Road skills - do you signal left turns?

[Fab Foodie]

In primary, signalling left can invite the car behind to pull closer to you as it believes you are about to get out of their way...if you need to slow suddenly (debris/ped/slippy drain-cover etc) then they have much less/no braking distance and may actually be accelerating.

 

[domtyler]

Can one of the people who recommend signalling late please explain to me why they bother?

 

[BentMikey]

I signal to facilitate that.
If there is a risk of that, not signaling is IMO not a good response, I'd adopt the primary position.

Signaling left on a narrow road has the advantage that it alerts following traffic that wants to go straight ahead that you are about to get out of their way. They are less likely to try to overtake you.

You should really be adopting the primary position through most junctions, not just where you're about to turn left.

If there's a significant risk of someone overtaking you on the turn, then either signalling late, or not signalling left at all *IS* a good response to the danger. The goal is to herd the motorists so as to increase your own safety, not to necessarily make life easy for them.

 

[BentMikey]

Can one of the people who recommend signalling late please explain to me why they bother?

To me it's a bit of a sop to motorists and pedestrians so that they can't abuse you for not signalling at all.

 

[Tetedelacourse]

I'll signal out of courtesy when I can, but for most of my commute roads I prefer to let my positioning do the talking, so I can keep hands on hoods.

 

[janm399]

I signal most of the times, because it makes everyone around me aware of what I'm going to do. I also signal that I'm stopping by lowering my hand, it works like magic -- no car behind me has yet attempted to race past me.
I think that most drivers don't like the unpredictability of some cyclists, so they actually appreciate if they know well in advance what I'm going to do. Forcing drivers to make quick decisions is asking for trouble!

 

[Membrane]

You should really be adopting the primary position through most junctions, not just where you're about to turn left.

If there's a significant risk of someone overtaking you on the turn, then either signalling late, or not signalling left at all *IS* a good response to the danger. The goal is to herd the motorists so as to increase your own safety, not to necessarily make life easy for them.

I encounter enough unprovoked aggression from motorists already, unless my safety is directly at risk I do aim to make things easy for motorists, including hugging the curb when I can. There is no absolute right or best behaviour regarding this, it very much depends on your locale, the attitude of motorists there, your riding style, speed etc.

Modesty (not submissiveness) is a good attitude to adopt for every road user, IMO particularly so for me as a cyclist.

 

[BentMikey]

Forcing drivers to make quick decisions is asking for trouble!

I don't agree completely. How do you cope with this situation?

* You are riding along a main road, and there's a T-junction off to your left ahead of you.
* You need to turn into this road.
* There is an oncoming car indicating to turn right into the same road you turn into.
* He is driving a little too fast, and it looks like he will arrive at the junction very slightly before you, but nowhere near early enough for him to safely be able to turn right in front of you.

Do you signal early, slow down and allow him to turn in front of you in spite of your priority? This is certainly one acceptable approach to me, and I've used it myself. Alternatively do you signal only very late to prevent him trying to occupy the same piece of road as you do. (I'm assuming that in either case you'll have moved to primary position anyway).

Let's make the situation a little more hairy still, and add in a car coming up from behind you, also signalling to turn left. Let's assume both motorists are in a hurry and driving impatiently.

In my books, to signal left as you would in a car is inviting either of those impatient motorists to risk a close call or collision with you. Signalling late helps to reduce the chances of them making that stupid decision to go anyway.

 

[BentMikey]

I encounter enough unprovoked aggression from motorists already, unless my safety is directly at risk I do aim to make things easy for motorists, including hugging the curb when I can. There is no absolute right or best behaviour regarding this, it very much depends on your locale, the attitude of motorists there, your riding style, speed etc.

Modesty (not submissiveness) is a good attitude to adopt for every road user, IMO particularly so for me as a cyclist.

I think perhaps you might have misinterpreted what I wrote. Like you, I too try to make it easy for motorists to pass me, but only when my safety isn't directly affected. For example I'll often slow and pull into a gap in a line of parked cars to allow a queue behind me to overtake. I'll also often not go right to the head of a small queue of cars when I can see they'll simply overtake me again in a few metres, I'm quite happy to wait in primary position and let them go first.

Modesty and submissiveness is not the right thing to be doing through a junction though. John Franklin is exactly right when he advises that most junctions should be crossed in the primary position.

 

[Cab]

Can one of the people who recommend signalling late please explain to me why they bother?

Because I'm still telling others where I'm going. Be it pedestrians, other cyclists, people on the other side of the road, etc. And the guy behind who I'm notifying my intentions to, its still useful information to him even if he hasn't got the option of left hooking me.

 

[janm399]

* You are riding along a main road, and there's a T-junction off to your left ahead of you.
* You need to turn into this road.
* There is an oncoming car indicating to turn right into the same road you turn into.
* He is driving a little too fast, and it looks like he will arrive at the junction very slightly before you, but nowhere near early enough for him to safely be able to turn right in front of you.

Well, that really depends on what the driver is doing. If he is indicating and it looks like he's going to do the right thing (i.e. give way to me), I may actually signal left and then wave at him to indicate that he can go ahead and make the turn. I will only do that as courtesy to drivers that are courteous towards me. If it looks like the driver is about to just ignore me, I will indicate, but then take primary and (if at all possible) keep my position.

It really comes down to being nice to people who are nice to you; the others just need to be taught a lesson -- but I never take any unnecessary risks.

 

[Maz]

Never ever signal. I use Colgate.

 

[janm399]

Never ever signal. I use Colgate.

Me too -- my friend works in Colgate toothpaste factory, I have to keep them in business.

I don't know anyone with a chocolate factory, though

 

[Membrane]

It really comes down to being nice to people who are nice to you; the others just need to be taught a lesson

In my experience people don't change their behaviour because of "being taught a lesson" by other raod users, it does often results in resentment and aggression against the "teacher" or the road user group he is in.

Respect on the roads is regrettably very much related to size of the vehicle and the damage it can do. People might "respect" an 18 wheeler articulated truck, cyclists should IMO be very careful before attempting to assert their rights, it may backfire. If not against you there and then, they may take it out later against some other innocent cyclist.

 

[Elmer Fudd]

I must admit that I find it easier to signal right rather than left as I have more control over my bike. This may be because I am left handed though.

I also signal late if their is opposing traffic turning right, but if someone is waiting to pull out the junction and I know there's nothing behind me I'll signal early and 9/10 times I get a thankyou wave off the driver.