Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Everybody down here’s complaining about the lack of using turn signals. Don’t get all bent out of shape about it. Just keep your distance, read the road ahead and always exercise your best defensive driving skills. I’m constantly reminding myself of all three
I consider turn signal usage by many other drivers as a bonus.
Always looking at the car's front wheels for sign of a turn. My dad called it "using the car to signal."
Like an athlete trying to predict the moves of an opponent by watching the waist or hips. The car cannot turn or switch lanes without some predictive front wheel movement.
Yeah, they should be signaling, but danged if I can make that happen and danged if I want to be smashed up because I didn't predict.
I consider turn signal usage by many other drivers as a bonus.
Always looking at the car's front wheels for sign of a turn. My dad called it "using the car to signal."
Like an athlete trying to predict the moves of an opponent by watching the waist or hips. The car cannot turn or switch lanes without some predictive front wheel movement.
Yeah, they should be signaling, but danged if I can make that happen and danged if I want to be smashed up because I didn't predict.
If you consider the use of turn signals to be simply a bonus rather than a fundamental element of courtesy and safety, that we should be reading wheels instead, like athletes, then we may be getting to the heart of the problem. Diminished expectations of courtesy and conformity in the local culture. My dad called it "using the damn stick on the left side of your steering column to signal".
If you consider the use of turn signals to be simply a bonus, that we should be "reading" wheels instead, we may be getting to the heart of the problem. Diminished expectations of courtesy and conformity in the local culture. My dad called it "using the damn stick on the left side of your steering column to signal".
Yeah, but I was taught it is better to be alive than right and "dead right."
I signal. I wish to survive those who don't.
It is also called "defensive driving" and it has been around for decades. Nothing new.
I suspect a lot of this behavior (me included) is because when you use your turn signal around here, the driver in the opposite lane tends to speed up so as not to be inconvenienced by suddenly being behind someone else. It's obnoxious behavior. While I agree in principle that turn signals are good, sometimes being a good driver has its own consequences.
But you’re not a good driver. If you’re not using your turn signal, you’re breaking a law. No one wants to be stuck behind someone turning, why would they? I don’t get what you mean about that.
The two times it gets to me most:
1. I’m at a light in left lane behind one car. AFTER the light turns green, he puts his left turn signal on and now I’m trapped because I’m going straight across.
2. I’m trying to make a left at a very busy intersection with a stop sign. I’m there forever because when cars clear in one lane, they aren’t in the other. Then the guy coming towards me in right lane turns at the intersection with no signal. If he used his signal I could have gotten out because the other lane was clear.
I just assume this is passive aggressive or just clueless. I have though noticed that people who drive slowly seem much less likely to use signals, but not sure why this is.
I have lived here 15 years now coming down from the Northeast and have noticed over the course of that time that most people don't you their turn signals.
I find it to be unsafe, rude and what I suspect is simple laziness. I go back up north often and it is not nearly as bad up there.
Another glaring thing people do her is NOT stopping at a crosswalk for a pedestrian unless there is some blinking yellow light. Again...up north...you step into a crosswalk and people are going to stop.
Not saying northern drivers are perfect by any measure but was wondering if others have noticed same thing.
They are too busy riding your tailpipes, or gawking at the phone in their lap to pay any kind of attention to what is going on around them. Stop for pedestrians? Geese? Hell no, blow right past them, points if you kill the baby geese, cause that makes you extra cool in NC.
Also, this:
Quote:
Originally Posted by pentop
I suspect a lot of this behavior (me included) is because when you use your turn signal around here, the driver in the opposite lane tends to speed up so as not to be inconvenienced by suddenly being behind someone else. It's obnoxious behavior. While I agree in principle that turn signals are good, sometimes being a good driver has its own consequences.
Definitely not unique to NC. I lived there in the 90s and didn't notice an absence of turn signals but when I moved to CA about 10 years ago it seemed like 25-30% of drivers I encountered weren't using them (or at least not habitually).
Now that I live in FL it seems like 35-40% of the turns I see are unsignaled. It's especially frustrating because Orlando (the city, not Orange County) is a lot of 4-way stops. Or T-intersections with all-way stop. You also get a fair amount of pedestrians in the mix, especially this time of year. Throw in some active rail crossings going through intersections and not using your signal is, at best, advertising your lack of self awareness.
I wish I could chalk it up to the younger generation not going to drivers ed but it's an all ages affair.
People need to have their licenses suspended more often. It's ridiculous out there. Twice as many road deaths as homicides and most of them are people being stupid. If we got the most dangerous 0.5% of drivers off the road for a few years with mandatory drivers ed - things would change out there.
I have lived here 15 years now coming down from the Northeast and have noticed over the course of that time that most people don't you their turn signals.
I find it to be unsafe, rude and what I suspect is simple laziness. I go back up north often and it is not nearly as bad up there.
Another glaring thing people do her is NOT stopping at a crosswalk for a pedestrian unless there is some blinking yellow light. Again...up north...you step into a crosswalk and people are going to stop.
Not saying northern drivers are perfect by any measure but was wondering if others have noticed same thing.
I'm with you here DPPWUS. I've been down here from NJ for over 2 years and I find it much more dangerous to drive here... and I commuted to NYC every day.
Aside from the blinker thing (which is a 50/50 chance of use), extremely dangerous lane changes are so common here I'm surprised I don't see even more accidents then what is happening already. Waiting until last second, speeding, and missing the bumper of the car in front of them constantly. Almost like it's a game how close they can come bumper to bumper at 80 mph.
I love almost everything here with our move, but I definitely don't like this aspect at all.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
