05-15-2016, 02:55 AM
No one is a perfect driver. I've seen tons of drivers make tons of mistakes, and their use of turn signals have helped me avoid a crash, even if their intentions were obvious to them.
For example, I was driving behind a car who was in the right lane and they put their right turn signal on. I came to a complete stop and watched them look left, then make their right turn as there were no cars coming from the left. I'm sure they would have thought their intention was obvious.
They pulled around the corner and out of sight. I sat there, still stopped. Then they came flying back around the corner in reverse. Had they not used their signal that let me know their intention was to turn the wrong way onto a one-way street, I wouldn't have known something bad was about to happen. Since I knew what was going to happen, I stayed way back, even though they had left the intersection. They could have easily crashed back into the side of my car as I went through the intersection, or into my front end as I pulled up to it.
I've seen plenty of times when a car is in the left turn lane and drives straight anyway. As a pedestrian, cyclist or driver, if I don't see the turn signal it's an indication they may not know what they're doing.
The other thing is - how do you know there isn't anyone to signal to? Most of the time when I'm driving, it's nearly impossible to be in a situation where I can tell there's no one to signal to. We've got five and six way intersections with bike lanes, bus lanes, crosswalks... at any given point, the bike lane might have a green light, a turn lane might have a green light, a bus lane might have a green light... and then there's pedestrians.
If I'm coming up on someone in the bike lane and the light turns, I might be doing 30 and they might be doing 5. They don't even see that they're about to turn over my lane, and thus they think there isn't anyone to signal to. But using that turn signal even if they don't think there's someone there, is a good indication to me that they might be be planning on turning into me.
For example, I was driving behind a car who was in the right lane and they put their right turn signal on. I came to a complete stop and watched them look left, then make their right turn as there were no cars coming from the left. I'm sure they would have thought their intention was obvious.
They pulled around the corner and out of sight. I sat there, still stopped. Then they came flying back around the corner in reverse. Had they not used their signal that let me know their intention was to turn the wrong way onto a one-way street, I wouldn't have known something bad was about to happen. Since I knew what was going to happen, I stayed way back, even though they had left the intersection. They could have easily crashed back into the side of my car as I went through the intersection, or into my front end as I pulled up to it.
I've seen plenty of times when a car is in the left turn lane and drives straight anyway. As a pedestrian, cyclist or driver, if I don't see the turn signal it's an indication they may not know what they're doing.
The other thing is - how do you know there isn't anyone to signal to? Most of the time when I'm driving, it's nearly impossible to be in a situation where I can tell there's no one to signal to. We've got five and six way intersections with bike lanes, bus lanes, crosswalks... at any given point, the bike lane might have a green light, a turn lane might have a green light, a bus lane might have a green light... and then there's pedestrians.
If I'm coming up on someone in the bike lane and the light turns, I might be doing 30 and they might be doing 5. They don't even see that they're about to turn over my lane, and thus they think there isn't anyone to signal to. But using that turn signal even if they don't think there's someone there, is a good indication to me that they might be be planning on turning into me.