is unexpectedly unsafe. Statistics shared by auto insurer Esurance reveal that more crashes tend to occur just 25 kilometers to 40 kilometers from your home. Furthermore, more serious and fatal accidents occur on cleared rural roads than on busy urban roads.

One important driving tip to make sure you don’t forget to turn your indicator on when absolutely necessary is to always turn it on, always when you’re turning or changing lanes, even when there’s really no one around and you’re driving very slowly. Doing it, even when you don’t need to, will create a solid habit and could save your life and the lives of others in the future.

You want to cut the others

When roads are congested, many drivers are tempted to deliberately block other vehicles that might be trying to enter their lane in front of them while trying to quickly slip into another lane before someone blocks their access. To do this, they may deliberately not use their turn signals so they can quickly change lanes without missing a beat. Now this reason is not just silly, it is also terrible.
You’re too lazy to turn off the sign

Often times we are simply too lazy to turn the signal on as many times we forget to turn it off unless our car beeps non-stop until we actually turn it off. Since the 1940s, a mechanism has been built into the steering column so that once you have completed a turn, the steering column will make a mechanical “click” and automatically turn off the turn signal. But that mechanical switch only works for distinct turns and isn’t as accurate for detecting lane changes or merging with traffic on the highway. That is probably why you sometimes see the car in front of you have its left turn signal on for the last 10 kilometers or so.

In a 2006 survey by Response Insurance, 17 percent of participants who admitted not signaling state that they often forget to turn it off, so they deliberately omit signaling to avoid the hassle of having to turn it off immediately afterward.

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