Cars not signalling off roundabouts

[Milkfloat]

I

In a word--- yes.
Because you are not turning left at one of the exits, you are going right at that particular junction. It tells any driver waiting to enter the roundabout that you are going around.

So you are happy to ignore the Highway Code that most other drivers follow and just make up your own rules? Had many accidents or do you see a lot?

 

[classic33]

I still disagree, if there are 2 lanes on entry to the roundabout & there are 2 exits from the roundabout (in the straight across position) then approaching in the right hand lane is not incorrect.

And when the roundabout goes from two marked lanes to five, to three and your exit has two or four lanes, what then?

 

[Mr Celine]

I find the direction the front wheels of the car on the roundabout are pointing in to be a more reliable indication of where it's actually going than the presence or absence of a flashing light.

 

[Paulus]

So you are happy to ignore the Highway Code that most other drivers follow and just make up your own rules? Had many accidents or do you see a lot?

No. No accidents and I have seen none in front or behind me. I don't think most drivers follow the rules. Stand by any roundabout and watch how many don't signal at all! If by using the indicators as I was taught is making up my own rules then maybe the more modern way of being taught is flawed.

 

[Milkfloat]

No. No accidents and I have seen none in front or behind me. I don't think most drivers follow the rules. Stand by any roundabout and watch how many don't signal at all! If by using the indicators as I was taught is making up my own rules then maybe the more modern way of being taught is flawed.

I am confused now, you said earlier that you were taught in 1976 the same way as the helpful illustration shows, but then describe something different. Just to be sure, you are talking about the blue path in the illustration, in which case no indication at all until you are past the first exit, then a left indication?

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Arguably so, yes. In theory, however, and I strongly agree with this, the balance is that making drivers actively and continuously check their situation and whether anyone could benefit from a signal is by far the better of the two options. Conversely, 'I just signal all the time' produces the effect of 'I have signalled therefore I can turn', which is never correct.

Conversely it could have the effect of, I can't see anybody therefore no one is there to see me, and benefit. I seems odd to teach someone not to indicate their intentions when in charge of two tonnes of lethal metal. Continuous assessing of the environment should be a norm.

 

[Sea of vapours]

Continuous assessing of the environment should be a norm.

It should be, yes, but it's apparent that for many people it isn't. For example, up thread somewhere someone commented on 'what if someone is in the blind spot?', the idea being that you need to indicate to this unknown, hidden person. The response question is 'how did they get there?', to which the answer is that the driver failed to see the pedestrian / cyclist / car / whatever sneakily creeping up on them and hiding in their blind spot. If someone is in the blind spot and you, as a driver, don't know they're there then you've been paying insufficient attention to what's around you .... and if that is true then it loops back to paying more attention, which can be promoted by continuously doing so in case a signal is needed.

 

[Globalti]

Spot on. If you've missed another road user, blind spot or not, you need to see an optician, clean the plasticiser film off the insides of your windows and use the fan on speed 1 to clear the condensation that attracts, raise your seat for a better view, wake up or just get a car with better all-round vision. Blindly signalling in hope is not good enough; a driver should know exactly what other road users are around them and signal as necessary to make those users aware of their intentions. Drivers who signal unnecessarily are bumblers in my opinion.

 

[Dogtrousers]

If a driver signals and there is no one there to see it, does it flash?

 

[DaveReading]

The fallacy is that there's a "one size fits all" best strategy for roundabouts.

That may have been true 50 years ago when I was learning to drive and all roundabouts looked pretty much the same.

But throw in mini-roundabouts, where you're asking for trouble if you don't indicate your right turn as you approach, and (a favourite in these parts) "square roundabouts" and you really need to adapt your signalling strategy to suit.

 

[lazybloke]

The fallacy is that there's a "one size fits all" best strategy for roundabouts.

Absolutely, but a driver with good knowledge of the basic rules will adapt them to suit any situation.

If on the other hand a driver hasn't bothered to look a recent Highway Code (for decades) and drives to a different/outdated set of rules, then by definition they will be an unpredictable driver.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Absolutely, but a driver with good knowledge of the basic rules will adapt them to suit any situation.

If on the other hand a driver hasn't bothered to look a recent Highway Code (for decades) and drives to a different/outdated set of rules, then by definition they will be an unpredictable driver.

Nope, behaviour of that single driver is still predictable just not by the rules you know. Depending on the driver (you encounter) was taught there may be all sorts of stuff going on. Of course there's those who never indicate at any point just to keep you guessing.

 

[lazybloke]

Nope, behaviour of that single driver is still predictable just not by the rules you know. Depending on the driver (you encounter) was taught there may be all sorts of stuff going on. Of course there's those who never indicate at any point just to keep you guessing.

You seem to be arguing semantics.
The HC is a definitive set of rules & guidelines for ALL drivers in Great Britain. That's how we should all drive, so what's the problem in labeling someone as unpredictable if they drive in some other (unknown) manner?

As for drivers that don't indicate at all. Ugh, they are dangerous time-wasters.
Drivers who indicate incorrectly can be just as bad.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

You seem to be arguing semantics.
The HC is a definitive set of rules & guidelines for ALL drivers in Great Britain. That's how we should all drive, so what's the problem in labeling someone as unpredictable if they drive in some other (unknown) manner?

As for drivers that don't indicate at all. Ugh, they are dangerous time-wasters.
Drivers who indicate incorrectly can be just as bad.

Because they are predictable based on the guidance at the time they learnt. How many drivers do you know who change what they do each year based on changes in the latest edition? HC is only guidance and indicating doesn't fall under any road law as far as I'm aware.

You can't look at the latest HC issued in 2019 and reasonably predict every driver will follow that guidance.

 

[NickWi]

I have found the following rules have saved my bacon a few times, while commuting on (or crossing junctions near) roundabouts

1) Never trust people who don't signal
2) Never trust people who do

I would also add to the above that all a flashing indicator means is that:-
a) There's bulb in there.
b) It works!